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.