Discourse Essay

Rothman

Discourse Essay Prompt CONTEXT When you invest yourself in research, you invest yourself in a conversation that is already taking place—you enter an existing discourse. That discourse is often extensive, involving many people from different perspectives, with different motivations and interests in the issue/concept/focus at hand. This essay will be a chance for you to extend and synthesize much of your research to get a stronger sense of the discourse you are entering. The goals for this essay include:

1. Interpreting and portraying some of the most crucial perspectives and ideas (from sources) about your project focus.

2. Presenting and, more importantly, evaluating those perspectives and ideas. 3. Outlining what you’d like to contribute/add/reimagine and presenting your ideas as

responses to perspectives already out there. In short, your discourse essay is about demonstrating your understanding of the conversation that has already been happening about your project focus; clarifying how that can be useful to your own thinking and writing; and identifying what you plan to contribute and how it is in dialogue with other thinkers and writers. LOGISTICS You will interpret/explain/analyze the ideas and perspectives of those already in this dialogue. This essay will be at least 4-5 pages and must include at least six sources total. At least four of these sources need to be from academic sources. You may use the same sources from the Annotated Bibliography, or you may choose to use other sources. This essay will use APA in-text citations and include a References page. SUBMISSION Please submit your discourse essay on D2L by 11:59pm CST Friday 1/29.