Blog #5: Defining a Discourse Community

What is up homies? 

Tartar sauce. We back in this thang. It's been a while since I wrote one of these little blog thingies, so I'm just gonna let you know, right now, that this will be the greatest thing you will skim through. Kidding. 

Mr. John Swales

So let's just get to the really good stuff. A discourse community. It just screams excitement, doesn't it? No one really knows what a discourse community is or what it means, but I'm gonna take this entire blog to try and figure it out. John Swales is a professor and linguist who wrote a book called Genre Analysis. Cool right?! Woah settle down, don't get too excited! Swales dabbles in awesome things like language patterns and working with nonnative English speakers. 

According to Swales, there are 6 main characteristics that distinguish a discourse community. A discourse community is NOT a friend group, audience, or speech community. It's something else. Give me a few seconds while I come up with a good way of explaining this. A discourse community is "a group of people with a set of common goals, language, and interests" (Nordquist). I obviously couldn't figure out a good enough way to explain this. I'll just list the 6 characteristics in my own words. 

1. Set of common goals
2. Different way of intercommunication 
3. The members within the community engage in 2-way communication 
4. Uses one or more genres to reach goals
5. Genres and words specific for interaction within the community 
6. Some members maintain a level of expertise

All of these characteristics require language and writing to be specific to that particular community. Everyone within the discourse community has an understanding of all 6 of Swales' characteristics without even knowing. 

While I was reading this, I automatically thought of my fraternity. Yes, we do the same things as all the other sororities, but it is a fraternity. (Side note: My organization was based on the male fraternities of that time and was created before the term "sorority" was invented.) I'm not just saying that to be annoying, even if it may be. That would basically be like saying Coke is the same as Pepsi when it's not. If they were the same thing, they would be called the same thing. 

Back to what I was saying. Being in Pi Beta Phi puts me in a discourse community that may be similar to other greek organizations, but is specific to my fraternity. 

1. We share a set of common goals that include raising money for our philanthropy, creating lifelong friendships, and growing personally and intellectually
2. Intercommunication occurs in group chats, Facebook, and weekly chapter meetings
3. 2-way communication allows information to get to all members in the house
4. Different genres used include Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram
5. Specific terms used within the community include mottos TO*T and P*L
6. Members of expertise are executive board, other boards and committees, and initiated members 

Because all 6 of Swales’characteristics are fulfilled with my fraternity, I believe that it could definitely be considered a discourse community. We all have common goals and use the same mechanisms for the communicating with each other. We have our own lexis that we use to refer to different things. Only people within the organization or have been a part of it would know what is being talked about.

It is interesting that you can be in many different discourse communities and be completely unaware of it. While the Swales excerpt may have been drier than California's drought, I did learn a little about the importance of knowing that discourse communities play an important role in each and everyone of our lives. I still have a hard time defining where else a discourse community is in my life. I feel like I would have to go through an extensive amount of looking into the background of the community to fully decide whether or not it is actually a discourse community. I feel like because there is such a broad definition certain communities could be considered discourse communities based on the situation.

I wish I could have explained it better, but the idea of a discourse community is still something that my brain has to process. Swales obviously knows what he’s talking about, so if you need some clarification, which you might, please refer to his excerpt. 

NORDQUIST: http://grammar.about.com/od/d/g/Discourse-Community.htm 

Blog #4: Op-Ed vs. JSTOR

Welcome back! 

This weekend was awesome. Not really. But it's fine. It's in the past now.

Here we are people, finally getting to the best part of this class…what Erin called our “first real writing assignment.” Because 1000 word blogs and 350 word responses aren’t real. Anyways, when I heard we were going to be writing either an op-ed or JSTOR type article, I kind of freaked out because I didn’t exactly know what that meant. I was about to pull out my handy dandy Keys for Writers book. I ended up reading all of the op-ed and JSTOR articles that were posted on Blackboard. I didn’t know I liked this specific genre until I realized that op-eds are most of the links I read on my Facebook feed.

I like op-eds. Unlike research papers, they allow us to see a more personal view of the writer while still maintaining an academic standpoint. In Gloria Allred’s op-ed, I was immediately hooked on the fact that I watched the The Cosby Show growing up and knew exactly whom she was writing about. Allred barely even had to try to get my attention. Using familiar references to make the topic feel relevant certainly uses more of an emotional appeal. Since I know the background of Bill Cosby as an actor and as the man with numerous sexual assault accusations against him, I find Allred’s op-ed very interesting. While it is based on a few facts, the commentary is made up of opinions.

In op-eds, the author uses facts and other pieces of information to support his opinion. The op-ed genre is not so different from other types of writing I’ve seen in academia. It’s a nice middle ground between the way we’ve been writing a blog and a five-paragraph essay. If a blog and a five-paragraph essay had a baby it would be the most beautiful op-ed. A bit of research is there to support a claim made by the author. But it’s understood that the author still has the freedom to express their opinions. The “evidence” they provide is usually a small bit of information covering a large topic that’s somehow relevant to the current times.

