Rhetoric and Composition
This online, interactive text introduces and develops understanding of the ethnographic research and writing processes.
AUTHOR: Ritassida M. Djiguimde, PhD
This lesson defines ethnography among other research genres and explains how ethnographic research and writing is done. The lesson ends with the “selecting a subculture” assignment.
This lesson introduces different types of secondary sources along with secondary research tools. The end-of-lesson assignment is a review of four secondary sources about the researched subculture.
This lesson introduces observation as a primary research instrument. “A Day in the Subculture,” the lesson assignment, is a paper based on repeated observations of an ethnographic scene.
This lesson introduces interviewing as a primary research instrument. The lesson assignment, “Talking to Insiders,” is a paper based on two unstructured interviews with insiders of the researched subculture.
Note from the author: This course management system/e-text is the product of many semesters teaching ethnographic research and developing course materials. Ethnography: Research and Writing incorporates course assignment sheets, sample student papers, homework assignments and in-class activities, course lectures, and submission slots for turning in your papers and homework and for getting feedback from the instructor. Every course-related activity happens on this portal. This course management system/e-text is a true example of the textbook and the classroom merged and re-imagined.
Ethnography: Research & Writing
This online, interactive text introduces and develops understanding of the ethnographic research and writing processes.
AUTHOR: Ritassida M. Djiguimde, PhD
This lesson defines ethnography among other research genres and explains how ethnographic research and writing is done. The lesson ends with the “selecting a subculture” assignment.
This lesson introduces different types of secondary sources along with secondary research tools. The end-of-lesson assignment is a review of four secondary sources about the researched subculture.
This lesson introduces observation as a primary research instrument. “A Day in the Subculture,” the lesson assignment, is a paper based on repeated observations of an ethnographic scene.
This lesson introduces interviewing as a primary research instrument. The lesson assignment, “Talking to Insiders,” is a paper based on two unstructured interviews with insiders of the researched subculture.
This lesson introduces the concept of artifact and discusses its importance in the fields of anthropology and ethnography. The lesson assignment is an analysis of a material or digital artifact that holds special meaning to insiders of the researched subculture.
This lesson introduces techniques for writing introductions and conclusions; for organizing the paper using different organization patterns; and for revising, editing, proofreading, and designing the term paper.The lesson assignment is an 8 to 12-page ethnographic paper, encompassing all the research and writing done in previous lessons.
Note from the author: This course management system/e-text is the product of many semesters teaching ethnographic research and developing course materials. Ethnography: Research and Writing incorporates course assignment sheets, sample student papers, homework assignments and in-class activities, course lectures, and submission slots for turning in your papers and homework and for getting feedback from the instructor. Every course-related activity happens on this portal. This course management system/e-text is a true example of the textbook and the classroom merged and re-imagined.
Technical Writing
This online, interactive text introduces and develops understanding of technical writing focusing on three genres: correspondences, proposals, and reports.
AUTHOR: Ritassida M. Djiguimde, PhD
This lesson introduces technical writing by focusing on its definition, its ethical and legal guidelines, its characteristics and its stronger emphasis on audience. The lesson ends with the Rhetorical Analysis Memorandum assignment in which you will identify a piece of technical writing and examine it for how it lives up to the characteristics of technical writing.
This lesson introduces the proposal genre while emphasizing the use of primary and secondary research in persuasion. The “Unsolicited Proposal,” the end-of-lesson assignment, invites students to use an effective design through the use of the design principles of alignment, contrast, proximity, and repetition.
This lesson introduces the recommendation report genre while emphasizing the use of definitions, descriptions, and instructions in technical writing. The recommendation report, the end-of-lesson assignment, invites students to respond to a client’s request for a recommendation. In this paper, students will propose options that could be potential courses of actions to the client’s problem and would recommend the best option after systematically weighing each against a set of methodologically determined criteria.
This lesson introduces the oral presentation genre. By presenting their proposals to their peers, students will cultivate the best practices of oral presentation as well as effective techniques for designing visual aids for presentations.
This e-text is not just an e-text in the traditional sense of the term. It is where you go to read any course-related materials, where you preview, view, and review classroom lectures, where you get your homework instructions and complete and submit them, where you go draft your papers often in collaboration with your classmates, where you go to submit your papers, and where you go to email the instructor. This e-text/course management system is a true example of the textbook and the classroom merged and re-imagined.