Process Step: Research
Learning Outcomes: Gain experience blending variations in Englishes for specific audiences and purposes; Gain experience engaging respectfully with and being open to diverse perspectives and ideas that may challenge preconceptions.
Instructional Materials: Before beginning, review the following:
Profile Project Description and Rubric
Module 4 Learning Materials
This assignment will help you organize all the research data you’ve gathered so far and figure out what takeaway you want to highlight about your chosen business or organization. Remember, primary research data on your selected business or organization will be the foundation of the profile assignment. The hands-on, personal primary research you’ll collect for this assignment is different from the passive secondary digital research you did for the Profile Topic Proposal assignment or the Learning About And Applying the Rhetorical Situation assignment. Gathering strong primary research requires you to actively engage with your chosen business or organization and the people essential to the takeaway of your profile.
Step 1: Primary Research Data Collection
Choose one or more of the following primary research methods:
Interview members of the business or organization.
Interview patrons, supporters, or other community members involved with the business or organization.
Gather observational data while visiting the business or organization.
Note: Interviews can be conducted in any way most convenient for you and your subject: in person, on Zoom, over the phone, via email or text messaging, etc.
Spend a minimum of one hour compiling interview and/or observational primary research data. Try to gather as many different types of primary research data as you can. For example, you might conduct a 20-minute interview, visit the physical location for 30 minutes, and analyze the website for 10 minutes. The more—and more varied—primary research data you get, the stronger your project will be.
Slow down your thinking and expand your ways of “seeing” your subject. Don’t rush through this data collection.
If you’re collecting observational data by visiting the business/organization, sit and observe (taking “headnotes”) for a while before you begin jotting down written observations. Critical thinking happens slowly, with careful attention to details.
If you’re conducting interviews, consider recording the interview, using either audio or video. This allows you to listen carefully as the subject talks rather than trying to quickly write down what they say. Careful listening is crucial to asking meaningful follow-up, probing, and specifying questions.
Step 2: Attach “Raw” Interview or Observational Data
This part of the assignment requires you to share the “raw data” you collected. Remember, ideally this will be at least an hour’s worth of raw material collected *during* your interviews or observations, not material constructed afterwards from memory. Photographs you yourself have taken can be included as raw data.
If you conducted interviews, please do the following:
If you collected audio of your observation or the interview, attach or hyperlink to the audio file(s).
If you recorded video, attach or hyperlink to the video file.
If you wrote in a notebook with a pen as you collected data, scan in those pages or provide screenshots of them.
If you typed notes on a laptop, attach a Word file or PDF.
If you conducted observational research, please do the following:
If you wrote in a notebook with a pen as you collected data, scan in those pages or screenshots of them.
If you typed notes on a laptop, attach a Word file or PDF (or paste the notes in the submission area—but *not* in the “Comments” area).
If you also collected audio notes, attach the audio file(s).
If you recorded video, attach or hyperlink to the video file.
Step 3: Synthesize Raw Data
Now that you have spent some time compiling initial primary research data on the business or organization, spend time reflecting on what your primary research means.
List the name of the business or organization you’ve chosen at the top of your assignment submission. Include a clickable hyperlinkLinks to an external site. to their website or social media page.
Next, compose a paragraph of at least 250 words explaining what you have learned from your primary research, identifying the central takeaway you’re aiming for in your profile. This paragraph should not simply restate your “raw” data in narrative form, but should explain what significant ideas you learned and how they will inform your profile’s way of showing your business or organization.
Step 4: Thesis Statement
Compose a 1-2 sentence revised thesis statement introducing the key takeaway/main idea of your profile. Mark your thesis statement clearly at the end of your submission. Consider the following questions as you create your thesis statement:
What value does your target business or organization contribute to your community?
What is interesting or memorable about your subject that you want to communicate to your readers?
Submission Requirements
Your submission will include the following four components:
The name of your chosen business/organization with a clickable hyperlinkLinks to an external site. to their website/social media.
The raw data you collected during your primary research.
A 250-word reflection on the significance of the raw data you collected.
Your 1-2 sentence thesis statement.
Text files must be a Word file or PDF. For your raw data, you can include other types of files (images, audio, video) as hyperlinks within your Word file or PDF or in their native format. Note that hyperlinks must link to a file or page on the internet, not on your personal computer. You can also include your raw data as images (photos, scans, etc.) pasted directly within your reflection document. Reach out to your instructor if you have any questions about submitting your raw data.
All written work should be in a 12-pt font and double-spaced.
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