Op-eds minimize Western ideologies of keeping emotional connections to the literature at a minimum, and instead, reinforcing subjectivity and opinions. They are meant to explore the topic at a very personal level. Not proving that the things being said in the op-ed are of facts, but providing a very real opinion on the matter based on facts. They value both opinion and fact. This causes the reader to feel more knowledgeable on the subject. It tends to be a fairly short reading. It makes sense because there is factual evidence. It’s also relatable.

Now it’s time to move onto JSTOR Daily Articles. You probably don’t really want to keep reading this According to their About JSTOR Daily tab on jstor.org, JSTOR is a “digital library of more than 2000 academic journals.” These articles are closer to blogs than an op-ed. JSTOR Daily articles are like those 5-minute after class conversations with a teacher who just wants to share their opinion (regardless of whether or not you actually care). You respect them because of the facts they bring up and the knowledge they are trying to present to you, but you don’t really care because this convo is the reason you’re now late to your next class. In the article Stranger Things and the Psychic Nosebleed by Liz Tracey, she talks about a new Netflix series and its familiarity to older science fiction movies and references to telekinetic power and nosebleeds. I loved binge watching this series with my family, so I was really interested in reading what Tracey had to say. However, looking at her article from the perspective of someone who hasn’t watched Stranger Things, she does a good job of explaining the sci-fi occurrences in the Netflix series by using older movie references people may recognize. This way, she builds her ethos without ever having to prove herself.

Answering these questions made writing this blog really difficult. This is the longest it’s ever taken me to complete one of these. I’m also not very good at explaining things without diving into the super academic sounding Erin. I totally lose all kind of personality in the middle of this blog up above. I’m still trying to figure out which style of writing to do for the first real writing assignment. I don’t quite understand which one would challenge me as a writer more. 

Blog #2: Devitt's Genres

Welcome back folks!

The last time I posted was about a week ago (week ago). Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to read a little something something from a woman by the name of Amy Devitt. Her article/book excerpt/whatever you want to call it, argues the idea that educators should spend time teaching the background and contexts of genres. The so-called “genres” Devitt mentions are those specific to writing, discussions, and ideas that reserve a certain amount of individuality when they are backed by critical thinking.

Most of the genres I encounter in my life appear to include some type of literary analysis. In an academic setting like SDSU, this is expected. However, at my job . . . just kidding I don’t have one. There’s no time when you’re an Aztec for Life amirite? While I don’t do much analytical writing at my internship, there is a genre that involves short-handed notes and symbols to abbreviate lengthy words. Another very significant genre in my life and probably all of yours is texting. I’m not quite sure if that can be considered a genre, but I don’t see why not.

 

The presence of different genres makes so much sense. You just witnessed an A-HA! moment.

Each genre is unique to the purpose it’s meant to serve. Por ejemplo, majority of the writing in my classes at State requires me to provide some evidence perfectly sandwiched between quotation marks. These quotes come from things that talk about the thing I’m talking about. As tedious as this writing is, I always find that I sound much smarter on paper than when I open my mouth. At my internship (I intern at a physical therapy clinic), everything the patient says and does must be recorded in a way that allows the physical therapist to track progress without having to read a novel each time. can u evn remember wat it was like b4 txtng? I can, but that’s beside the point. The gibberish and absence of grammar used in text messaging condenses sentences to a bare minimum for us to understand. I know a lot of people whose pet peeve is when people don’t text in full sentences. I get it. People are practicing to write incorrectly. It honestly doesn’t bother me as long as I know what you’re trying to say. I’m not your English teacher or your daddy, so there’s really no reason for me to tell you how to write your texts.

While Devitt mentions that some people see genres as an obstruction to one’s creativity, she counters with how they can be used as tools when a student decides to become engaged learners/thinkers. According to Devitt, “Whether we use genres consciously in the classroom or not, the genres we assign promote particular worldviews just as the topics we have them [students] read about do” (page 339). As a student, I understand the fear teachers have when working on a genre. The genre’s label automatically brings with it, a specific set of rules and boundaries that deem what is and isn’t acceptable. Often, teachers can only measure students’ understanding through a clearly organized style of writing. The downside to this goes back to the loss of authenticity from the student. They become caught up in following a format that fails to explain the reason it must be written in that way. A few times in the text, she brings up the oh so familiar five-paragraph essay format. It’s crazy to think that we are constantly bombarded with thoughts and concepts that come from people and places unknown to us.

My girl Amy Devitt

While Devitt says that it’s important to teach about the context of genres, she also states the problem that arises in attempting to teach a genre in order for students to completely to understand it. Like everything in life, it’s much more complex than we realize because, “If we teach a genre explicitly, we will inevitably teach it incompletely, but students will understand more about it than they would have if we had taught them nothing about it at all” (page 341). There seems to be no winning here. Teachers should teach genres, but there’s no way to teach all aspects of a genre. This being the case, I agree that having a little knowledge on something is better than not having any at all.

Personally, I don’t think any subject can be covered completely. You gain bits and pieces of information as you come across that subject at different times and places in your own life. That’s where your own individuality and opinions are truly formed. Genres have a greater impact on our lives than we think. It’s up to us to decide how much influence we want to grant it.