Blog Post 4: Midterm proposal
Prompt:
This proposal will require you to formally lay out your plan and rationale for approaching your midterm project on a discourse community of your choice. Your proposal should take on a fairly formal tone, being as "plain and persuasive" as possible. Your proposal should contain the following elements, probably with separate headings for each:
1. Introduction
- Here you should introduce the topic of the proposal (what is a discourse community?)
- You should also give some sense of what your proposal will cover
2. Description of the current situation
- Here you should give a brief overview of what you've read about discourse communities so far.
- Why do people choose to study discourse communities in the first place? What is the point? What do they reveal?
- Whose approaches to studying discourse communities have been useful for your thinking?
3. Description of the project plan
- Identify how you will conduct your own research study of a discourse community
- Account for both the major and minor steps you expect to take in this process
4. Review of qualifications
- Here you should discuss what makes you think you will be able to pull this project off
- What experience or skills will you use in carrying out this project?
- What resources (either people you know or material resources) do you have at your disposal to carry out this project?
5. Discussion of costs/challenges
- What are the major difficulties you will encounter in this project?
6. Benefits and conclusion
- Here you should conclude by explaining what you think the value of this study will be, either personally or for the class
- What do you think you'll discover in your research?
Specs and requirements
- Proposals should be at least 500 words
- Rough draft is due in class for peer review (5 copies!) on Tue, March 19th
- Final drafts are due to the blog by 10pm 3/21