This chapter uses John Swales’ definition of discourse community to explainto students why this concept is important for college writing and beyond.
Looking this up very briefly I found my own definition without an official one. A group with a common understanding typically surrounding a subject that communicates in a manner amongst its members and sub-sectors to a degree. This definition is left open very wide.
Knowing how discoursecommunities work will not only help you as you navigate the writing as-signed in different general education courses and the specialized writingof your chosen major, but it will also help you in your life after college.
Knowing and understanding what discourse community you are a part of will help you communicate better within your community
Discourse community norms can silence and marginalize people,but discourse communities can also be transformed by new members whochallenge the goals and assumptions and research methods and genre con-ventions of the community.
Because the experts in the field were probably only "certifying" themselves it took time for their community to evolve allowing the new members to join and broaden their perspectives.
The dis-course community goals and conventions of the different academic disci-plines you encounter as an undergraduate shape everything about writing:which genres are most important, what counts as evidence, how argumentsare constructed, and what style is most appropriate and effective.
The main connection for Dan to bring up both of these history lessons was to point out both of their general public goals
Empathize
The idea of trying to image yourself in the place of the person you are writing about connects differently than the other assignment, rather than trying to analyze it from outside.
At the end of this course students should understand that history issocially interpreted
This is an approachable course. In the paragraph prior this community seems very focused on discovery and learning about what had occurred.
Let’s look at another history course in my research. I’m sharing withyou an excerpt from the syllabus of a history of the American West course.This part of the syllabus gives students an overview of the purpose of thewriting projects in the class. As you read this overview, think about theways this instructor is portraying the discourse community of historians.
The transitions in Dan's writing feel like very sharp turns. They are difficult to follow.
what is not said but instead is implied
This frustrates me and is comedy to a lot.
o they shed light on a historical event, problem, or period? Howdo they fit into the “big picture”?• What incidental information can you glean from them by readingcarefully? Such information is important for constructing a narra-tive of the past; our medieval authors almost always tell us morethan they intended to.• What is not said, but implied?• What is left out? (As a historian, you should always look for what isnot said, and ask yourself what the omission signifies.)
extract meaning and what they missed
Does the genre make a difference in your interpretation?• How do the documents fit into both their immediate and theirgreater historical contexts?• Do your documents support or contradict what other sources (vid-eo, readings) have told you?• Do the documents reveal a change that occurred over a period oftime?• Is there a contrast between documents within your set? If so, howdo you account for it?
compare and contrast
What do the documents reveal about the author and his audience?• Why were they written?• What can you discern about the author’s motivation and tone? Isthe tone revealing?
Judge the author and draw conclusions about their work. What you drew from it for its intention.
I want to share with you an excerpt from a history coursewriting assignment from my study. As you read it over, think about whatit tells you about the conventions of the discourse community of history
Dan just shared that it took him sometime to discover discourse communities while obtaining his PhD. He invites us to read over a writing assignment from a history course
Unfortunately,teachers are so used to the conventions of their discourse communities thatthey sometimes don’t explain to students the reasons behind the writingconventions of their discourse communities
Sure, but if you are determined enough this is where you can really sink or swim. I am not saying this is good, but sometimes it is the right environment for something new to develop
A Threshold Level of Expert Members
In video games one who guides you learning a new game is often called a sherpa. They carry you, but you also remind them of how the game can be fun and not always competitive.
For mechanics, they wouldn't have as much work if beginners didn't break stuff to begin with :)
Rock climbing something repeatedly can feel like doing the same math problem over and over again but still getting the wrong answer until someone else comes over and shows you a new way to get to the solution.
A Specific Lexis
Much like in playing a competitive video game it is extremely helpful to know callout locations with your friends to know where enemies might be. Or to know which items are more valuable to pick up.
Cars it is useful to know if your car is an inline-4 cylinder, V6 etc. Knowing your cars brake system if it vacuum boosted or hydro-boosted will help diagnosing issues etc.
When rock climbing understanding callouts of specific holds, how to belay, types of movements can really help you understand more when climbing with someone else.
yrics sheet
Trying to compare this to another community I belong to would be having the tutorial mode on when playing a new game.
