Andrew H. Yim
Assignments & Activities Archive
Assignment Description
In this activity, which will take around 3-4 weeks, students are tasked to research one discourse community (e.g., college club, job, volunteer organization) that they have never joined or recently became a member of. They need to pick out the 6 elements of the organization including: 1) goals, 2) membership process, 3) utilization of specialized language, 4) tools and technologies used for communication, 5) purpose of these tools and technologies, and, 6) determining if any of the tools and technologies are effective genres (textual responses to a recurring situation that is recognized by all group members). To collect data, they will first interview one member who has been in the organization for at least a month. Furthermore, they will also examine publicly accessible documents and websites to further research the six elements. Using this data, they will first write a 600–800-word essay discussing why they chose their community. They will highlight the methods used to collect data and identify where and with whom they will share this essay with. Secondly, they will create a presentation (e.g., poster, Instagram Post, etc.) that visually outlines the six elements of their community. This assignment can assist non-members in learning more about the organization and support 2 members in evaluating if their organization is effectively meeting the criteria of a discourse community. Ultimately, teachers can run this assignment in any writing classroom setting, especially when helping students develop their research and presentation skills.
goals
membership process
utilization of specialized language
tools and technologies used for communication
purpose of these tools and technologies
goals
membership process
utilization of specialized language
tools and technologies used for communication
purpose of these tools and technologies