*Project 1 Worksheet (Write answers to the following questions and brainstorming

activities)

Discourse Community Analysis:

1. Look at your individual discipline’s Writing About guidelines, section in Writing in the
Discipline, and other research on library databases.

2. What kinds of “artifacts” or textual products are produced in your discipline and think
about which one you might want to analyze for your visual discourse analysis.
The most common artifact in my discourse would be the programming behind and
coding that goes behind everyday tasks on a computer. That textual evidence is a
very good way to look into discourse.
3. How is knowledge constructed in that discourse community?
Knowledge is spread mainly through teaching as well as researching other
programs as well as what they do. My personal knowledge of this discourse came
through the classes that I take here which is where most of the population today
learns more through my discourse.
4. How might established members of your academic discourse community act as
gatekeepers and determine the modes of discourse that emerge in your discipline?
In my discourse, professors who are teaching their students have the ability to
disclose certain information so that they may better understand what is going on in
the discourse. There are also ways to make a program private so that only the
program’s author can share it with certain people.
5. What kinds of citation practices are utilized? Why?
The APA style is used in this discourse because it is the easiest way to describe
everything that is being used from one program into discussion.
6. How is metadiscourse useful in your field?
Metadiscourse is useful because it makes it easier for people throughout the
discourse community to understand what one another is thinking and the process of
what they are going through. Abbreviations and keywords throughout the
programming language are the two big important pieces that can help this.
7. How does it help you evaluate sources?
It is used to evaluate the outcome of a program and what exactly a program does on
the final go around. It can also be useful when identifying the coding that is used
throughout the program itself, so that the reader can see what the author is trying to
do with the program.
8. What does it mean for genre and methodology?
The genre when it comes to coding and programming is very technical and cut
throat. Everything must be exactly right when coding to make the program correct
which causes the methodology to be very precise and exact. If one thing is wrong in
 the code, the program will not run or it will not run correctly so it is very important
to check work throughout.
9. What is the relationship between intentionality and function of the form? How much are
they shaping and being shaped by the discourse?
The relationship between intentionality and function of the form comes within the
coding that leads to the outcome of the program. The coding that lies behind what
the reader sees shapes the entire outcome of the program and what it can perform
according to what the reader is looking for or asking for. The coding completely
shapes everything that the reader/whoever is running the program sees.

Overall points to address in the Project:

1. What kind of words/terms/language patterns, genres, and mediums are unique to your
field? Use specific examples/quotes from your artifact. Has this shared language changed
over time (think the last 10-20 years)? For example, in communications and journalism,
the discourse community has changed radically with the advent of social media with new
language being introduced all the time and the medium has shifted radically from print to
digital forms, which has introduces all sorts of new words and language.
Each and every day new technologies are formed along with new codes and
programs that are needed for those certain technologies. The entire language itself
is unique to Javascript because it is its own language. There are other
programming languages out there that have different types of keywords versus
Java, but Java is its entirely own language with certain keywords and phrases that
tell the computer what to do compared to others. For example, the keyword
Scanner is used in Java to ask the user for input which is then placed back into the
program and run specifically to what the user has selected.
2. What does your field value in terms of methodology, activities, etc? Has this changed
over time? For example, in journalism the methodology shifted because media
organizations had to turn out their news so much more quickly. Similarly, the
methodologies of research and access to information in other fields influenced by
technological advances have changed significantly over the past few years. Demonstrate
with specific examples from your artifact.
This field values the importance of preciseness when it comes to coding. In the
coding field, the most important thing is the small errors that are usually overlooked
unless caught by the author. For example, capitalization throughout the program is
very important because when a word is capitilized, it does something different than
when the keyword is not capitalized. Another example is the presence of the open
parentheses at the beginning of the programming and how it must always end with
closed parenthesis at the end.
3. What kinds of things does your field assume? This includes knowledge base, ethical
stance etc. How does this show up in your artifact? Again, in the sciences the assumed
knowledge base is changing all the time with new discoveries and better science.
 Additionally, with media some would argue that what is valued now is less deep
investigative journalism, and more entertainment-style journalism (what will sell vs. what
is important for the public to know). Remember to demonstrate with evidence. Try to
think about things that someone like me, an English major, might not know about your
field that you learned in introductory courses/do without thinking about it.
This field assumes that the computer will know what these keywords and phrases
are being typed in and will know what to do once the program is being run. When
first being taught the Java language, we are told to just memorize the keywords that
do certain things and that the computer will do the rest for us once we run the
program. This shows up all throughout my artifact with keywords like input,
Scanner, public class and System.

