Purpose: To gather expertise about the DC you plan to enter when you graduate; to practice networking and interpersonal communication Audience:Your classmates and instructor Your submission must...

Purpose: To gather expertise about the DC you plan to enter when you graduate; to practice networking and interpersonal communication

Audience:Your classmates and instructor

Your submission must include:

• A typed transcriptof your interview, including the questions you asked and the interviewee's responses.


• A one-page reflection, discussing what you learned from the interview and how you will use the information for your DC Ethnography assignment.

Instructions: Reach out to any established member of your professional DC and set up an interview with them. The person could be a professor, either at UB or another institution, or it could be someone outside of academia. The interview may be conducted in person, over the phone, or online (such as via Zoom or Skype).

Use the interview to gather data about the discourse community and seek practical advice to offer new students that want to enter the major. Here are some of the questions that you might ask. Think rhetorically about how you would change or adapt these questions to fit your own purpose as well as the person you are interviewing:

• What possible careers are there for people with this major? What do the various careers have in common, and what is distinctive about each one?


• What are some of the common goals, values, and behaviors of the DC?


• How and where do members of the DC exchange feedback with one another?


• What genres (kinds of documents) do members produce? What are they used for?


• How can you recognize a fellow member of this DC?


• How are new members initiated and taught to “act like” members of the community?


• Why are some new members successful in the field and others not?


• What advice was most helpful to the interviewee when they were a new member?