“I feel that the course design allowed me to achieve the objectives of the course. It has raised my awareness of language, certainly across various discourses. A greater understanding of the rhetorical situation of both writing and reading will continue to aid me through an improved method of analyzing material across the variety of subjects and discourses that I encounter in school, work, and my personal life. I have a better understanding of the research process after taking this class” –ENGL 102 student
Course Overview
“If I think of my own experience as a writer, the most powerful terms I can use to discuss the composing process are not prewriting, writing, and revision, but tradition and imitation and interference and resistance.”
-David Bartholomae, “Against the Grain”
As a result of this course, you should be able to:
- Articulate how knowledge and meaning are made differently in different academic majors.
- Articulate how those differences influence the effectiveness of your writing.
- Perform, analyze, and synthesize primary and secondary research to discover those differences in your major.
- Perform as a member of your academic major as a result of your analysis.
Major Assignments
Assignment 1: Lifeworld Discourses– Who are you and how does that affect how you make knowledge and meaning?
In order to complete this assignment, you should think critically about why you think, act, write, read, value, feel in your primary discourse community. In addition to considering your primary discourse, you should also perform primary research with several people who you consider members of your primary discourse community. Your paper should synthesize your own thoughts with those of the others you speak to.
Purpose: This assignment is designed to help you:
- Demonstrate your ability to develop, conduct, analyze, and synthesize from primary research.
- Articulate your understanding of your primary discourse.
- Discuss how who you are affects how you make knowledge and meaning.
What to Do:
Critical Thinking/Reading/Writing/Listening (Analysis)
Come to understand how you understand the world around you (your lifeworld Discourse) using some or all of the questions from the handout provided in class or come up with your own questions. In addition to your own thinking, ask questions of other members of your lifeworld Discourse.
Composition
Compose at least four double-spaced pages (1000 words) which puts your analysis together with the thoughts of others (synthesis). At a minimum, your paper should:
1. Generate a coherent written picture of your lifeworld Discourse (part 1),
2. Discuss how who you are (i.e. your lifeworld Discourse) affects how you make knowledge and meaning (part 2), and
3. Include a separate paragraph which explains why you chose to write this paper in the way you did.
Also, I would like you to turn in your primary research instrument.
Assignment 2: Target Secondary Discourse– How does your target secondary discourse make meaning and knowledge (according to its members)?
Overview:
In order to complete this assignment, you should use the primary research instruments we will generate in class to conduct interviews with two people you feel are members of the academic or professional secondary Discourse you have chosen to target. You should use the information you get from those interviews to generate a Powerpoint or Prezi presentation which reports your findings, as well as a written composition.
Purpose: This assignment is designed to:
- Demonstrate your ability to develop, conduct, analyze, and synthesize from primary research.
- Demonstrate your ability to combine information from multiple sources with your own thoughts to create single, focused paragraphs.
- Articulate your understanding of your target secondary Discourse.
What to Do:
Critical Thinking/Reading/Writing/Listening (Analysis)
1. Conduct two interviews with people you view as members of your target secondary Discourse. Make certain that you both record the interview (video or audio) and take notes during the interview. After you have completed the interview, compare your notes to the interview recording; write down anything you feel that is important on the recording which does not appear in your written record.
2. Select (at least) four rhetorical analysis tools we discussed in class. Use them to analyze what you have written. What do you discover about how your target secondary Discourse makes meaning and knowledge?
3. Consider the answers to the following questions (remember: the more in-depth you answer the questions, the more you will understand):
- In what areas did the people you interviewed agree on what makes up your target secondary Discourse?
- What areas of disagreement did you note?What do those agreements and disagreements mean?
- What are the issues members of your target secondary Discourse are interested in?
- What are the key venues in which those issues are discussed in your target secondary Discourse?
Presentation
Create a presentation on your target secondary Discourse that you will present for the class. You will have no more than 10 minutes to present, so you will have to summarize the most important aspects of your research for the presentation. This presentation should provide an outline or “draft” of your composition, described below. Allot two minutes at the end of your presentation for reflection on the process of translating your research into a visual presentation.
Composition
Synthesize the primary source information with your own listening, thinking, reading and writing to generate a coherent discussion, at least six double-spaced pages (1500 words) in length in which you report some of the ways in which your target secondary Discourse makes knowledge and meaning. The majority of your body paragraphs should reference both of your sources and include your own thoughts on the references you provide. This paper should also include multiple paragraphs addressing questions 3a, 3b, and 3c; at least one paragraph for each of your interview participants, talking about the interview itself; and a conclusion, which clearly expresses what you learned about how your secondary Discourse makes meaning and knowledge.
Assignment 3: Research on Topic– What does your target secondary discourse have to say on your issue?
