Research Writing Assignment: ENG 2322 Discourse Community Analysis

This document presents a comprehensive solution to an ENG 2322 research writing assignment focused on analyzing an online discourse community, specifically on Facebook. The assignment delves into ethnographic writing, exploring its principles and application to the virtual environment. The student addresses key concepts like ethics of representation, comparing and contrasting the assignment with Kahn's article on ethnography. It covers identifying and critiquing sources, including the process of finding scholarly articles and applying reading strategies, and includes an annotated bibliography entry. The document also features an observation log detailing online social network behavior. The assignment culminates in a rough draft of an essay that analyzes the discourse community, the observed behaviors, and the differences in communication styles online versus in real life, including an introduction, literature review, and discussion board post. The student has used sources by Kahn, Haller, Rosenberg and Bouvier to complete the assignment.

Running head: ENGLISH 2322 RESEARCH WRITING
ENGLISH 2322 RESEARCH WRITING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Journal 3.
1. Ethnographic writing includes more than observations. Based on what you learned from
Kahn’s article, what is ethnography? Describe the similarities and differences between
Project #2 and the ethnographic writing Kahn described in his essay.
After reading Kahn’s article, I was able to learn about ethnography as a research and
study method in great details. One of the key aspects that I understood from Kahn article is, as
mentioned in the question, ethnography is not just observation. Instead, it require understanding
what is being observed and analyzing these understandings in detail (Kahn, 2011). Furthermore,
ethnographic understanding also requires aspects of ethics that become important research
considerations. Based on my understanding of ethnography from reading Kahn’s article,
ethnography is the in – depth, progressive study and analysis of a particular culture where the
people within the culture are looked at in terms of how they are interacting with each other as
well as several other non - human cultural elements. Kahn specifically highlights personal
experiences as one of the key driving forces behind ethnographic writing and states that primary
experience is a key element of ethnographic writing and adds more value than secondary
experience (2011, p. 178).
Project #2 asks us to observe a digital community and provide an argumentative essay
about an online discourse community. This project is different from the ethnographic study that
Kahn described in his essay in the sense that the one that Kahn described is based on a real life
study whereas the one the project asks us to look at is based on a virtual, online community.
Therefore there are certain nuances in observation that is needed to be kept in mind when dealing
with the project. One similarity with Kahn’s description of ethnographic writing is that while

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doing this project, we will also have to observe, record and analyze our observations. Therefore
in essence, albeit an observation of an online and virtual culture, we will be performing an
ethnographic study of people in an online community.
2. Kahn’s essay mentions consent forms, and while you won’t be conducting interviews for
this project (so there is no need to collect forms), it’s important that you keep in mind
ethics of representation. In your own words, define ethics of representation and describe
how they apply to Project #2. What can you do to make sure you are behaving ethically as
a researcher while completing Project #2? Be specific.
Ethics of representation are basic principles that reflect certain social values and
ideologies. That includes making sure that our research does not infringe the personal space and
values of the people that we are involved with during the research, either as a supporting body or
participants. Kahn (2011) mentions about consent forms in his essay, which are required in an
ethnographic study especially when we, as researchers are directly involved with the people in
the study. However, in project #2, given that it is a study on an online community, explicit
consent would not be required. Even then, principles of ethics do come into play in this regard in
forms of potential infringement of personal space, revelation of personal information etc.
(Kaiser, 2009). For instance, I have to consider that while writing my observation records of the
online community, I do not cross over a line that prevents me from revealing personal
information about the people I am observing. Confidentiality and anonymity are two crucial
ethical considerations and they become relevant even in the current case (Kaiser, 2009; Wang,
2013). Keeping this aspect of personal online privacy in mind is what I have to do make sure that
I behave ethically as a researcher while completing project #2.

