University of Missouri Kansas City ?Facebook Discourse Community Research Paper Research Paper: Community 3,000 words; MLA; 6 credible sources (2 scholarl

University of Missouri Kansas City ?Facebook Discourse Community Research Paper Research Paper: Community

3,000 words; MLA; 6 credible sources (2 scholarly)

You are encouraged to use pictures/screenshots. Please caption them.

Prompt:

Investigate a Discourse community and compose a research paper that examines its relationship with

media, language, and the general Discourse (mainstream).

Investigate the platforms that your chosen community frequents or communicates on. Show how your

community uses technology to advance or maintain its network of relationships, knowledge, and culture.

Explore the explicit and hidden language of your chosen community. Look at what is written and spoken,

and consider what is left to be implied. Examine jargon, jokes, memes. Evaluate how the community

reacts and handles internal and external conflict with language. How does the community politic and

police with words and with organization.

Describe how the community outlines its identity and demarcates itself from other communities and

mainstream activity. Describe the need of the community—its motivations to keep existing—and consider

the community as a reflection of what is missing from (their) broader society. What is the thing(s) that the

community members want, need, or yearn for. Ultimately—what can be learned from the community;

what must we know about it; and are there aspects of the community that should be forgiven, understood,

or tolerated? End with some words about your experience investigating and writing about this community.

*??

Brainstorming:

Some inquiries: What are the rules, and are they invisible? Who are the leaders, what are the idols, and

what are the characteristics of the community’s common, ideal denizen? How does the community

recognize membership? Does the community worship (secular or religious)? What are the dominant

literacies? The demographic? How does the community regard privacy of membership? Or is it readily

publicized? What are the gains and losses that come with membership? How does the community heal

each other? Is there a common hurt?

Some inviting words: escapism, inclusion, ideals, principles, prejudice, truth-telling, truth-making, art,

grammar, fashion, elitism, bubbles, ecosystem, caricatures, humor, psychology, health, estrangement,

meet-up, virtual, reality, family, friends, tradition, ritual, medicine, romance, infatuation, regulation,

stories, metaphors, symbols, insults, (its) museums, wisdom, respect, judgement, accessories, skills,

legends, morals, aphorisms (truth in slang), wealth, glamor, vehicles, hierarchy, classification, advocacy,

diet, channels, borders, hope, time…

Potential Outline:

NB: You don’t need to follow its exact order, but you should be mindful of the elements involved in each

successive building block: keyword or phrase ?? sentence ?? paragraph ?? body ?? essay; observation ?

claim ?? evidence/example ?? co-evidence/co-example ?? observation ? claim.

I. introduction

? thesis statement (??)

? introduce the situation

? invite interest

II. body 1: the origin story

? identify, characterize, or classify your community in prose; illustrate with pictures and

stories

? describe the community’s discourse settings/platforms

III. body 2: media and technology

? describe the behavior and interactions between your community and

technology/platforms

IV. body 3: language and culture

? describe how language—text, image, and expression—is used

? describe the community’s unique language: their metaphors, jokes, symbols, jargon,

memes, fashion, expression, gesture, artifacts, source material, literature

V. body 4: relationships with itself and the rest of the world

? describe how they belong inside and outside the community gates

? define/describe aforementioned community gates, and consider gatekeep(ers/ing)

VI. body 5: summary of investigation

VII. conclusion: wisdom, takeaways, reflection, expression (??)

Each patch of information (supporting point) you include should be detailed, qualified, and made

constructive for your overarching narrative. Make important few vital things and arrange them mindfully.

notes:

Though we have read and discussed conflicts between science and language, remember that

(inter)sectionality was given definition by us. The following are two quotes by Henri Poincaré to pocket

while you research and write:

– Guessing before proving! Need I remind you that it is so that all important discoveries have been

made?”

from The Value of Science

chase IDKs and follow curiosity; dead-ends are mappable!

– Science is built up with facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts is no more a

science than a heap of stones is a house.”

from Science and Hypothesis

“science” is interchangeable here with names of studiable things and crafts; the form of

an essay forms truth also; remember Postman’s second sample in AOTD chapter two.