English
101C
Readings
Writing
Assignments
Online
Community Essay
Class
Resources
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Exploring and Explaining An On-Line Community
This assignment is designed introduce you to on-line communities in
general and one specific on-line community. Different communities you
might choose to explore include a listserv, a Usenet group, an IRC channel,
a chat-room (web or commercial ISP based), a MUD/MOO or a web-based
forum. As you explore and attempt to participate in your on-line community,
you should become aware of and attempt to adhere to their convetions
for constructing knowledge and appropriate behavior. You can be merely
a "lurker" (an observer) in the community; in fact, it is
better to "lurk" for several sessions in order to get a feel
for how the community operates. Use this lurking experience to write
this essay. However, if you do choose to participate actively, you must
adhere to the established community standards. I do not want to get
angry flames complaing that my students don't know how to behave online.
To complete this assignment successfully, you must:
- keep a journal of your observations and participation in the community.
In your journal, you should:
- answer the heuristic questions given out in class about your
community
- record notes, observations, quotations (make sure you have permission
from the original authors), and specific about your participation
in the community and what the community is like, focusing in part
on the requirements for the writing assignment
- reflect on how the readings and
class discussions relate to your community
- write an approximately 1000 word essay in which you
- introduce your community (who participates? what's the purpose?
where is it hosted? what do people do there? etc)
- explain what is considered appropriate and inappropriate behavior
in this community and how behavior norms are enforced.
- explain some of the unique writing conventions of your community
(do they follow conventional rules for written English? Do they
use icons? Do they maintain a specific list of acronyms which
they refer to? Do they use Internet-specific symbols?)
- use specific examples, quotations, and vivid descriptions. You
are playing "tour guide" to your community for a group of
people who may never have seen anything like it before.
- follow all essay format guidelines as listed on the
syllabus and cite sources (if applicable) in MLA format
- turn in a rough draft for peer review on Monday, February 7th.
- participate in two peer review activities, which wil be graded
- turn in a word processed, double spaced, spell-checked, and proofread
paper copy of your final draft, with all rough drafts and your journal
paperclipped to it on Monday, February 14th.
these pages created/maintained by
erin karper
introductory
writing program | department
of english | purdue university
last updated: january 8, 2000
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