Question: Discipline Awareness Presentation
The purpose of this assignment is for you to become more familiar with the interests, goals, research methods, and information dissemination channels associated with the primary discipline you are pursuing. As we noted in class, disciplines are not just collections of information, they also provide specific (though evolving) assumptions about and perspectives on the world. In addition, they have their own, unique rhetorical situations. Therefore, to write effectively in your discipline, you need to be familiar with it and the expectations of those who will be reading your work.
These presentations will take place over the course of two days. Approximately 14 students will present on Wednesday, October 10. The remaining eight students will present on Wednesday, October 17. Order will be determined by drawing names from a hat, so everyone must be prepared to present on 10/10. Presentations must last between six and seven minutes and include a visual aid (a Power Point, a Prezi, etc.). Each presentation must cite at least five credible sources; a reference page must be included on the final slides. Presentations should explain most of the following information:
- The discipline on which you are presenting
- The discipline's primary object(s) of study
- The key questions and types of questions asked by scholars in the discipline
- Some of the overarching goals of the discipline
- The methods scholars in the discipline use to study the phenomena of interests to them (quantitative, qualitative, mixed); provide some specifics
- The primary approaches to sharing new ideas and knowledge with other scholars
Quick Note Part I: Do not confuse your major your discipline. While majors often directly correlate to a discipline, that is not always the case. For example, if you are an English major at Mason, there are four different disciplines you may be pursuing: Literature, Linguistics, Creative Writing, or Rhetoric.
Quick Note Part II: Some students may be pursuing an established interdisciplinary field that draws on more than one discipline. Examples of such fields include, but are not limited to, cultural studies, women's studies, conflict analysis, global affairs, and film and media studies. If that's the case, treat the interdisciplinary field in the same way you would a discipline (answering the questions above as you would for any discipline), but you may also want to include a discussion of the disciplines from which the field of study evolved.
Quick Note Part III: If you do not present on October 10, you CANNOT change the visual aid before you present on October 10. This would be an unfair advantage.