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3. In Haller’s text, the character Online Professor (O-Prof) states that “A bigger problem
with Internet search engines, though, is that they won’t necessarily lead you to the sources
considered most valuable for college writing” (p. 197). What does she mean? Explain.
Haller (2011) refers to the issue of receiving too many results when using the internet as a
source of information for the research. Search engines like Google, work with the help of
algorithms that look at the keywords that is being typed in the search engines, and look up results
on the web. It will therefore reveal all results that have the keywords in them. The internet is a
large reservoir of information and what Heller (2011) means by the statement is that not all of
the sources from where the information are coming, will be useful for the research. Looking at
project #2 for instance, if I want to search “discourse analysis of a Facebook community” I am
provided with results that point towards facebook.com as a source as well, simply because the
keyword is provided, but that is not a relevant source at all. This is where narrowing down the
search provides better and more reliable results.
4. Using the critique model and examples provided on pages 204-207 of Haller’s article,
break down Project #2 into “ingredients,” “processes,” and “product.”
Breaking down Project #2 based on the critique model provided by Haller (2011, pp. 204
- 207), I am left with the following structure.
Project information: Observation and record of an online discourse community.
Ingredients:
Every source on understanding an ethnographic research, sources that discuss how people
interact on various social media, more reliable sources include those that talk about the same

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from a behavioural and cognitive perspective as well as highlights a cultural aspect of the same,
classroom discussion records and materials / resources that have been given in the same.
Processes:
Firstly, I will read the sources on ethnographic study to understand the process in detail.
Afterwards, I will also look at what the other sources regarding online communities have to say
in terms of the behaviour of the people over there. Afterwards, I will collectively analyse these
aspects, look for nuances that I have to follow regarding my research topic. I will also keep
ethical considerations in mind throughout the research.
Products:
The final essay will highlight my observations and analyses regarding people’s behavior on the
internet, particularly with respect to how differently people present themselves online as
compared to offline and in real life communities. It will consist of a few specific elements, which
general essays follow in terms of formatting, however, it will also include a section where the
ethical considerations are explained.
5. Research Question
What are the differences in discourse level of social media platforms like Facebook,
Twitter etc. when compared against how people communicate in real life?

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6. Locate one source that you will include in your Annotated Bibliography (and, ultimately,
in your Project #2 essay). Next, describe your process for finding it. Did you use Tech’s
databases? Google Scholar? Why? How do you know the source is scholarly? Explain.
I will use the following source in my annotated bibliography:
What is a discourse approach to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social media:
connecting with other academic fields? By Gwen Bouvier (2015).
In order to find this source, I used Google Scholar as a tool. I searched for the keywords
‘online discourse community’, ‘Facebook’, ‘Culture’, ‘Discourse’, etc. Finally I filtered the
search to show results of recent research only from year 2014 onwards. There are two reasons
behind using Google Scholar as a tool. Firstly, it will give me a result that I can use as a source
in my annotated bibliography as well as the research and secondly, there will be other results that
I can use and that will give me a different perspective, more specifically from a viewpoint that I
was not even looking for, for instance a political discourse perspective, something that many
people engage in.
7. Using the reading strategies described by Rosenberg, and writing it in your own words,
identify the main argument or idea.
The main argument or idea that the source highlights is how people on social media
engage in a multicultural discourse. The study points out that recent research in the field of
discourse analysis has provided little results in terms of aspects like language, identity, cross
cultural relations as well as power and social status (Bouvier, 2015), more specifically from the
perspective of online, social media based discourses. Furthermore, the study also looks at how

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social media platforms can be used to explore the nuances of cross cultural communication that
exist in a real versus a virtual world.
8. Using the Purdue OWL as a guide, cite your source using APA.
Bouvier, G. (2015). What is a discourse approach to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other
social media: connecting with other academic fields? Journal of Multicultural
Discourses, 10(2), 149 – 162.
Journal 4.
Observation Log.
Your name:
Name of discourse community: Online Social Network (Facebook) Discourse Community.
Date of observation: 19-01-2020
Time of observation: 8 am – 11 pm.
Duration of observation: 15 hours
Observations Thoughts
In the observation of social media actions of
people, it was found that the people who
actively interact on platforms like Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram, can be classified into a
few specific categories.
One particular type of people post more
photos and posts about themselves, in the
format of a blog, capturing the highlights of
their day or about things that they are
interested about. These include mostly food
This type of people seem to care less about
forms of political discourse and are more or
less concerned with following the general
trends of popularity.