Rhetorical Analysis of your Artifact:

Step 1:
● Conduct another careful and thorough reading of the Writing About Guidelines for your
field or discipline (depending on the guidelines available). These guidelines are written
and checked by professionals in the field, provide basic information the features and
conventions of texts in specific fields or disciplines, and should give you a good basic
understanding from which you can grow your knowledge. Use what you learn from
reading the guidelines for your field to look for examples of features or conventions in
other texts.
● The goal here is to conduct a thorough investigation of a discourse community in your
chosen field or discipline, including explanations of the features that constitute it as a
discourse community and a list of the different genres of texts circulated within the
community.
Specific questions to answer about your artifact:
4. Author/s: How many authors are there and what do you know about them? How do you
know it? Is there a note? If so, where is this note? How does/do the author/authors
establish authority or hierarchy?
There is one author who is me, my artifact is an old program I used from last fall in
a project. There is no note besides the title of the class and the way to establish
authority would be to either make this program private and only export to those
who I would like to see and to also give credit when citing the porgram when being
used elsewhere.
5. Purpose/Aim: Does the text seek to inform, instruct, analyze, persuade, argue, or
evaluate? How do you know?
The text seeks to inform the reader how coding looks behind the screen of the
program being run by the user. The reader of this infographic can analyze the
keywords that are used throughout the program and potentially get better
knowledge as to how difficult and complex a simple thing like calculating an average
of given numbers is behind the screen.
6. Audience: Does the text write to members of the discourse community or to outsiders or
to both? Is the text primarily targeted to equals, experts, or beginners? In short, who is the
audience and how do you know? How much is the audience expected to know already?
What kinds of information is assumed?
The artifact is designed for everyone to see it. It is primarily targeted to beginners
though because it is a very short and simple program that does not run anything
super complex. The audience is expected to know what the keywords means and
what the program is basically running throughout as well as how the code is set up.
7. Rhetorical Situation and Context: Where is this text situated/published? Are there ads
surrounding the text or anything else? What can you tell about the venue as a whole? See
above—what information is assumed?
This artifact is not published anywhere and there are no ads because it is my
personal code.
8. Sources: Does the site use other sources? If so, how many and of what kind? Are they
peer-reviewed sources or not? How can you tell? How does the author treat the sources?
Respectfully or critically or both? How are the sources cited?
Again, a previous program designed and coded by myself so there is no need to cite
anything and nothing was taken from outside knowledge.
9. Content Level: How specific or broad or difficult is the content, the ideas and information
in the text?
I would say that to a beginner, this is a very difficult language to understand
because if you do not know what any of these words mean, it all looks like a bunch
of crazy things put together. It is one of the simplest programs I have written but it
is still very difficult to grasp the knowledge with nothing prior to explain it.
Throughout my infographic however, I explain the things that are present in my
artifact which the reader can go back and look at if they have forgotten or do not
understand.
10. Format: What is the structure or layout of the text? Is there an abstract? Are there key
terms? Are there sections or is it one long text? Columns? Endnotes or footnotes?
The layout is throughout an online poster type of thing. The key terms are all
defined throughout the text and are not all clumped into one big long paragraph
that will make it difficult for the reader to stay interested in. Little circles around
the sides let the reader know what certain things in the discourse are.
11. Language: How would you characterize the tone of the text? The writing style? Is the
passive voice or active voice dominant? Is the first person or third person dominant? Are
the sentences long or short? Is there use of figurative language such as metaphors and
similes? Offer a sample sentence or two as evidence for analysis.
The tone of the text is very informative and to the point. It is in the third person so
that the reader feels as though knowledge is being relayed to them from someone in
the discourse. The sentences are relatively short with enough information
throughout to give the reader a good idea of what the discourse is talking about.
 There is no use of figurative language to keep the information super informative.
“An import statement that will import bits and pieces of another program on the
computer to this new program”
12. Visuals: Are there any visuals, such as charts, graphs, or pictures? What kinds of appeals
does the site use primarily (ethos, pathos, or logos)?
There are two main pictures throughout the text along with little clipart photos that
describe the keywords and phrases being explained. The text is set up in a way that
is pleasing to the eye of the reader and allows them to keep reading with interest and
intent. The primary appeal would be logos throughout the text because it is very
informative without using hard facts and statistics.
13. Remember, this is not just an observation. Rather, it is an analysis which means you
draw conclusions from the observations you make about the text (i.e. what does it mean
that it uses passive voice? What does it mean that sources are cited with the date first
instead of the author? etc.)