4.5 Creating a research plan

Today's class is a workshop on your project to analyze a discourse community.  By the end of class you should have a plan posted to your portfolio.  The plan should include the following (or at least as much as you can do in class):


List activities you will need to engage in to complete your project.  This list should inlcude:

• the identity of your discourse community
• who you will interview/what you will observe to collect data/how you will obtain documents
• the categories of data you will need to collect to  (refer to Swales or discussion surrounding Gee)

Make a detailed list of data/materials you need for the first list:

• developing a set of observation prompts or an interview protocol
• list of documents you will analyze
• developing criteria to analyze observations/interview and documents

Make a timeline

• name specific people, places for data collection & set deadlines for specific tasks
• the timeline should include a writing schedule that leaves you time to go back for more information 

Check your plan against the assignment sheet to make sure you will have data that allows you to meet the requirements.


For next class:

Read: Mirabelli   This is a sample analysis of a discourse community.  It is slightly different from your assignment - but includes a focus + analysis relevant to this project.

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