Research Proposal for the Discourse Community Project
The goal of your research proposal is to 1) make sure you are heading in the right direction, and 2) get you thinking in detail about how you will complete your Discourse Community Project without yet requiring you to produce a refined product. Review the appropriate discourse communities you can choose under the prompt for the Discourse Community Project. Briefly (under 150 words for each question) answer the following questions:
- Identify and briefly describe the discourse community you wish to study. Why have you selected it, and what do you want to learn about it by studying its forms of communication? What experiences (if any) do you already have with this community?
The discourse community to be studied in the discourse project is the business organizations community. Business organizations form one of the primary targets for cyber attacks. This is due to the level of vulnerability that exists among business organizations. These organizations in the contemporary world have incorporated the available technological systems and procedures in managing their knowledge systems in processing, storing, and retrieving. However, there exist several weak links within these organizations that can be exploited by cybercriminals in gaining access into their systems to conduct their unethical practices, which always results in financial losses and reputational damage. These weak links present themselves in the form of unprotected websites as well as unsuspecting employees with essential log in details into an organization’s website containing sensitive information like consumers’ private information and classified files used in gaining a competitive edge within the industry. It is only through proper cyber threat analysis that these organizations can be able to identify potential loopholes that can be exploited by cybercriminals.
- What forms of communication (discourse) are important to this community and its members to achieve their goals? What text(s) do you expect to collect and analyze for your genre analysis? Why do you think this genre is important to this community, and what do you hope to learn about this discourse community by analyzing this genre?
The form of communication utilized among business organizations in most cases is a written form of communication. This specific form of communication is mostly preferred among companies, given its flexibility in accommodation authentication in the form of unique company seals and individual signatures. It also allows for storage for future references in case there is a need. Authenticity and storage for future references are essential aspects of business communication that cannot be ignored. In relation to genre analysis, the most commonly used genre among this specific community is reports. There are several reports, including financial reports and situation analysis report, among other reports. Specifically, the situation analysis report is the most commonly used in relaying an organization’s cybersecurity position to the stakeholders and in relaying the available job opportunity. These reports always contain specific information in regards to the progress an individual business has made in regards to ensuring its system is safe from this particular threat. Additionally, these reports also contain an organization’s vision and mission in regard to ensuring it is safe from cybersecurity threats while responding to the different technological advancements within its environment. These are always essential in bringing on board competent employees that can ensure the company meets its objectives.
- If you are going to conduct an interview, what kind of member of your discourse community do you plan to interview? Why have you selected this kind of member Describe what you already know about them. Based on the due dates outlined in the syllabus, by what date do you plan to contact this person, and by what date will you interview them?
The project will utilize the interview as its preferred data collection technique. The participants will be cybersecurity experts. The chosen cybersecurity experts should be individuals who have successfully managed their organization’s cybersecurity challenges. The reason behind the selection of the type of respondents is to ensure adequate conformity to the objectives of the research. Cybersecurity experts are always responsible for ensuring an organization is free from cybersecurity threats. Through this, they have deep knowledge in regards to the past, present, and possible future trends within this specific area. These information are crucial in correctly discerning the scope and nature of cybersecurity threats business organizations are up against.
Additionally, cybersecurity experts are also exposed to robust knowledge in regard to the manner in which organizations should handle their cybersecurity issues. Through this, they can be quite informative on how businesses respond to these trends. The respondents fitting the above selection criteria will be first contacted on ……….. after which arrangements will be made in relation to scheduling the interview. The interview will be conducted within two weeks from the date of their reply and acceptance to participate.
- Besides the Swales article and the genre analysis, the prompt outlines you to use two additional scholarly sources if you are not conducting and interview, and one scholarly source if you are. Briefly describe the scholarly sources do you plan to use and how do you think they will help you understand communication in this discourse community. Include the title and authors of the source(s).
According to Luzón (p 5), the social constructionist perspective in analyzing community discourse is another successful approach apart from the swales’ article. This was in his study aimed at analyzing the different aspects of technical communication. Through this approach, professional communication is perceived to represent social constructs and not just as objective and neutral writing. In his support of the above statement, Lozon proposed that technical writing should accommodate the technology to the user and not just an identification of the linguistic features and formats as well as the objective of the writing. The study further observes the need for identifying the existing practices in the group the writer originates from as well as the practices in the groups the writer intends to communicate to. This additional perspective is equally essential in understanding the communication among business organizations given its clear approach to appreciation and accommodation of existing cultures among businesses and their audiences.
- If you are going to conduct an interview, create a list of possible interview questions that will help you understand the 6 criteria for a discourse community within your community and the importance of the genre(s) you will examine. Since your interviewee will be unfamiliar with writing studies vocabulary, avoid using jargon from our class such as “discourse community,” “mechanisms of participation,” “genre,” etc. List at least 5 for your rough draft of this proposal and 10 for your final draft.
Questions for the rough draft
- What do you always try to jointly achieve as stakeholders within this business
- How do you communicate among yourselves as stakeholders within this business
- How fit is your communication strategies in relaying information and receiving feedback
- What is the position that cybersecurity experts hold within your specific industry
- Can you please let me know some of the common but unique phrases you always use as cybersecurity experts
Questions for the final draft
- What do you always try to jointly achieve as stakeholders within this business
- Are these common goals anchored within the organization’s culture
- How do you communicate among yourselves as stakeholders within this business
- Are there any other preferred forms of communications within your organization apart from those that you have mentioned
- How fit is your communication strategies in relaying information and receiving feedback
- Do you always experience any form of challenges like delays
- How intense does your organization utilize online information management system
- What is the position that cybersecurity experts hold within your specific industry
- Has your industry phased cybersecurity threats? If yes, please let us know how it was handled and the mechanisms put in place to ensure your organization overcomes such threat in future
- Can you please let me know some of the common but unique phrases you always use as cybersecurity experts
- How often do you utilize these phrases within your organization?
- What kind of online and / or visual presence does your discourse community have? Perform a Google search for your discourse community. Share at least three of your search results. (Be sure to state if your discourse community does or does not have an official website.)
Figure 1 Cybersecurity analyst at ASRC Federa
Figure 2 Cybersecurity Analyst at Ledios
Figure 3 Cybersecurity Analyst at People Tec
The above captions represent three business organizations that are advertising cybersecurity analysis job opportunities online. These demonstrate the heavy presence of business organizations in web-based communication systems. Through this, stakeholders can easily access these information from the internet. Additionally, it demonstrates how several business organizations in Alabama conduct the majority of their operations through their websites.
Work cited
Luzón, María José. Genre Analysis in Technical Communication. Professional Communication, IEEE Transactions on. 2005., 48. 285 – 295. 10.1109/TPC.2005.853937.