Ethnography Proposal

Okay Dr. Kapela I have chosen a ethnography proposal, which isn’t exactly connected with writing although it has to do the Ohio University. The discourse community I have chosen is the Ohio University Equestrian. This is my favorite club which I am currently apart of. I feel this would be a very good topic for this project because it is something I know much about, it would be easy for me to obtain an interview with one of my fellow members, and it covers the six characteristics John Swales discusses in his article. I am not quite sure if this would be considered a Discourse or discourse in my life yet, because I really do love being a part of this team; horses are considered essential to life, for me. Two days out of my week (Wednesday and Tuesday) are dedicated to this team. The whole team has bonded very well this year with all of the new members; I am one of these new members I speak of.   I thought it would be hard to find a discourse community which covered all these aspects that I am a part of, and then I realized this team would be a perfect topic for this project. This team has common public goals and requirement the entire team has to fulfill. Our members are constantly staying in contact with people within and without this discourse community, by email and text message. We have mechanisms in place required of our members to make sure everyone has constant feedback and so every member is receiving the same information. Some of this information is also given to the public, out of this discourse community ensuring our team has exposure. We have standards for accomplishing tasks. These tasks could include fundraising or charity work. The team has special lexis, which a member outside of our discourse might not be aware what this term means. Finally, the equestrian team has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content including the expertise we have compared to the novice riders. Coving all six aspects of a discourse community I feel this was a very good choice for a topic.