I furthered this inquiry by using a text that pushes students toward the type of rhetorical inquiry and metacognition that Kirscht and others advocate. In my classes, I have used the socially-based rhetoric, The Writer's Community . There are questions geared toward analysis of a group's shared body of information, modes of inquiry, arguments, evidence, genres, language, style and relationship to audience. To get at the answers to these questions, the book suggests that students interview a professor in their major field or locate a journal in their discipline. While talking to a specialist and reading a journal in the field can give students insight into their disciplinary communities, joining a discipline-based discussion group can make them actual participants in the conversations going on in that field.
Technology increases accessibility to groups and more importantly their discourse.
The goal of having students join a discussion group is to familiarize them with the discourse conventions and topics of their chosen fields of interest. Students explore audience, rhetorical strategies and discourse conventions they found in the discussions. They attempt to situate themselves in the community of their profession or discipline and come to understand how such communities are built and maintained. The information they gather on the group they've joined then feeds into the final assignment, a research paper on a topic in their field of interest. Students can use their groups as sounding boards for some of the questions they need to answer.