Discourse Community Analysis Exercise 1
February 14, 2013 MEI
Name______________________________________________
I. Pre-cognitive/affective check. Discuss with a partner (or partners) the topics below.
What do you know about
1. Genres and purposes of the written discourse in your community.
2. Organizational patterns or structures of the written discourse of your community
3. Salient lexical features of written discourse in your community (register, lexical
bundles/fixed expressions, discourse markers [transition words and phrases],
technical words, etc.)
4. Salient grammatical structures in the written discourse of your community (active v.
passive voice, tense, modality (degrees of certainty in relation to the topic)
5. Conventions of evidence in your discourse community (e.g. charts, graphs, quotations
of experts, facts, statistics, formulae, examples, anecdotes, etc.) and citations (APA,
MLA, etc.)
6. Audience expectations regarding the ongoing written conversation that is the
construction of knowledge in your community, including the fact that you are
periphery/expanding members
Discourse Community Analysis Exercise 2
February 14, 2013 MEI
II. Now analyze Milgram’s “”Behavioral Study of Obedience” and complete these 6 tasks.
With the exception of Task 6 (the reflection), write at least 1 well-developed paragraph in
response to each task.
Task 1: Identify the key organizational pattern (e.g. title, abstract of the text, key
vocabulary, subheadings, references, footnotes, etc.)
Rhetorical Moves
1. Create the space of the conversation by summarizing what experts have said/are
saying about topic/data
2. Enter the space by analyzing and or evaluating the data
3. Alter the space of the conversation by adding your own voice to it to find a
deficiency in the topic/data
4. Conclude the conversation by discussing significance of your contribution and/or
the need for future research
These rhetorical moves are the classic moves of a research article and academic papers in
general.
Task 2: Identify the genres used and purposes of the text (summary/abstract, summary
response, argument, narrative, exposition, comparison-contrast, classification, extended
definition, cause-effect, problem-process-solution, data commentary, critique, research
paper, literature review, or other)
Task 3: Identify key vocabulary features of the text (register, technical words, lexical
bundles/fixed expressions, and discourse markers [transition words and phrases])
Task 4: Examine key grammatical structures of the text (voice [passive v. active], tense,
and modality [degree of certainty], point of view [first person, second person, third
person])
Task 5: Examine appropriate conventions of evidence in the text (e.g. charts, graphs,
quotations of experts, facts, statistics, formulae, examples, anecdotes, etc.)
Task 6: Write a 3 paragraph reflection on the ongoing written conversation that is the
construction of knowledge in your community, including the fact that you are
periphery/expanding members.
.
Discourse Community Analysis Exercise 3
February 14, 2013 MEI
HW: Due Sunday, February 16, 6pm
III. Now select and analyze an academic text from your discourse community and complete
the 6 tasks above. Write at least 1 well-developed paragraph in response to each task.
Email me your answers by Sunday, Feb. 17, at 6pm. Note: to complete this task, you will
have to go through one or all of these research ports and download your text in a pdf file.
http://www.eric.ed.gov/
http://scholar.google.com/
http://researchport.umd.edu/V/F13T4RCKLP23VD29BF1L79R6D8NE5AX897HPXS9YPAR6K2
UQ9Q-64308?RN=593446568&pds_handle=GUEST
The last link is the UMD link. In order to gain complete access to the site, you’ll need to
log in using your directory ID and password.