Overview:
This assignment asks you to spend some time exploring what your target secondary Discourse has to say on your selected issue, and to examine how/what people in the Discourse say (and don’t say) about that issue. While identifying interests and approaches shared by the Discourse, you will also be asked to discover the differences between how various members of your target secondary Discourse participate in the conversation about the issue you’ve selected. Overall, this assignment asks you to conduct secondary research on your issue as it is discussed within your target secondary Discourse, reflect on connections between and across sources and your own thoughts and understandings, and begin to develop your own perspective in relation to the academic or professional conversation. At this exploratory stage, your focus should be to understand “the conversation” and to record your research through an annotated bibliography and I-search. These materials and experiences will be central to the writing of your final paper, but this assignment does not yet ask you to enter the conversation of your target secondary discourse (ie. this is not a paper about your selected topic, but a record of your research towards that later paper)
Purpose: This assignment is designed to help you:
- Demonstrate your ability to conduct research in your target secondary Discourse, which includes evaluating sources and building connections across them.
- Demonstrate your ability to document and summarize sources in an annotated bibliography that will support your writing process.
- Demonstrate your ability to reflect on your own research and writing process as you proceed.
What to Do:
Critical Thinking/Reading/Writing/Listening (Analysis)
- Conduct primary and secondary research on the topic of your choice among members of your target secondary Discourse and publications associated with that Discourse.
- Think also about how you might use the secondary sources you have located. How does each source relate to the argument you are trying to make about your topic? How do sources complicate your approach? How do sources relate to one another’s argument—building on them, aligning with them, distancing from them? What information might you want to quote, paraphrase, or summarize in your own essay? You will use this information to generate the annotations below.
Composition
- Compose an annotated bibliography of at least 8 sources (primary or secondary) from within your target secondary Discourse. This means that articles should be located in scholarly or professional journals, and/or gathered from primary research with members of your community. Annotations should be 1-2 paragraphs that summarize what the source says, what other sources from your research it connects with, and how you might use the source in your own argument (including a notation of which quotes you want to use). See additional handout for more information about annotations.
- Write a brief I-Search paper (3-5 pages) in which you narrate the process of locating and evaluating your sources. The I-Search should address the following: a) what is your working hypothesis that you are exploring through this research? b) describe and evaluate your sources and your experiences finding them. What problems did you encounter? What databases or searching strategies did you use, and how did they work for you? Did you hit any “dead-ends” along the way? and c) What were your major findings or conclusions? Provide examples, tell stories, or argue points to explain your findings or conclusions, and explain how your findings relate to your original assumptions or research plan. Also discuss any further research you hope to pursue in the future.
Assignment 4: Entering the Target Secondary Discourse– Can you use what you know to enter your discourse?
Overview:
You have now explored what your target secondary Discourse has to say on an issue, and have examined how people in the Discourse say (and don’t say) about that issue. Additionally, you have discovered the differences between how various members of your target secondary Discourse participate in the conversation about the issue you’ve selected. You have also explored how you personally make meaning and knowledge. Finally, you have learned and are learning how to enter a scholarly conversation through our readings and discussions of They Say/I Say. In order to complete this assignment, you should combine all of this information to enter the conversation about the issue you selected.
Purpose:
This assignment is designed to help you:
- Demonstrate your ability to combine primary and secondary research with your own ways of knowing to enter the conversation by taking a position on an issue (synthesis).
- Demonstrate your ability to distinguish between personal preference and Discourse requirements.
- Demonstrate your ability to write from your critical reading, listening, and thinking (analysis).
- Demonstrate your ability to use rhetorical strategies important to your target secondary Discourse.
- Articulate your understanding of your lifeworld and target secondary Discourses.
What to Do:
Critical Thinking/Reading/Writing/Listening (Analysis)
- Think now about what you would like to say about the issue you’ve been researching. How can you say it in a way that will be recognized in your secondary Discourse (i.e. what elements of meaning- and knowledge-making should you use and which should you avoid?) Also, what elements of your lifeworld Discourse would be acceptable for you to use as you enter the conversation? You will use this information to generate part 1 below, and report this information in part 2 below.
- Think also about how you should use the secondary sources you have located. What information should you quote? What should you paraphrase? What should you summarize? You will use this information to generate composition 1 below.
Composition
- Using this information, generate an 6-9 page (1500-2250 words) paper in which you enter the conversation about the issue you have been researching, composing in a way that would be recognized within your secondary Discourse. Your paper should take a position on the issue you’ve researched and use the sources you’ve gathered to support your position. Your paper should also make the opposing position(s) clear, and seriously engage with those ideas.
- Generate a 3-5 page (up to 2000 words) explanation of the choices you made in writing this paper. Consider the challenges and successes of incorporating sources, following academic conventions of your field, forming a position, conceding and refuting opposing positions, etc.