Major Writing Assignment #1:

Discourse Community Website1

First Draft Due: 9/18/15
Final Draft Due:9/21/15
Value: 100 pts
Throughout the semester we have been discussing discourse communities. For
SWA 1, you created a guide to using the specialized language or genres of
your discourse community. For SWA 2, you explored the social value of your
discourse community and the role of the discourse community in shaping
identity. For Major Writing Assignment (MWA) 1, you will create a website
profile of your discourse community. Your profile must include information
about the role of language and/or genres within your discourse community.

Rhetorical Situation
This class is a discourse community, and we are all new to it. Every discourse
community is influenced by its members and their experiences and expertise,
and this class is no exception. This assignment gives you the opportunity to
share some information about the expertiseespecially language knowledge
that you are bringing with you as a result of your membership in other
discourse communities. Your website should work to introduce the members of
the class to your discourse community.
Genre: Profile
Purpose: Your primary purpose is to inform your readers about your discourse
community. However, you might also want to persuade your classmates to join
the community. And you will likely strive to entertain them with humor, brief
stories, rich descriptions and vivid details or images; all this makes reading the
profile enjoyable and builds your ethos.
Angle: Describe whats interesting, important, or even essential about your
discourse community, making sure to include information about this groups
unique use of language. For example, if you are profiling a discourse
community of runners, you could describe the way that the language of the
discourse community has shaped the way you see and interact with your
surroundings or your peers or how it helps you to better interact with the main
focus of the discourse community (running).
Audience: Your classmates and I will be the primary audience for your
website. We will use the sites to get to know each others interests and
1 Adapted from Lindsey Ives

language expertise. The secondary audience might be future ENGL 110

students or other audiences interested in the UNM student body.
Task: Using Weebly, create a website profiling a discourse community that
you belong to outside of this class.

Content: In your website, you should make the following moves:

Provide a creative title.
Introduce yourself and your discourse community. Try to grab your readers
attention here.
Describe your discourse community. The following questions give you some
options of what you could focus on. Note: You must include a focus on
language in your profile.
o
What is the social value of your discourse community?
o
What kind of language practices are unique to your
discourse community? What does this language reveal about the
discourse community? How has the language shaped you and other
members? How have you and other members shaped the language
of the discourse community?
o
Describe the social positioning or hierarchy in your
community. (Is there a person or group who has the most power or
influence in your community, a person or group who has some
influence, a person or group who has very little influence, etc.? [This
is only an example. The relationships in your community may, of
course, be very different from this description.])
How are these positions determined?
When you communicate, in what ways do people
in your community acknowledge the social positions within the
community? Are there different words, gestures, protocols, etc.
used for people in high, middle, and lower positions in your
community?
o
Describe two or three of the genres (either spoken or
written) that are most commonly used within your discourse
community.
For what purposes are these genres used?
What are the common features of each genre?
o
What have you learned from participating in your
discourse community?
Offer access to related information. This could be links to other websites for
your discourse community or links that provide contextual information that
readers might need in order to understand the value of your discourse
community..
Visual Design: Keep in mind audience expectations for websites. You are not
only allowed but encouraged to use headings and subheadings in your

website, to separate your content into more than one page within your
website, and to incorporate images, videos, links, etc. when appropriate.
Reflection: Submit a 1-2 page (single spaced) reflective commentaryin the
form of a letter to mevia Learn.

The purpose of the reflective letter is to give you an opportunity to reflect on

your writing, your writing process, and how you could improve your writing
and/or process. In your reflective letter, you should address the following
questions. Note that you do not need to address the questions in the order
they are provided.
What is the purpose of your website and how have you attempted to achieve
this purpose?
How did your intended audience influence your decisions as you composed
your profile?
What changes did you make in response to peer feedback? What peer
feedback did you decide not to take into account during your revisions and
why?
What would you change about your website if you had more time, knowledge
(about Weebly, for example) or resources?
For each of the questions listed above, please give specific examples from
your website.
What SLO(s) do you understand better after having completed this
assignment? What in the assignment helped you deepen your understanding?
Choose two of the SLOs listed below. Give specific examples of how this
assignment helped you make progress toward the SLOs
How did your presentation go? What kind of feedback did you receive?
Respond to that feedback.
SLOs
The SLOs youll work toward during this assignment and will address in your
reflection:
Rhetorical Situation and Genre (A)
Analyze, compose, and reflect on arguments in a variety of genres,
considering the strategies, claims, evidence, and various mediums and
technologies that are appropriate to the rhetorical situation.
In MWA #1, you composed in a new genres (a profile) for a specific
audience.
Writing as a Social Act (B)
Describe the social nature of composing, particularly the role of
discourse communities at the local, national, and international level.
In your MWA #1, you wrote, in part, about the relationship between
discourse community and language use.

