Project two: Community research report
Summary: Conduct research to learn how writing works in a specific community, interacting
directly with community members and the writing they produce within the community. Write a
report which describes this community and their reading and writing practices.
Calendar: Weeks 7–12. Proposal due Mar 3; Draft due Mar 27; Final due Apr 03.
Research questions:
1. How does literacy function in a small community which I have access to?
2. What are the characteristics of the writing produced in this community? What distinguishes it from other
communities?
3. What genres are important for this community? How do they shape it, and how are they shaped by it?
This semester, we have already discussed how writing is context-dependent, and we’ve learned
several concepts intended to help us understand how writing works in different contexts: rhetorical
situation; genre; literacy sponsors. The researchers we’ve been reading insist on the social nature of
writing—rhetorical situation includes consideration of audiences and purposes, and Kerry Dirk
argues that genres depend on social interactions as well. Deborah Brandt has shown how
development of literacy depends on community sponsors, and we’ve investigated the role external
technologies play in literacy as well. With these previous readings in mind, we now turn to a concept
that will help us understand the ways writing and technology work in communities:
● Discourse community: a group of people who share common communication methods
and strategies, genres and primary texts and technologies, and associated values and ways of
thinking. Quite often, discourse communities share common goals.
The size and makeup of discourse communities vary greatly, so I would encourage you to take into
consideration the scope of the community you plan to study. Some discourse communities are
rather small (a handful of nuclear physicists spread around the world who exchange research in a
highly specialized academic journal), some larger (an ethnic neighborhood in which members share a
history, language, public space, local institutions such as schools, and a local newspaper), and some
larger still (a nation, such as the United States, unified by a shared history, mass media, a
government, a sense of national identity).
To better understand how writing works in social contexts, we will select communities that engage
in unique discourse practices (an expansive term that covers not only writing and speaking, but also
digital text, specific gestures, visual images, etc) and investigate them using both primary and
secondary research: that is, both directly engaging with the community and its members
(interviewing and observation), and reading what others have discovered (traditional library and
online research). We will then share what we find out with each other and broad public audiences by
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writing a research report. Many of the essays in WAW serve as excellent examples, and I will
provide several others on the course web site.
Research methods
1. Identify a community that has unique discourse practices (text-based primarily, but also
language practices) and that you can study. Ensure you have access to at least two members.
2. Conduct preliminary research about your community (web sites, library research into similar
communities, brief preliminary conversations with members).
3. Collect several examples of writing in the community and analyze them.
4. Interview at least one community member to build on your preliminary research and prepare
for observation.
5. Distribute surveys to community members and collect and aggregate responses, if
appropriate.
6. Observe at least one community member for a short time (1 or 2 hours).
7. Conduct a follow up interview with one community member.
Two other notes:
1. We aren’t conducting research for publication. However, we still need to think about the
ways we are respecting the people we interview and interact with. Don’t take advantage of
their time. Write thank-you notes. Consider how you’ll tell their stories respectfully — how
would you want to be written about? Consider when you need to ask their permission to
share certain things — and when you should keep things private and change names and
details.
2. Consider not only the deliverable for this assignment — a report which describes your
discourse community — but the next project, which is creating a web presence which
remediates either your literacy self-study or this report. With that in mind, you’ll want to
collect visuals you may later share — photos, especially, but also videos, audio recording, etc.
That is, err on the side of too much, rather than too little, material to work with.
Proposal
All writing involves planning of some kind, as we’ve learned from Anne Lamott. Given the demands
of this assignment, outline your research project from start to finish. Note deadlines and the steps
you expect to complete as you conduct interviews, complete your draft and revise reports, etc. You
will need to conduct some research to shape your proposal — a mix of using library resources, web
searches, and preliminary contact with relevant people. There are two components to the
proposal:
First, create a planning outline which answers the following questions.
1. Identify and describe the discourse community you wish to study. Why have you selected it?
2. How have you become certain that you will have enough access to this community to
Project 2: Community Research Report
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4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
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complete your research? That you will be able to gather texts to analyze? If this discourse
community is not related to your major, a hobby, or past experiences, how do you know you
have the expertise and/or interest needed to study it?
What experiences do you already have with this community? Did you engage this discourse
community in your literacy self-study? If so, how?
What preliminary research have you already conducted about this community? What has this
research suggested to you?
What activities are central to this community? Which do you expect to learn more about?
What questions do you have about this community? Use the frameworks of genre and
discourse community to create a list of possible questions.
