Andrew Laudel (24 Aug. 2014)

Overview:  After reading  John Swales’  “The Concept of Discourse Community,” students work in pairs to identify and analyze a particular discourse community  and examine  how texts mediate activity within that community.  This assignment is adapted from Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs’ Writing About Writing: A College Reader (314-315).

Teaching Goals: This project facilitates collaborative research and writing in Hunter’s first year writing course, English 120. The aim is to increase student understanding of the threshold concept in Writing Studies that texts mediate activity in a way that encourages students to work meaningfully and productively together in pairs.

Here is a theoretical rationale for collaborative writing and research projects.   Here is a sample assignment.   Here is  a sample unit schedule.   Here is an Annotated Bibliography.