Writing as a Process (C)

Use multiple approaches for planning, researching, prewriting,
composing, assessing, revising, editing, proofreading, collaborating, and
incorporating feedback in order to make your compositions stronger in
various mediums and using multiple technologies.
In your peer reviews, you gave and received feedback on early drafts.
(Note: You need to describe this process and describe specific ways that
you improved your draft because of the feedback.)
Grammar and Usage (D)
Improve your fluency in the dialect of Standardized Written American
English at the level of the sentence, paragraph, and document.
In MWA #1, you adapted your register and tone to a familiar audience
but still used mostly conventional grammar and other surface features.
And where you deliberately strayed from Standardized Written American
English, you will need to explain why you did that to achieve a particular
effect.
Evaluation:
You will be graded using the following rubric.

Major Writing Assignment #1 Rubric

100 points possible
Element

Excellent

Good

Title

5 points
The title is creative, attention-grabbing,
and clearly indicates what the website
will discuss.

4 points
The title is somewhat attentiongrabbing, and indicates what the
website will discuss.

Introduction

5 points
Starts with a good grabber, identifies the
discourse community for readers and
gives a sense of its importance and
uniqueness; provides background
information about the writer that is likely
to draw readers' attention.

Description of Discourse
Community (body)

20-17points
Provides a rich description of the
discourse community, including vivid
details that provide a picture of what it
would be like to interact in that discourse
community.
20-17points
Writer makes clear a) why the discourse
community is special/unique and
important; and b) the role of language
and/or genres in the discourse
community.

4 points
The introduction identifies the
discourse community and provides
some background information, but it
needs development and/or could do
more to grad the readers
interestmore to grab the readers
interest.
16-14 points
The description of the discourse
community would benefit from more
detail.

Angle of Profile

Organization and Clarity

Presentation and
Audience

Reflection

20-17points
The paragraphs and sentences progress
from one idea to the next in a way that is
not confusing to the reader; descriptive
and interesting headings and/or page
titles are used to help readers navigate
the site; all sentences are easy to follow;
each section and/or paragraph makes a
point.
15-11 points
Student presents professionally within
the time limits and maintains the positive
supportive atmosphere as described in
the audience etiquette requirements.
10-9 points
The reflection addresses the questions in
the prompt with ample and specific detail
and examples.

Needs Improvement
3-2-1-0 points
The title simply indicates what the website
will discuss, there is no title, or the title
does not indicate what the website will
discuss.
3-2-1-0 points
The introduction does not identify the
discourse community to be described and
does not provide any background
information.

13-0 points
The discourse community is not clearly
described; a reader could have trouble
understanding what defines the discourse
community.

16-14 points
The value and uniqueness of the
discourse community and/or role of
language is unclear. Or, the
importance of the discourse
community has not been fully
considered with respect to the
primary audience.
16-14 points
Only some paragraphs and sentences
progress easily and understandably;
headings or titles are not always
descriptive; some sentences are
difficult to follow; some sections or
paragraphs have a point.

13-0 points
There is little or no sense of the value of the
discourse community and/or the role of
language is not addressed.

10-8 points
Student presents professionally but
may fall outside the time limits and
maintains the positive supportive
atmosphere as described in the
audience etiquette requirements.
8.7-7.3 points
The reflection addresses the
questions in the prompt with limited
detail and examples.

7-0 points
Students presentation fails to maintain
professionalism and/or conform to the
norms of audience etiquette.

13-0 points
Few paragraphs and sentences progress
well; headings are not used; sentences are
difficult to follow; or too many paragraphs
lack a point.

7- 6-5-4-3-2-1-0 points
The reflection addresses the questions in
the prompt but does not provide specific
examples; or, the reflection does not
address the questions in the prompt.

Grammar and Mechanics

Total: /100

5 points
The website is free of distracting spelling,
punctuation, and grammatical errors.

4 points
The website is mostly free of
distracting spelling, punctuation, and
grammatical errors.

3-2-1-0 points
The website is distracting and/or hard to
follow due to numerous spelling,
punctuation, and grammatical errors.