What texts do you expect to collect and analyze? Why do you think these genres are
important to your interviewees? Describe any sources you have for these genres other than
your discourse community.
Fill in some specifics about the methods you expect to use to gather information about the
discourse community you’ve identified, using the methods template from above.
Who can you interview and/or observe? Why have you selected these people? Describe what
you already know about them. Will you be able to publish material about them on the web, if
you choose to remediate your work for the web project (P3)?
Outline a schedule of work. When do you expect to complete key tasks? conduct interviews
and observations?
If you have trouble answering questions #2, #7, and/or #9, do some more legwork and try again.
Still a problem? STOP and consult me immediately — the community you have selected may not be
suitable for this project.
Second, once you have created this outline, use it to write a coherent project proposal which
outlines your project. If you like, consult the sample proposal on the course web site, keeping our
usual caveats about samples in mind.
Assignment length: The project proposal should be 450–750 words, not including the planning
outline.
Structure and style: The outline can be rough; it’s for internal use. For the proposal, you need not
write elegantly, but should still write coherently. Use lists and tables if it makes things easier. Use
MLA formatting specifications.
Submission: Print hard copy and bring to class on the due date (Mar 3). The proposal should be
first, the outline second. If you have multiple pages, ensure your name is on every page, number the
pages, and staple them. Also email a digital file to me. File-name-style: “Last name_ENG106_DC
Proposal.”
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Grading: Three key criteria:
1. Detailed answers for the questions noted above;
2. Evidence of careful planning and research;
3. Format, coherence, and adherence to assignment requirements.
Points: 50
Draft report
After receiving feedback on your project proposal and research methods from me, conduct the
research you’ve planned — the background research, interviews, surveys, and observations which
will help you understand the community you’re investigating. Turn to our course texts and
conversations for help, taking careful notes and keeping good records of not only the library
research you conduct, the data you collect, but the methods you use to interact with discourse
community members. We will devote considerable class time to this work.
After conducting your research, write a report of your findings. This report is preliminary, and your
language and tone can reflect that—you can even indicate, in writing, the areas where future work
(e.g. additional interviews or observations) may change your conclusions.
Structure your draft report with the following sections, based on the “IMRaD” report common in
social science:
1. Introduction: Briefly describe your project as a whole.
2. Project status: Describe the work you have completed, the work you have left, and any
questions you have about the project and help you need. (You won’t have a section like this
in the final report.)
3. Methods: Describe the ways you are conducting your research, both library-oriented and
primary methods. If your methods have changed radically from your proposal, explain why.
4. Preliminary results: Describe what you learned in your research, interviews, and
observations. Think of this as telling the stories of the ways people in your community use
reading and writing.
5. Preliminary discussion or implications: Analyze your findings in terms of the
frameworks we are learning for studying writing. You are welcome to speculate, outline
ranges of possible findings, etc.
6. Appendices: Attach relevant documents, such as lists of interview questions, documents
you’ve collected, etc.
In sum, explain what you learned about writing in your community, including how you learned it, and what you
think it means to other communities.
Assignment length: 1200–1800 words (4-to-6 pages).
Structure and style: Structure is noted above. You need not edit and polish; this is a draft. Follow
MLA formatting and style.
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Submission: Same as project 1. Bring a printed-out and stapled hard copy to class (Mar 27) as well
as emailing a digital file to your workshop team and including me in the Blind Carbon Copy (“Bcc”)
field. File-name-style: “Last name_ENG106_DC Draft”
Grading: Four key criteria:
1. Description of methods, observed literacy practices, and analyses of writing with depth and
detail.
2. Careful reflection and insight — avoiding clichés or commonplaces.
3. Meaningful engagement with relevant concepts from the course readings.
4. Format, style, and adherence to assignment requirements.
Points: 100
Final report
Conduct more research, work with others in the course to review your data, and revise your report
based on my suggestions, your additional research, and peer-reviews of your draft.
Audiences: same as the draft.
Assignment length: 1,800–2,400 words (6-to-8 pages)
Structure and style: Same as the draft, but: drop “Project Status” section; finalize your “Results”
and “Discussion” sections; print, edit, and polish, striving for elegance and correctness.
Submission: Print a hard copy and bring to class on the due date (April 3). Also, email me a digital
file of your final version. File-name-style: “Last name_ENG106_DC Report”
Grading: same as the draft, with three additions:
1. Improvement and advancement from the draft;
2. Concern for format, correctness, and writing style.
Points: 150