CA610i Rhetoric and the Internet
Assignment One Requirements (Graduate and Undergraduate Students)
The paper must be 1-5 pages/250-1,250 words.
The paper must cite at least 2 texts from the course syllabus.
The paper must be emailed to rgh@rghoward.com on or before the due date at 5 PM via email attachment in pdf., .rtf, .or .doc format.
Assignment One Prompt
Your Assignment One paper must address all parts of the following request in a holistic and single essay.
Develop and describe a research question about about the social function of some selection of discourse found at a network location of your own choosing. You must "document" that text, audio, graphic, video, or other discourse storing as a digital file or small group of files on a DVD, CD, Flash RAM device that can be inserted in a standard laptop computer. Your media must brought to class on the day your group is assigned. Please note if it was produced for use under Macintosh or Windows operating system on the media. Please note on the media your name, contact information, and if you need it returned. For redundancy's sake, please place a copy of your text on the media as well as emailing it (just the text) to the instructor.Your initial research question should be specific enough to be answered based on the observable characteristics of the chosen network location. You should describe, in your view, the "field-site" that you are delineating as your study object. Then you should describe which and how specific rhetorical ideas dealt with in the course (and beyond if necessary) will help us understand the social function of the discourse you document. Then you should describe how answering the research question about that discourse in detail will contribute to our better understanding of the social functions of network communication technologies. In this section, it would be wise to suggest what other research has been done, how this research would contribute, and what sort of further research might following from your study
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO USE THIS DISCOURSE FOR YOUR FINAL ANALYTIC PAPER, BUT YOU MAY.
Most likely, you will refine this choice by picking a related discursive fragment or a larger or small part of this one for your final project.