To examine your own writing and reflect on your development as a writer. Context of this Project Up until this point, we have been making theories in a vacuum. Granted, the feedback of your peers and your discussions with me ensured that your thinking would not go unchallenged, but your theory was not competing with theories of others in your discussion of the issues. In academic writing, it is assumed that, ultimately, you will bring in the theories of others. It is assumed that you will join the on-going discussion.
Academic discourse represents a large, written conversation that unfolds over time.
To enter this discussion means to respond to the people who have already been speaking. Over the course of the semester, you have gathered and studied evidence related to literacy. You have studied how a group communicates, and you have thought about how their communication reflects their cultural values and knowledge. At this point, you can speak with some expertise about these issues. In the final project, you will use this expertise to set your thinking in relation to the thinking of published writers.