Discourse Community Matrix and Reflection for Writing Project #2

Step 2

Think about some of your hobbies, interests, and passions.
What do you do for fun? What are you interested in? We want you to think about your interests and hobbies for this project, because when we write about the things we know and are invested in, our writing tends to be dramatically more engaging. These hobbies and interests can vary wildly and don’t necessarily need to be “academic,” but you should come up with at least three possibilities to plug into the matrix.

Step 3

Plug three discourse communities into the matrix.
What communities care about and discuss your hobbies, interests, or passions? Plug three such communities into the matrix, in the second row (“What communities care about and discuss your hobbies, interests, or passions?”). Answer each of the questions from the “Questions” column as best you can, so you can see which of your options most closely aligns with the criteria for a discourse community.

Note: It’s okay if you can’t think of a response for every cell in the matrix! Not all discourse communities meet all of the criteria you learned about in Explore – Discourse Communities. If you are not sure of how to fill in a cell, you may write “Not sure,” but you MUST explain why you are not sure, or why the discourse community does not meet a particular criteria.

Tell us which discourse community you’ll research in Writing Project #2.
Choose the community you most want to research. Tell us your choice in the last row of the matrix (“Do you plan to use this option for Writing Project #2?”). In making this choice, consider two things:

which of your three options most intrigues you

which option has discernible problems associated with it

step 4

Write a reflective paragraph about potential problems in the discourse community.
Now that you have chosen a discourse community to focus on in Writing Project #2, take some time to reflect about a problem (or problems) that might be connected to, associated with, or part of that discourse community. Add your reflective paragraph under “Reflective Paragraph” in the matrix. You’re essentially brainstorming here, but try to do the following:

define the problem(s);

discuss who the problem(s) effects, how, and why; and

provide some contextual information about the problem.

Step 6

Submit your Discourse Community Matrix using the following directions. 

Note: We will not accept link submissions–only file uploads.

1. Download your Google Doc as a .docx file: Hover over File > Download and click on Microsoft Word (.docx).
2. Click “Submit” in this assignment, then upload your Word file.