7/30/2019 Ethnography Handout (Project Two)

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Interview QuestionsFor writing project 3, discourse communities

These are just examples. Feel free to come up with your own questions, as long as they arerelated to language and communication in your discourse community.

General (Swales characteristic 1)

What are the purposes for your group? What is your groups main goal?

What do you (the interviewee specifically, not the group as a whole) do to achievethose purposes/goals?

How does the group as a whole work towards achieving the group purposes/goals.

Expertise & Participation (Swales characteristics 3 & 6)

How long have you (the interviewee) been a part of this group? Why did you join this group?

What do you have to do to really be considered a true member of the group? How often do you go to (meetings, practices, games, other events)?

Do people in the group listen to you/trust you? Are you considered an expert or anewbie?

How can you tell who the newcomers are in the group? Are some people more involved than others?

Intercommunication & Genres (Swales characteristics 2, 3 & 4)

How does the group communicate? (Meetings, emails, forums, phone calls, websites,etc.)

What kinds of texts does your group use? (Newsletters, handbooks, Facebook pages,

etc.) How does the group use these texts? Are group members expected to use thesetexts in a specific way? Are there ways that these texts are used that an outsider might not understand?

Lexis (Vocabulary) (Swales characteristic 5)

Is there special terminology or abbreviations that members of the group mustknow/learn to participate in the group? What are some of these terms?

Why are these terms used? How long did it take you to learn those terms? Define some of the terms/abbreviations used by your group.

7/30/2019 Ethnography Handout (Project Two)

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Survey QuestionsFor writing project 3, discourse communities

Again, these are just examples. Feel free to come up with your own questions, as long as theyare related to language and communication in your discourse community.

Questions for members of the discourse community: What is the most significant way that you (the person being surveyed) communicate

with other group members?

How often do you communicate with other group members? Are there certain words or abbreviations that you use when talking to your group

that you do not use when talking to people outside the group? What are those terms? Etc.

Questions for nonmembers: Have you heard of (your discourse community)?

Have you ever participated in (your discourse community) in any way? Would you feel comfortable discussing (a key aspect of your discourse community)

with a member of (your discourse community)? If your discourse community uses a specific vocabulary, ask nonmembers if they

know/understand terms. Etc.