In the epigram above George and Trimbur write about a particular kind of public space--schools--but their point is relevant for all public spaces. That is, a hidden “curriculum” so to speak structures how we act in any given space. The content, like that of educational spaces, is unstated but there are clear unspoken beliefs and procedures that regulate what may and may not be done and said in a particular public space. And those unspoken beliefs and procedures vary from one space to the next. Consider, for example, what may be said and done in a formal restaurant vs. a fastfood chain vs. a movie theater vs. a house of worship vs. a department store, etc. How do we learn the unstated? Two of the ways that the unspoken (or “taken-for-grantedness”) becomes obvious are: when someone crosses the unstated cultural rules governing that space or when we first enter an unfamiliar space and are apt to become that “someone” who breaks the unspoken cultural rules. This project will give you an opportunity to examine and write about one or more of the unspoken beliefs and procedures that regulate the cultural spaces you have been analyzing for Projects #1, 2 and 3. For this project, you will need to defamiliarize the familiar both for yourself in order to analyze and write and also for your readers to better understand the power of the unstated.

Rationale: In his book Key Words, Raymond Williams notes, “Culture is ordinary; that is where we must start.” Reflecting on culture, then, means examining the world that surrounds us, the spaces we inhabit and the social experiences that shape us and those of various groups that occupy those spaces. It involves discovering relations among beliefs and practices that encourage some social groups to participate and can discourage, if not bar, other groups. The unspoken rules that dictate what may be said and done as well as who may speak and act in any given public space are all the more powerful because they are unstated. Learning to write means learning the unstated beliefs and practices that govern what may be said, who may say it and how it may be said in any given situation. The tricky part is that these rhetorical configurations vary across and within spaces. Entering new cultural spaces (whether academic, professional, civic, or personal) requires learning how to think, act and speak/write like those who already inhabit the space. This project helps you develop strategies for analyzing the “unstated” that can serve you now and in the future for participating in the discourses (whether spoken or written) of the many other cultural spaces into which you will step.

Assignment: Project 4 is the last in a four-part sequence of projects through which you are exploring the representation of American culture of one location through different lens. For the first project, you analyzed a virtual space that is connected to a local physical space. For the second project, you studied the actual physical site that is connected to that virtual website. For the third project, you studied the history of one aspect of that cultural space. In sum, you have conducted three very different kinds of inquiries: a textual analysis of electronic visual and verbal discourse, an ethnographic study of a cultural site, and an historical analysis. These different lens called for different kinds of examination that should have led you to different understandings of the cultural spaces you have been exploring. For this project, you will return to the work you did for the last three projects to reflect on the unspoken cultural rules that govern the virtual, physical and historical spaces you have been studying.

In your paper, you will explicate one or more of the unstated beliefs and procedures that regulate activities, discourse and participants in the cultural spaces you have been studying. That is, you will consider what acts are allowed, what can be said and how it can be said, and who is allowed to speak and act in these spaces. Your explication will then permit you to discuss the implications of how cultural spaces are constructed to both invite and deter certain actions, discourses and people. In your analysis, you might further consider how misunderstandings and arguments erupt when someone knowingly or unknowingly transgresses the cultural rules.

As with the first three projects, you will complete a series of invention activities (heuristics) to help you conduct and write up your analysis. These activities are sequenced to help you move through the process of analyzing and writing but you will no doubt find yourself returning to some of them as you write.

Paper: You will write a 3-5 page paper to present your analysis to a targeted audience you select who can use this information. The form of the paper will depend on the rhetorical situation you construct: the audience, the purpose (and the main lesson) and the context in which the piece would appear.

Hint: Don’t wait till the last minute to do the analysis and writing for this project. You will need to give yourself time to examine the data you collected for the last three projects and to think through your analysis. The invention activities are sequenced to help you pace your work, so don’t circumvent these.
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1. Review your data (notes and previous papers) to examine who is encouraged to participate in the spaces you have explored, and who is discouraged. Begin by looking for notes that show who appears in the spaces. Consider the following attributes:
 

First note who is there. Then make a list of who is missing. How do you explain the absences of certain groups of people? Can you identify an unspoken belief or practice that discourages their participation?

2. Review your data to examine what kinds of practices or actions are permitted in the space and those that are not allowed. Begin by looking at what you have found going on in the spaces and then consider what you haven’t seen there. Try the following activity:

  Select a site that is very different from the one you have been studying. For example, suppose you have been looking at a retail store; a very different kind of place might be, e.g., a house of worship, a sports arena, a nature preserve, etc. Make a list of the kinds of activities you have seen in the spaces you’ve been studying and a list of the kinds you would expect in the alternative space. Now imagine what would happen if the kinds of activities you have noted taking place in the space you’ve been studying were transported to this alternative space? What unspoken beliefs or rules would be broken? What would happen if someone were to engage in one or more of these behaviors in that other space? Jot down your responses to these questions.

