Discourse Community Essay

ENGL 1301 – Definition Essay: Instructions
Maximum Possible Score: 100 Points
Weight Value: 10%
Instructions: For this major writing assignment, you will be writing a definition essay that sets
the grounds for understanding and speaking about one of your secondary discourse communities.
While the principal objective of this essay is informative (to clarify), your essay should present a
perspective of the community. This means that you will have to, first and foremost, explain why
certain traits of the community are essential to the community and/or how they distinguish this
community from similar communities. Secondly, you will have to present an argument for how
the reader should see the community and why they should see it in a certain way. These two
objectives are often bound together as we saw through our discussion of David Berry’s “Guys vs.
Men.”
Topic: Your topic for this essay will be one of your secondary discourse communities.
There are examples of specific secondary discourse communities in the materials posted
for the discourse community in eCampus. These include the school and a community of
baseball cards collectors. While you cannot make use of this same communities, you can
use the list of general examples of discourse communities found in the document “What Is
a Discourse Community.” These general examples can help you identify the specific
discourse communities to which you belong and from which you can select your topic.
You can select any of your communities as long as they offer you the chance to speak about
the four areas of interest we have identified (i.e., goals, values, places, language).
Remember, part of the objective of this assignment is to define a group as a discourse
community.
Audience: All of the essays you will write for the class will be written for an academic
audience. This does not only mean that you must use grammatically correct, standard
English, but you must also use a formal tone and language. In this assignment, your
audience will be readers outside of your chosen discourse community.
Sources: Your discussion of the topic in this essay should be built on the bases of personal
experiences and observation, since you are speaking about a community in which you are
a member. However, if you feel like you need to make use of information from outside
sources (such as dictionaries), you can use no more than one or two sources (citing them
properly).
Length Requirements: 650-800 Words (of content only)
Deadlines for the Drafts
Outline: Submit through a link in Unit # 1 (DIRW shell) by 9/12.
Rough Draft: Submit through a link in Unit # 1 (DIRW shell) by 9/15. This draft should
be, at least, 70% of the minimum length requirements of the essay. This is approximately
455 words.
Peer-Review: Complete all assigned peer-review by 9/17. The draft you will review will
be available through the same link you used to submit the rough draft of the essay (in the
DIRW shell), and you will have approximately 48 hours (from 9/15 to 9/17) to complete
this peer-review.
Self-Review Form: Submit through a link in Unit # 1 (DIRW shell) by 9/19.
Final Draft: Submit through a link in Unit # 1 (ENGL 1301 shell) by 9/19.
Late Policy: The outline, rough draft, peer-review, and self-review will not be accepted after the
deadlines set for them. The final draft of the essay will follow the late policy stated in the syllabus.
Other Requirements
1. Essay: This essay, like all the other essays for the class, must include all the parts
and subparts of the essay. Please review your notes from class, so you can make
sure the essay is complete and communicates your ideas in a clear way.
2. Discourse Community: Your essay should define the community you have
selected as your topic by paying attention to the areas of interest discussed in the
document “What is a Discourse Community.” As a minimum, you will have to
consider the goal(s) of your community and two other areas of interest throughout
your essay.
3. Definition: You must use, at least, 2 of the 5 strategies for developing the definition
essay. You can find these strategies in the “Basics: Definition,” in Unit # 1. You
should review your notes from our discussion of these strategies in class. For
further details, you can see the textbook.
4. Format: Your essays will be typed, using Times New Roman letter font, size 12,
and they will be double spaced with one inch margins. (These are usually the
default margin space in Word documents.) Beyond this, your essays will have to
follow the latest version of the MLA format. If you have any questions concerning
the MLA format, you can visit the Online Writing Lab at Purdue website. If you
have any questions concerning the format, please contact the instructor in a timely
manner.
Penalties Related to the Length Requirements of the Final Draft: If the final draft you submit
is clearly shorter than the minimum amount of words (i.e., 575-526), you will automatically lose
10 points from the final grade. If your final draft is significantly less than the minimum amount
of words (i.e., 525-450 words), you will lose 20 points from the final grade; and if the final draft
of your essay is significantly less than the minimum required by the first draft (449 words or less),
you will not receive any credit for the assignment. (The word counts specified in all the length
requirements in these instructions refer to the content of the essay only. They do not include
information that might be considered supplementary to the essay, such as the bibliography, or
information that might be considered extraneous to the essay, such as your name, the date, and the
title of the essay.) Your essay should not be longer than 850 words.
Important Note: Review the instructions carefully and ask questions in a timely manner. Failure
to follow the instruction will result in the loss of points and might cause you to fail the assignment.
Questions for Pre-Writing: Coming up with Ideas
1. Is your community well known? How many people know about it?
2. What do people know about your community? What is the general perception others
have of your community?
3. Are there other communities people might confuse with the community you selected?
4. What would you like others to know about your community? How would you like
them to think about it?
5. How do the specific goals of your community differ from the goals of other
communities that might be similar?
6. How can the values and the places/objects of your community help distinguish it from
other communities and/or can help you convince the reader to think of the community
in the way you want them to think about it?
7. How can the language and/or practices of your community help distinguish it from
other communities and/or can help you convince the reader to think of the community
in the way you want them to think about it?