Sunday, August 22, 2004
Unit Three Assignment: Academic Discourse
Goals
In Unit 3 our focus will finally move to the academic discourse community that you have entered. Specifically, we will examine the conventions of published academic discourse, a set of conventions that each of you will be expected to master by the time you leave UNC.
Feeder One: 2-3 pages
Draft due November 4
Draft due November 9
Over the past few years, blogging has become a popular means of disseminating information not just among communities of consumers and voters, but within the academy as well. For your feeder 1 assignment, find a blog written by a college professor or a group of college professors in your field of study (http://rhetorica.net/professors_who_blog.htm has an extensive list, but google searches should also be fruitful). If you’re undecided about your major, choose a field that you are currently considering for a major. If you can’t find a blog written by someone in your narrowly-defined discipline (such as exercise and sports medicine), find a blog written by someone in a related field such as a physician or a physical therapist. Also, make sure the blog deals with the professor’s academic work on a regular basis (though it might include off-topic and personal posts as well).
After familiarizing yourself with the blog, compose a 2-3 page letter in which you propose to the author of the blog that you would like to have privileges to post to his or her site. While you may have considerably less expertise than the person currently blogging, you should attempt to convey your enthusiasm for the subject as well as your understanding of the discourse conventions of the blog through analysis of a few recent posts.
Feeder Two: 2-3 pages
Draft due November 11
Draft due November 16
For Feeder Two you will find a recent article published in an academic journal or a recent book published by an academic press by one of the professors whose blog you studied in feeder 1. Read this article (or a section of it if you chose an entire book) and compose a 2-3 page essay outlining how this book or article advances research in the author’s field of study. Target your essay toward an audience who is well-educated, but may not have much expertise in this particular field. It may be appropriate or even necessary to bring up academic publications besides those published by the author you have chosen.
Unit Assignment: 4-7 pages
Draft due November 18
Draft due November 23
Draft due November 30
For your final unit assignment, write a 4-7 page essay arguing whether or not you think that blogging will be a significant part of academic life and discourse in your discipline in the 21st century. Use the author you studied in the first two feeder assignments as a case study, noting how blogging influenced or aided the author’s research and writing processes. In addition to the author you’ve studied, feel free to bring in any other significant research that you feel is pertinent to your argument including experiences you have had writing your own blogs this semester. A successful essay will not just comment on the blogging phenomenon in general, but will focus very tightly on how blogging helps or hinders the work expected of you in your own particular discipline.
Portfolio due December 2
Goals
In Unit 3 our focus will finally move to the academic discourse community that you have entered. Specifically, we will examine the conventions of published academic discourse, a set of conventions that each of you will be expected to master by the time you leave UNC.
Feeder One: 2-3 pages
Draft due November 4
Draft due November 9
Over the past few years, blogging has become a popular means of disseminating information not just among communities of consumers and voters, but within the academy as well. For your feeder 1 assignment, find a blog written by a college professor or a group of college professors in your field of study (http://rhetorica.net/professors_who_blog.htm has an extensive list, but google searches should also be fruitful). If you’re undecided about your major, choose a field that you are currently considering for a major. If you can’t find a blog written by someone in your narrowly-defined discipline (such as exercise and sports medicine), find a blog written by someone in a related field such as a physician or a physical therapist. Also, make sure the blog deals with the professor’s academic work on a regular basis (though it might include off-topic and personal posts as well).
After familiarizing yourself with the blog, compose a 2-3 page letter in which you propose to the author of the blog that you would like to have privileges to post to his or her site. While you may have considerably less expertise than the person currently blogging, you should attempt to convey your enthusiasm for the subject as well as your understanding of the discourse conventions of the blog through analysis of a few recent posts.
Feeder Two: 2-3 pages
Draft due November 11
Draft due November 16
For Feeder Two you will find a recent article published in an academic journal or a recent book published by an academic press by one of the professors whose blog you studied in feeder 1. Read this article (or a section of it if you chose an entire book) and compose a 2-3 page essay outlining how this book or article advances research in the author’s field of study. Target your essay toward an audience who is well-educated, but may not have much expertise in this particular field. It may be appropriate or even necessary to bring up academic publications besides those published by the author you have chosen.
Unit Assignment: 4-7 pages
Draft due November 18
Draft due November 23
Draft due November 30
For your final unit assignment, write a 4-7 page essay arguing whether or not you think that blogging will be a significant part of academic life and discourse in your discipline in the 21st century. Use the author you studied in the first two feeder assignments as a case study, noting how blogging influenced or aided the author’s research and writing processes. In addition to the author you’ve studied, feel free to bring in any other significant research that you feel is pertinent to your argument including experiences you have had writing your own blogs this semester. A successful essay will not just comment on the blogging phenomenon in general, but will focus very tightly on how blogging helps or hinders the work expected of you in your own particular discipline.
Portfolio due December 2
