Audience: Entry-level/novice members of your DC of counselors (recent college graduates, for example)
Purposes: To conduct research, using appropriate primary and secondary sources; to deepen your understanding of the values, goals, and communication methods of your DC; to enhance your professional literacy; to help up-and-coming members of your DC succeed by sharing your expertise with them.
Format/Medium: Your ethnography does not need to take the form of a conventional academic essay! You are encouraged to think creatively about your audience’s expectations and come up with a document that reflects the “vibe” of the DC you’re writing about. For example, it could take the form of a web page, a presentation, an infographic, a combination thereof, or something else entirely.
Length: 6-8 pages (or equivalent, i.e. 1500-2000 words)
Instructions: The word ethnography refers to a kind of study often conducted in the social sciences, in which a researcher gathers data about the customs, behaviors, attitudes, and social relationships of a particular culture or group of people. The data generally includes first-hand observation on the part of the researcher. For this assignment, you’ll be doing an ethnography about your Discourse Community.
When finished, your document should help your readers understand the expectations of the discourse community they (and you) are preparing to enter, and it should equip them to succeed and thrive within that DC.
Here is the information you’ll want to include:
- A brief introductory overview of the discipline, providing background and context.
- Observational, anecdotal, and textual evidence of how the discourse community defines itself. Based on the research you conducted, draw conclusions about the values, goals, expectations, and methods of the DC.
- How do members of the DC communicate with one another?
- Identify and describe some common genres used in the discourse community. How do those types of documents connect with the values of the discourse community?
- Prescribe some best practices for new members to be successful within the DC.
Sources: You will need to use a mix of primary and secondary sources for this project. The primary sources consist of field observations and the interview with a professional you completed previously.
The secondary sources you include must be credible and appropriate for your audience and purpose. Think rhetorically about how you will use each source and what it is contributing to the overall project. You should have a minimum of three secondary sources.
All sources must be correctly cited, both in the body of the report and in a Works Cited or References list at the end. Use the citation system most common within your DC.
Observational evidence (primary sources): Your completed ethnography document must incorporate some or all of the interview you conducted. (Note: I am not looking for you to simply insert the Q & A transcript wholesale; instead, you should treat the interview as you would any other source — paraphrase, summarize, and refer to it as needed.)
To supplement the information provided to you by your interviewee, you should also spend some time observing members of your DC, including novice students, more experienced students, professors, and non-academic professionals. Pay attention to how they interact with one another, how they use language to solve problems, and how novices are initiated and trained to interact with expert members. Take notes on your findings.