3. Review your data to examine the kinds of discourses permitted and those discouraged in the space. What can be said there and how can it be said? In what ways would these discourses be out of place or inappropriate in an alternative space (you might use the alternative site you used for prompt 2).

4. In one or more sentences, sum up your findings from the first three prompts. What does the data you generated through these suggest about the unspoken beliefs and practices that guide what can and cannot go on in the space, who can and cannot participate, and what can and cannot be said there.
 

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Responding to the prompts for Heuristic One probably revealed gaps in your notes concerning the unstated rules regulating behavior, people, and discourse. For this heuristic, jot down information you need to gather from one or more of the spaces you have been studying. Return to those spaces (as needed) to fill in the wholes in your notes.

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know what you’re talking about, etc., etc.)

2. Articulate the belief that seems to underlie this rule. For instance, suppose you were studying an expensive needlework shop, and you noticed that the sales people were not very responsive to novices who did not already seem to know how to do fancy stitching. The unstated rule may be “Know what you are talking about.” The belief underlying it may be something to the effect that: “it is not worth time or effort to deal with customers who do not know the art of needlework because they are not likely to be repeat customers nor will the be likely to be interested in spending a great deal of money on material and tools. We are in the business of making money and time is afterall money.”

3. Repeat steps one and two for several more unspoken rules and unstated beliefs.

4. Now consider these rules and beliefs in relation to who is encouraged to participate and who is not. How do these unspoken systems of rules and beliefs operate to invite some and disinvite others? (Consider, for example, that a virtual website assumes that one has the economic power to have access to and the ability to use a computer. Those who don’t are shutout. Similarly, consider malls that are not served by public transportation. These assume that people have access to cars or can afford taxis.)

5. Finally, consider the web of rules and beliefs in relation to what is allowed to be said and how it can be said. (Consider, for example, how much discourse is tolerated at a movie theater when the film is running vs. what is allowed when you rent a video in your own home.)

6. Think of a time when you transgressed a cultural rule governing a public space either because you were new to the space or because you chose to transgress it (e.g., loud giggling in a house of worship, not lining up properly at a store or other business, wearing an outfit that was frowned on at school by either peers or teachers, etc.). What happened? What did you learn from this?

7. Speculate on how people learn to participate in cultural spaces? Where and when do we learn where we can go, what we can say and what we can do?

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In this paper, you are mining the data you collected and wrote about in your last three papers in order to consider the “hidden curriculum” of the virtual, public and historical spaces that you have been studying. The information you have generating by completing heuristics 1-3 for this project provides yet more data to help you think through and write about this issue. The prompts below will help you figure out how to write the paper.

1. Developing the Rhetorical Situation

 A. Focus: Review the data generated by the heuristics, looking for patterns, and the data you collected to write the last three papers. What are some of the major points about the hidden curriculum: who is encouraged to participate and who is discouraged? what actions are tolerated and not tolerated? how do people learn these things? Summarize one major point you wish to get across from your analyses. Can this point form the basis of your paper? or will it serve as only one section? If the latter, what other major points can you make? If the former, what sub-points do you need to address to get at the major one?

 B. Purpose: Based on your major point, what is the purpose you wish to pursue in this paper (inform? persuade? challenge? entertain? or some combination?)

 C. Audience: Who will be best served by this information? Who will learn something? Those who own the spaces? Those use them? Those who are on the margins of them? Who else? Which of these groups would best serve your intended purpose(s) for this paper? Why would they read this? Would their purpose for reading match your purpose for writing?

 D. Context: List possible contexts where your targeted audience might read your paper (e.g., publishing outlets--magazine, newspaper, popular books, scholarly journal or book; glossy brochures, on the web, etc.) Given the context, what do you need to consider in writing up your paper?

Remember that audiences, purposes and contexts work in tandem with each other. Writing is always written for someone, for some purpose and for a particular outlet. You may have a strong sense of why you want to write this paper, to whom and where it would show up. If not, review the above lists and add to them until you arrive at an appropriate and useful rhetorical situation for your purposes.

2. Deciding on a Form for the Paper

As with any writing, the form depends on the rhetorical situation. Since you are using data you’ve already collected, including the papers you’ve written, you might quote from your earlier work to illustrate the points you are making. Be sure to include a list of works cited if you do use quotes. You might also consider whether visuals would be useful (e.g., sketches, maps, screen prints of web sites, etc.). Your organization of the paper will be tied to your purpose, audience and the context. You might make several scratch outlines to play with different orders to see which most effectively address these aspects of the rhetorical situation you constructed.

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