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and fashion, followed by new locations.
Another category of people engage in a lot of
discourse about current socio-political
situations and environmental concerns. Their
posts and comments are more in line with that
of an activist.
Another category of people are more inclined
towards popular form of humor, like memes.
There are a lot of memes on Facebook that
can be found every day, from a variety of
topics like movies and television and personal
behavior.
It is also noticed that memes often collide
with activism, where people promote social,
political and environmental concerns in the
form of memes.
In terms of comments on posts, people tend to
be more aggressive while typing a comment.
Some people tend to post comments that
downright disagree with the content of the
post, however, when asked about the source
of their information, they either back out or
continue to redirect the conversation by using
some form of logically fallacious argument.
More people engage politically on social
media than in real life.
This category of people seem to be divided
into either being genuinely concerned about
socio-political factors or are following trends
only to sound important.
People sharing memes and jokes usually
follow pages that deal with a lot of memes
and jokes. Thus it seems that popularity is not
their concern, but following a particular trend
of online humor definitely

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Discussion Board Post #2 and Replies.
Project #2 essay rough draft.
Introduction.
This essay looks at the observations made on a social media platform (Facebook) for a period of
24 hours, from the perspective of a discourse community. Facebook as a digital community is
looked at and the observations are analyzed in terms of how people utilize the platform to
interact within a virtual community, including the kinds of posts that are shared, the kinds of
comments made, posts liked, pages referred and photos and content uploaded etc.
Literature Review.
Ethnographic study based on an online social media platform is a difficult achievement
for researchers. In a study, Airoldi (2018) focuses on the short time span of content of social
media and points out how qualitative research struggles to understand online social media
behavior from an ethnographic perspective. Drawing context from data generated on the web and
the content based customization for individual users, the interaction of people on social media
changes (ibid).
From a cultural perspective as well, there are elements that come into play, which
highlight how people tend to use social media as a virtual simulation of their real life. Keeping
that in perspective, Bouvier (2015) highlights how the social media use, in terms of cultural
elements like language, social status, power, identity and cross cultural relations, are different for
people on the web and in real life.

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Concerning ethnographic observations and analyses in the context of social media, it
becomes important to also understand that the people’s individual personalities also become
relevant. In a 2010 research, it was highlighted that while extraverted men and women are both
equal users of social media, emotional instability in people played a bigger role in deciding the
regularity of social media use (Correa, Hinsley & De Zuniga, 2010). The research looks at the
big five personality traits and reaches the conclusion that certain aspects of personality are
negative predictors for social media use while some others were positive.
The content of social media prompts the thought that the users expect a form of return
from the content they are sharing. Whiting and Williams (2013) looks at social media from the
perspective of gratification and emotional returns, and highlights ten specific uses and
gratifications for social media use, including information gathering, entertainment and
relaxation, communication and expression of opinion.
Methodology.
Observation of a Facebook account was done on a 24 hour period, with 15 hours of active
checking ranging from logging in every 15 minutes to one hour. Posts, comments and photos /
videos shared by people were observed and recorded.
Ethical considerations.
In case of an ethnographic observation of an online discourse community, anonymity
plays a critical role, given there are no explicit participants to take consent from. I have therefore
ensured that the people whose profiles and actions I observe, are kept anonymous throughout the
research. I have also ensured inactivity on my part to reduce any form of influence on the data,
given I am merely an observer.

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Results.
The results showed a diverse range of expression from different people. The observation
showed that people can largely be classified into several categories in terms of their acts, ranging
from vlogging and blogging based actions, to political discourse or humor.

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References.
Airoldi, M. (2018). Ethnography and the digital fields of social media. International Journal of
Social Research Methodology, 21(6), 661-673.
Bouvier, G. (2015). What is a discourse approach to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other
social media: connecting with other academic fields? Journal of Multicultural
Discourses, 10(2), 149 – 162.
Correa, T., Hinsley, A. W., & De Zuniga, H. G. (2010). Who interacts on the Web?: The
intersection of users’ personality and social media use. Computers in human
behavior, 26(2), 247-253.
Haller, C. R. (2011). Walk, Talk, Cook, Eat: A Guide to Using Sources. Writing Spaces:
Readings on Writing, 193.
Kahn, S. (2011). Putting ethnographic writing in context. Writing spaces: Readings on
writing, 2, 175-192.
Kaiser, K. (2009). Protecting respondent confidentiality in qualitative research. Qualitative
health research, 19(11), 1632-1641.
Rosenberg, K. (2011). Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources. Writing
Spaces: Readings on Writing, 2, 210-20.
Wang, X. (2013). The construction of researcher–researched relationships in school
ethnography: Doing research, participating in the field and reflecting on ethical
dilemmas. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 26(7), 763-779.

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Whiting, A., & Williams, D. (2013). Why people use social media: a uses and gratifications
approach. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 16(4), 362-369.