During the Analyzing Professional Contexts project, you will conduct and
analyze field research of your professional context. This field research
will consist of an interview and an observation. After coding and analyzing
your field research data, you will plan and draft a report discussing
significant issues related to your field.
This project will introduce you to data collection methods and project
planning and development. These processes will be beneficial in relationship
not only to other course projects but also writing projects that you will
be assigned as a professional in the workplace.
what is a "context"?
A context is a dynamic set of relationships among people, institutions,
documents, technologies, etc. These relationships inform and are informed
by certain standards, judgments, beliefs, assumptions, and values. Becoming
a member of a professional context is a process that requires you to invest
in and understand these relationships and the various ways in which they
function. To research your own professional context, you will collect
data from academic and other workplace settings in your major or specialization.
The purpose of this field research is for you to
investigate directly specific people, sites, events, and situations that
are part of your professional context. This investigation will require
you to consider how these specific examples relate to issues of:
power/authority,
knowledge/expertise,
status,
worker-worker or student-student relationships,
management-worker
or teacher-student relationships,
initiation of contact or discourse, and
completion
of contact or discourse.
why research
your professional context?
If your supervisor requests that you write a report outlining your
recent work on a project, you will need to determine what the standards
for effective reports are for your context. To better understand such
standards, you likely will speak to colleagues and make note of procedures
and precedents related to the creation, distribution, and evaluation
of written products within your work site.
The field research methods that you will use in this project provide
general strategies for investigating rhetorical expectations in your
field. Thus, although you may not always be granted the time and opportunity
to formally conduct interviews and observations these field research
methods provide starting points for the planning and drafting of professional
documents.
For this project, your research report will provide you an opportunity
to reflect upon the ways in which these research strategies provide
insight into issues that shape the standards in your field. Such issues
are important to any field, but your Contextual Analysis Report will
highlight the ways in which you became more aware of certain issues
during your own research.
project benefits
Carefully considering relationships and issues within your professional
context can help you to become a better writer. For you to write persuasive
and effective documents in your field, you must learn to assess the
potential audiences and purposes for those documents. Throughout this
project, you will hone your assessment skills through research, analysis,
and drafting.
Your general project goals are to:
Become more
aware of writing as a social act.
Understand
writing as a set of contextualized processes.
Relate
writing strategies to workplace contexts.
Address
ethics and culture in workplace writing.
Conduct
and manage a complex writing/research project.
Create
a persuasive report based upon research.
project requirements
interview
Conduct at least one 45-minute to an hour interview of an established
member of your professional context (e.g., a professor in your field,
a senior employee in your workplace, a researcher, etc.). To prepare
for your interview, you will draft six interview questions and discuss
them in ProNoun with your team members. After conducting your interview,
you will type a transcript of your conversation, including both your
questions and your interviewee's responses. Consult additional interview
information and example interview
transcript node in order to plan and conduct your interview.
Use the downloadable Word form
to complete your interview transcript.
observation
& field notes
Observe and compose field notes for at least one site within your professional
context (e.g., classroom, meeting, conference, lab, industrial site,
office site, etc.). To prepare for your observation, you will discuss
your selected site in ProNoun with your team members. After observing
your site, you will submit your field note transcript of your observation.
Consult additional observation information
and example field notes transcript
node in order to plan and conduct your observation.
Use the downloadable Word form
to complete your field notes transcript.
data
coding
After conducting all of your field research, sort and analyze your data.
You will read, mark, and code your interview and observation transcripts
in order to complete your data coding grid and identify which issues
for analysis you want to highlight in your plan and report. Consult
additional data coding information
and example data coding node in
order to code your data and complete your data coding grid.
Use the downloadable Word form
to complete your data coding grid.
contextual
analysis plan
After completing your data coding, complete a contextual analysis plan
that will function as an outline for your contextual analysis report.
To aid in the drafting of your contextual analysis plan, you will meeting
in ProNoun to discuss translating your data coding into your plan. After
completing your contextual analysis plan, you will give and receive
detailed feedback during an in-class peer response session.
Based upon the peer feedback on your plan, you then will draft your
report.. Consult additional contextual
analysis information in order to plan and draft your contextual
analysis report.
Use the downloadable Word form to complete
your plan.
Use
the downloadable Word form to complete
your peer response.
contextual
analysis report
After completing your contextual analysis plan, draft your contextual
analysis report. To aid in the drafting of your contextual analysis
report, you will meeting in ProNoun to discuss any questions you might
have about the report. Consult the contextual
analysis information and this download link to an example
report in order to plan and draft your contextual analysis report.
Other Analyzing
Professional Contexts Project Links:
Formatting Reference | Interview
| Example Interview | Observation
| Example Field Notes | Data
Coding | Example Data Coding
| Contextual Analysis Plan &
Report
421 syllabus | 421
calendar
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