Discipline Investigation

Purpose and Audience

Purpose: To investigate a discourse community* (e.g. profession) you hope to join and to learn about the kinds of texts (genres) that community uses.  This assignment

will enable you to identify some of those rules or patterns by interviewing a professional in your field of study and by doing outside research

Audience: Your instructor, your classmates, and other faculty members on the 100A portfolio committee.

*Discourse Community: Any group of people who form a community—a family, a neighborhood, colleagues, practitioners of a particular profession—and establish informal

and formal rules regarding who gets to join their community and how spoken and written interactions (i.e. discourse) occur within the community. Anyone who wants to

join that community has to learn its discourse rules and patterns.

Writing Steps

Step 1:  Interview
For this assignment, you will interview a professional in your field of study to gain insight into your future discourse community. Try to select someone at a senior

level, with at least five years of experience working in this field, who can provide you with a broad view of the types of work and opportunities that are available to

you. Your professors in your field of study may be able to give you advice on finding a suitable interviewee. Unless you hope eventually to become a faculty member at

a university, you should not interview one of your professors.

It is preferable to interview the subject in person. The interview should cover 1) your subject’s background and career path; 2) your subject’s current role and

responsibilities; and 3) your subject’s insight on the types of communication skills required for advancing in your field.

In preparation for the interview, you will work in class to develop a set of questions for your particular interviewee.  You will also discuss various interviewing

strategies.  Before the interview, you will need to discuss with your interviewee the confidentiality of the interview.  Because people sometimes share sensitive

information in an interview, you need to assure them that the information will be confidential and that you will not use their real name or the name of the company.

Step 2: Outside Research
Find a minimum of 2 outside sources (articles, journals) that give you additional information about your future discourse community – for example, what types of work

or jobs someone in that field would have, or what the requirements will be for those jobs in the future.  You might also research additional genres of writing that

might be used in your field.  Note: Step 2 can be done while you are arranging the interview.  You do not have to wait until your interview is done.

Step 3: Prepare Report
Your Discipline Investigation will report the information you learned during your interview and outside research, providing an introduction and conclusion to share how

your own expectations about the field may have changed or broadened in doing this assignment.

Suggested Organization

INTRODUCTION
Your introduction should include a brief overview of the discourse community you investigated for this assignment and provide a short background on why you chose your

field of study and what your expectations were before you conducted the interview and outside research.

INTERVIEW REPORT
Background & Career Path
Introduce your interview subject, giving details of the subject’s background and education to show why the subject chose that profession and how he/she got started in

the field. You will also need to give some explanation of the subject’s career path so far, highlighting particular positions or stepping stones to the current role.

Possible topics to discuss in this section include:

•    Why your subject was drawn to a particular career field
•    What requirements or skills were needed before entering the field
•    The expectations and surprises your subject had in entering that profession

Use outside sources (articles) to add additional or supporting information.

Roles & Responsibilities
Provide an overview of your interview subject’s current role at his/her place of employment, explaining the responsibilities of that position and how it fits into the

overall structure of the company or organization. Your subject should also give you a general sense of the types of jobs and career paths common in that field.

Possible topics to discuss in this section include:

•    The subject’s job responsibilities in his/her place of employment
•    Where your subject’s job fits in terms of the overall structure of the profession
•    Types of jobs people in this profession have
•    The skills and qualifications your subject’s job requires
•    The biggest challenges the subject faces in this job

Use outside sources (articles) to add additional or supporting information.

Communication Skills
Explain the types of reading and writing typically required in your field of interest. Provide an overview of the communication skills that are most important in your

field. For example, some occupations demand the ability to work collaboratively on reports, while others may require an ability to respond clearly and concisely to

time-sensitive email inquiries. Possible topics include:

•    The types of reading and writing required in your subject’s daily responsibilities
•    The typical audience for written communication (co-workers, clients, general public, etc.)
•    The communication skills your subject finds most important in his/her role

Use outside sources (articles) to add additional or supporting information.

CONCLUSION
Share your thoughts on what most surprised or interested you about your interview and research. Did it change your expectations about your chosen field? For the

remainder of your undergraduate studies, what further skills, knowledge, or experience (such as an internship) will you need to develop to help prepare you for the

start of your career?
REFERENCES
Include a list of your outside sources (at least two are required).  Use the style that is used in your field of interest (for example, APA, MLA, etc.)

APPENDIX
Include a list of the interview questions you asked.  It is not necessary to include a transcript of the responses.

Format Guidelines

Your final draft should be approximately 1500 words, with 1-inch margins and 12 point font, Times New Roman, 1.5-spaced with double spacing between paragraphs. The

report should have headings (in capitals and bolded) to guide the reader. Please number your pages.

Peer Review
All students must bring the following to the peer review:
•    A draft of the complete report; include links to the outside sources you used.
•    A copy of the interview questions you used
•    A copy of the peer review sheet; remember to include any questions which you would like your peer reviewer to answer about the content and organization of your

draft.

During the peer review session, you will provide written feedback on his/her paper.
Teacher Conference
Use the feedback from your peer to revise your writing in preparation for a mandatory conference with your instructor. Bring to the conference:
•    A draft of the final report (you will annotate both the document and your own report based on your instructor’s feedback); include links to the outside sources

you used and a list of the interview questions you asked;
•    A copy of the peer review.
Important Dates
First draft due (1300 words min); Mandatory peer review      Monday, June 30
Mandatory conference with instructor and bring a 2nd draft based on peer review (1400 words min)     Wednesday, July 2 – Tuesday, July 8
Final  draft due on Canvas and in class (1500 words)     Monday, July 14
Things to Keep for the Portfolio
•    A copy of this assignment sheet
•    A copy of the interview questions you used
•    All drafts produced for this assignment
•    A copy of your instructor’s comments and your peer’s comments on your earlier drafts
•    A clean (unmarked) copy of your final draft.

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