1Description of your public

1/// Describe your public.  Your public should be related to your profession (or future profession). If you have no idea what your future profession is, choose one that is interesting to you.  If you have a public but are planning to switch careers, you can use these assignments to become more familiar with the profession you hope to enter.  

Your description should include:

Why is this public interesting to you?

Who the people/organizations (stakeholders) that constitute your public?

What makes this public unique—what do they share in common that holds them together?

What assumptions do you have about this public? What assumptions do people outside your public have about your public?

(12pt font, 1″ margins, single spaced).

2Directions: 

1. In one document, for each of the articles you find relating to your public, write a brief summary (3-5 sentences). Title each summary so I can tell which article the summary speaks to.  At the bottom of the document include a  centered heading that says”Works Cited” and under it list each article in APA style.  For help on how to list references in APA refer to the topics which begin with “Reference List” in the left side bar at this site: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/05/

2. Use the attachment feature to upload your summary document and copies of the articles you have read regarding this public.

3. Undergrad students should have a total of at least at leas.Feel free to

 upload supplementary articles, but remember they will not count toward the required number.

3.For one hour observe your public (or a section of your public) in a space which your public frequents. This requires you to spend time out of the classroom around town/campus/country/etc. Look for patterns in behavior, shared characteristics, differences, common events, etc.

Take lots of notes. Sketch if that is helpful.  If you take photos, do not take any photos that have children (<18 y/o) as that gets us in trouble with University ethics as children are protected and we would need permission from the University.

4 The assignment asks for you to follow active accounts which through powers of professorial fiat I am defining as an account that posts 5+ times in a week. Undergraduates, follow 10-15 active twitter  accounts related to your public.  Graduate students follow 20-30. Try to find out who the big players, leaders, squeaky wheels, etc. are in your public… those are the ones you want to find.Here is where the flexibility of between 10-15 (20-30) comes in… if one of your accounts you are following seems perfect, but then the owner of the account is abducted by aliens and stops posting, don’t panic! Just start following one of the other active accounts in your public.

To do this assignment I ask that you create a twitter account with a professional sounding name. Please do not use your, or your work’s, existing twitter account. If your work prohibits the use of social media, like twitter, or you are in a sensitive position in life where anonymity is necessary, please contact me and we will figure out a way for you to complete the assignment without creating an account.

Follow the accounts you’ve identified as being your public for 2 weeks and write a single spaced paper ,summarizing the different views, players, arguments, concerns, plans, etc. that these members of your public are tweeting about.  Try to think about how they are ordering things. What is the reason they are saying what they are saying? Use these tweets to map (figuratively) the ‘discourse’ of your public… by discourse I mean the practices and knowledges that make it possible for us to talk intelligently about a topic.

Remember! You need to convey the information you have learned from the tweets, not describe the assignment or rehash what your public is.  How you organize the tweets will inform how you write about your public.  Some people will use lists with each one being a category informed by their readings, some organize by themes/topics/events that are common in the tweets. Some people like to use mind maps and others like spreadsheets.  Some folks like calculus—if you try to summarize your findings in some crazy advance statistical model, I will ask you to rewrite it.  Yet, If you want to add a page that has descriptive statistics or correlations of word frequency or hashtag postings, feel free to.  That page would go after your list of twitter feeds you are following and doesn’t count toward the assignment’s page length.  Some stats are informative, so if you want, go right ahead. 

Your assignment should follow this format:

[Title] (very short description of public)

*Your name

[blank line]

Your Essay (, 

[New Page] 

[Title] “Twitter accounts and Tweets”

Name of twitter account

Real world name of account holder

List of tweets from account during your time frame (cut and paste from twitter)

Name of next twitter account

Real world name of account holder

List of tweets from account (cut and paste from twitter)

[repeat for each account]

Optional: 

Additional information which may include important pictures or graphics the account linked to. 

Statistics.

Your public

5/For your final paper, you will combine the research and writing you have already completed for the semester about your public, research, observation, and twitter.  You will add one final section. This final section will address a challenge that your public is facing.  This challenge could be, but is not limited to:

Change (present, immediate future, or long range) such things as:

• Policy
• Internal/Organizational
• External/Environmental/Market
• Obsolescence/Innovation
• Change in knowledge about your public or that your public relies upon

Uncertainty

• Intrinsic to your public/or an uncertain future
• Known Unknowns
• Resiliency/Capacity Buidling

Democratic Governance

• Something unique
• Conflicts
• Potential
• Downfalls
• Values, etc.

Format and structure

Your paper should frame the challenge in a manner that is informative to your reader and builds from the work you have already done. Once you frame the problem, you will present a solution that is rational and fits within how we have been talking about public discourse.  Remember the context is not just issues of governance, but also how to nurture a healthy democracy whether in education, the law, refugees, etc.

Fiction, science, historical case studies or fiction, and other genres are highly encouraged.  A traditional policy brief, white paper, or extended essay are also acceptable formats. If you choose the more traditional formats, you are allowed to rework your twitter assignment into a section of the paper—if it is appropriate and useful in framing your public’s challenge.

Page length is  

References

The more academic references, from class and beyond, the stronger your argument will be.  Remember your post early in the semester that had academic references included? Now is the time you can use them.  No matter how you decide to frame and address your public challenge, your paper should consider what you have learned from the academic research you have done, the class readings and discussions, and twitter feeds

There is no set number of references you must meet, but  Avoid presuppositions, assumptions, and personal opinions.  The only acceptable use of your opinion is when you present what your recommendations in addressing your public’s challenge—this recommendation should be clearly supported by your work.