Language Awareness

Components of College Writing: Audience, Direction, Thesis & Beyond

Where I'm at

• Topic Proposal is what I think my research project will be like based on our work with discourse community. This gives you a foundation/basis for understanding the writing/research we will do. 
• What I know about Discourse Community, concepts, and connecting it to myself.
• What more do I need to do to establish my research/writing goals? 

From Language Awareness, we will look at critical areas of building WHAT WE KNOW...

Title Text

Which of these Direction/Action words seem particularly useful for your writing/research? What could be a challenge?

Will you need to broaden your topic? Go Bigger? OR is your focus too narrow and it will be hard to find material/sources to work with?

How might you answer: Who am I writing to? Why? Could my readers change as I do more research? Other than classmates/instructor, what is my concept of "audience"?

It all starts with...

The Thesis & Topic Proposal ?'s

• How does understanding the thesis statement help shape or change what we may do with our research?
• Does the Topic Proposal enforce the thesis statement or does the thesis statement support your Topic Proposal?
• How might a Thesis Statement change over the course of the semester as you gather more research and write more on your topics?

THE Thesis Statement...

- Hypothesis-driven statement for your writing/research (If.... then...) but can take many forms and should be FLEXIBLE to your research as it grows.

WHAT KIND OF THESIS STATEMENT IS THE BEST TO USE RIGHT NOW FOR YOUR DISCOURSE COMMUNITY? 

CONSULT OUR THESIS BUILDING RESOURCE IN CANVAS WEEK 3 (In-Class: Building a Thesis Statement) AND SPEND SOME TIME PRACTICING USING SOME OF THOSE MODELS IN PRACTICING A THESIS STATEMENT OF YOUR OWN. TRY AT LEAST 3 MODELS AND THEN WE WILL PAIR UP AND SHARE.

Gee "Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics"

Gee's article spends time discussing many different topics connected to Discourse: 

• Socialization
• Values
• Literacy
• Primary Discourse
• Secondary Discourse
• Dominant/Non-Dominant Discourse
• Insider/Outsider
• Correctness
• saying, doing, valuing

Spend some and find a particular quote or passage that expands what we know about discourse community connected to language, behavior, or developing within that group. Jot down some notes or reflection on how this compliments what we know so far about Discourse Communities.

Learn directly from Gee about Discourse, Community, Learning

Ordering our Discourse Community Project

Topic Proposal

Initial D.C. Essay

Primary Research

Secondary Research

Artifacts=Data Visuals, Visualization, Social Media Posts, Genres

Research Report/Paper (Professional Research Findings)

WHAT AM I BRINGING TO MY DISCOURSE COMMUNITY?

Hinton Academic Discourse (Pick your activity!!) Answer in a few paragraphs

1. Out of the 10 guidelines that Hinton gives for understanding your writing assignment - choose THREE specific ones that feel the most important to you right now when you explore your Topic Proposal in our first essay on Discourse Community.

2. Hinton points out at least 3 different examples of course assignments that ask for specific actions from the writer. How do you relate to these samples? Do they connect to understanding other assignments from other courses to better explain what discourse is?

Hinton (Pick your activity!!) Answer in a few paragraphs

3. The importance of evidence and needing an argument is something that Hinton discusses - what is a topic right now among your discourse community that could be an argument? What evidence would you need to support your stance?

4. We've talked about SHOW don't TELL when it comes to discussing a discourse community and their goals, lexis, communication, genres, etc. - What might be an artifact or situation that would be important to discuss that others might not understand if outside the community? How might you use this example in your writing?

Hinton (Pick your activity!!) Debrief with your small group.

• Which prompt did you choose and why?
• If you could categorize your discourse community for the project what does it fall under?
  • Academic
  • Professional
  • Recreational
  • Communication-specific
  • Location-specific
  • Philanthropic (concerned about outreach)
  • Medical
  • Genre/Platform-specific
• What do you want to accomplish with this research? INFORM, PERSUADE, MARKET, GAIN ACCESS TO GROUP, GROW AS A MEMBER, CREATE CONTENT FOR GROUP