FIELD RESEARCH PROJECT (Phase 1)

(10% of the 20% designated for Presentations)

Group Members: _________________________________ and ____________________________________________

Discipline One: _________________________________ Discipline Two: ________________________________

Step 1: Choose a partner and two disciplines to investigate.

Step 1I: Go to the library and pull (from reserve) two books and two journals (each) from each discipline.

Step III: Thumb through the journals and books and find two articles from each discipline to investigate/analyze.

Step IV: At the end of the first library day, you should jot down the title of each article, the page number, and the name of the journal/book that it came from. Hand this to the tutor before you leave.

Step V: Pick up the same articles/books again (from reserve). You might bring (or purchase) a copy card so you can have copies of these articles.

Step VI: On a separate sheet of paper, analyze the articles. Begin by analyzing, comparing, and contrasting the articles representing the first discipline. Write the article title, page numbers, and journal/book title at the top of a separate sheet of paper.

Step VII: Then analyze the first article, using the following questions as a guide: (1) Is the language formal or informal? How can you tell? (2) Do you see “I” in this? “You”? Contractions? (3) Read the article. What argument is the author trying to make? Summarize the main argument in one-two sentences. (4) Do you see graphs, charts, and/or other illustrations? Surveys? Polls? Statistics? Interviews? (5) What terms do you see used several times in this article that you haven’t seen in or heard in other discourse communities (specialized terminology)? Write down at least two.

Step VIII: Compare your findings from this article with another in the same discipline. In other words, what are the similarities between the two disciplines as represented in the articles you examined? What are the differences? In order to determine this, you should use the following questions as a guide in your analysis of the second article: (1) Formal or informal language? How does that compare with the other article? Did the other article have a similar feel? Explain what you mean. (2) What argument is the author trying to make, and how does this compare with the argument made in the previous article? (3) Graphs? Charts? Other illustrations? Surveys? Polls? Statistics? Interviews? How does this compare with the other article and what conclusions can you draw from any similarities and/or differences you find? (4) Do you find any of the same specialized terminology at work in this article? Which terms are repeated, and what are we to make of this? Explain.

Step IX: Work through steps VII and VIII in response to the articles in the second discipline.

Step X: Compare and contrast your findings from one discipline with the findings from the second. What are the similarities between the two disciplines as represented in the articles you examined? What are the differences?

The next phase of this Field Research Project will be to prepare the presentation.

Field Research Project: Phase Two

You are responsible for understanding and presenting the literacy requirements of TWO disciplines (or three if you are working in groups of three). You have completed the first phase of this project as a group. You and your partner(s) should now prepare a presentation that will reveal your findings to the rest of us.

Step I: You should have found the similarities and the differences between the literacy requirements for each discipline you analyzed. Write the bibliographic information at the top of a separate sheet of paper, and divide it in half. Place the similarities on one side and the differences on the other side of the page.

Step II: Use this sheet to generate your presentation. In this step, you will be developing a handout for your presentation, which you will share with your tutor. Your handout should present carefully articulated responses to the following questions and requirements:

What two (or three) disciplines did you analyze and why? What did you expect to find (did you expect to find differences)? Did you find what you expected?

In one sentence (each), explain what each article was about.

What are the similarities between these disciplines (name at least three)?

What are the differences (name at least two)?

How is evidence presented in each discipline? Is it formal? Informal?

What kinds of evidence did the author use? Look at all your findings from the first phase of this field research project.

Is the language formal? Informal?

Step III: Meet with your tutor to receive feedback on your handout and discuss presentation plans.

Step IV: Revise it to address tutor’s concerns.

Step V: Prepare some sort of visual aid. I suggest: Bring copies of the first couple pages of each article you analyzed. Share them with the group so they can see what you mean as you present your findings.

Step VI: Practice, practice, practice! You need to run through your presentation at least once before you give it to the group more formally, making sure you know who will speak to which discovery. You cannot have one person doing all the talking. You may decide to have one person speak to all the similarities and one person speak to all the differences. This is up to you. And you also need to be sure you will be able to complete the presentation in the time allotted. A practice run will help you meet this time constraint. Time limits: ten minutes for a group of two, fifteen for a group of three.

Step VI: Make enough copies of your handout for each member of your group to have one. Make sure your visual aids are in order.

We look forward to your presentation!