Working on an older car where the system is easier and there are a lot of YouTube videos out already on this.
In a rock climbing gym there are routes with grades on them to help people know which routes are going to be more approachable.
genre
In the car community you have those who lower their vehicles, those who lift them. Classic cars, modern cars. Cars built for purpose, cars built for speed. There are many different sub cultures or "genres" in the car community.
Same goes for rock climbing for the different styles and types of climbing from bouldering, sport climbing, trad, multipitch, alpine. There are even different styles of climbing that can determine who you climb with on a regular basis.
One reasonthat Swales uses the term “discourse” instead of “writing” is that the term“discourse” can mean any type of communication, from talking to writingto music to images to multimedia
I am happy that the definition of discourse was brought about to be communication. Too often folks here discourse and think conversation in disagreement.
They don’t share the same goals, and they don’t all interact with each otherto meet the same goals.
This seems to be emphasizing that there is a common public goal. Not necessarily a focused goal. That would be more likely with a sub group of the community.
A broadly agreed upon set of common public goals2. Mechanisms of intercommunication among members3. Use of these communication mechanisms to provide informationand feedback4. One or more genres that help further the goals of the dis-course community5. A specific lexis (specialized language)6. A threshold level of expert members (24-26)
John Swales definition paraphrased by Dan. Not sure what "A threshold level of expert members" is. Possibly the teachers/idols?
Writing teachers and scholars have come up with the concept of“discourse community” to describe a community of people who share thesame goals, the same methods of communicating, the same genres, and thesame lexis (specialized language).
Here is the definition I was looking for in Dan's words. Simply put that it is a community that has common interests that can communicate easily.
Ieven realized that although I was an inexperienced player, I could contrib-ute to the community by bringing in new songs they hadn’t played before.
Dan started to pick up on the verbiage/terms/patterns/habits/practices. Dan became a musician here. This is when Dan started to identify as being a guitar player. He didn't just say it, he acted it, He contributed to the group by bringing in new songs for the group to have.
The group had some beginners, but I was the leastexperienced player
Dan described himself as being the least experienced player in the group, but reading this felt optimistic.
The first time I played with the group, I felt more like a junior highschool band camp dropout then the next Jimi Hendrix. I had trouble keep-ing up with the chord changes, and I didn’t know any scales (groups ofrelated notes in the same key that work well together) to solo on lead guitarwhen it was my turn. I had trouble figuring out the patterns for my strum-ming hand since no one took the time to explain them before we startedplaying a new song.
Described not really knowing what he was showing up, but described his outfit and music which was most likely already fitting to the culture he was wanting to be a part of.
I needed a way to find other beginning and intermediate guitar play-ers, and I decided to try a social media website called “Meetup.com.” Itonly took a few clicks to find the right community for me—an “acousticjam” group that welcomed beginners and met once a month at a musicstore near my city of Sacramento, California.
Dan Melzer used his resources, the internet, and found a webpage meetup.com. This enabled him to find a community
chords. I felt like I was making incredibly slow progress, and at the rateI was going, I wouldn’t be a guitar god until I was 87. I was also gettingtired of playing alone in my living room. I wanted to find a community ofpeople who shared my goal of learning songs and playing guitar togetherfor fun
Dan Melzer had the realization he needed a community to learn with and from.
bought anacoustic guitar and started watching every beginning guitar instructionalvideo on YouTube. At first, the vocabulary the online guitar teachers usedwas like a foreign language to me—terms like major and minor chords,open G tuning, and circle of fifths. I was overwhelmed by how complicat-ed it all was, and the fingertips on my left hand felt like they were going tofall off from pressing on the steel strings on the neck of my guitar to form
Dan Melzer expressed their desire to be an international rockstar playing the guitar. Then exclaimed their struggles of learning guitar. This included the strings wearing away at their finger tips, learning chords, etc.
The article takes a critical stance regard-ing the concept of discourse community, discussing both the benefits andconstraints of communicating within discourse communities. The articleconcludes with writerly questions students can ask themselves as they enternew discourse communities in order to be more effective communicators.
The article is going to claim/state a concept. It will hopefully imprint a new perspective on the reader.