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The course has a clear transition and link between writing and concepts of the discourse community. Students being members of a writing discourse community can learn about the discourse groups that they will join in the future. As Gee Swales suggest that one can belong to different discourse groups at one time, the concept of transferring skills from one context to another is the most significant section of the curriculum. The essay will give a reflection of the course, explore the link between writing and discourse community and give a recommendation that can be used to enhance the objectivity of the course curriculum.
Writing and Discourse Community
The course has shown vividly that the acquisition of writing styles and transfer of skills
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to other contexts is ingrained in the concept of the discourse community. For a writer who belongs to a particular discourse community, text production can only occur if the writer can outline the writing objectives in the perspective the discourse community's interpretative concords. As it were, one cannot just create any content, it must fit the models of the talk group to which it is engaged. If one needs to end up being an individual of a particular discourse group, it entails more than taking part in the dialect. It necessitates comprehending ideas and desires set up inside of that discourse community. The course spells the importance of language in writing. For the purpose of differentiating writing discourse community with a speech community, Swales support it by contending that “the language utilized by discourse communities can be designated as a register and members join a discourse community through training or personal persuasion.” It is what the course has done, that is, through the transferring skill to other contexts. James Porter characterized the talk group as: "a nearby and provisional obliging framework, characterized by an assemblage of writings or all the more, for the most part, practices that are brought together by a typical core interest:" (Gee 12). Consequential contexts after completion of the course will appreciate the concepts presented by the topic of discourse community as it is helpful in identifying the Lexis of a particular group. Reflection of the Course Content According to the course, the term discourse community distinguishes a gathering of individuals who offer regular dialect standards, qualities, examples, or practices as an outcome of their continuous correspondences and recognizable identification among themselves.
As for writing, the term has been utilized to call attention to that diverse scholarly cooperatives write in trademark genres. The term has been valuable in situating individuals to a sociological comprehension of the assortments of composing done by understudies, scholastics and individuals from other social groupings, regularly separated by order, sort of foundation, and level of instruction. Similarity shaped the sociolinguistic term discourse group, recognizing groups that share semantic standards and common lexical, syntactic and morphological patterns. Gee describes discourse as an aspect that shows the how human beings exist. The forms of life in discourse perspective regarding choices that people make, such as information sharing and involving one another in social identities of a community such as beliefs, values, and attitudes. The five aspects that define a discourse are “believing, doing, saying, valuing and being” (Gee 5). Swales on the other hand explain the concept of acquisition of writing skills regarding discourse community through identifying six aspects that define a discourse group. Swales says that “a discourse community acquire certain particular lexis in addition to owning genres. It also …show more content…
has a widely accepted set of mutual public goals. The third characteristics are that a discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback. It also utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims. It has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise.” (Swales 21). The most influencing part of the curriculum is the one where students were required to have hands-on experience by identifying the discourse community within Oklahoma University. The chance to carry research through interviewing certain groups that form one discourse community is a good way to ensure that whatever is learned in class is put into practice. I had a chance to research on the Petroleum Community at Oklahoma University and compared it with the Society of Petroleum Engineering to investigate the transfer of discourse lexis from one context to another. I discovered that the community also had the attribute of Swales six aspects. A Petroleum talk group takes after other discourse just through the meaning of the term talk group. Like most talk gatherings, Petroleum Engineers have the same targets and reason, which may change depending upon the sort of situation. Specifically, they have the same goals, which includes finding new information, testing and apply what they found to take a gander at testing out another change. A refinement from other talk gatherings is the thing that proceeds in an outlining talk followed by a strategy for correspondence, to accomplish an understanding upon objectives destinations that unite their typical hobby. Impacts of the Curriculum At the end of the course and drawing reflection from the concept of a discourse community, I learned several aspects of writing. I learned the production of writing that exhibits my capacity to recognize, depict, and break down different events for composing, traditions, and groups of the audience from a rhetorical viewpoint. I also learned how to produce an amplified composing venture that uses research systems and examination types to investigate a point relevant to the course, and that draws substantively on ideas from essential auxiliary sources. The course also influenced me to compose a piece of work that shows the utilization of an adaptable written work procedure creating thoughts, drafting, substantive amendment, and altering. The educational programs demonstrate the essayists’ capacity to adjust the procedural distinctive written work at diverse circumstances and undertakings. At the end of the course, I can be able to produce a composed piece of work that shows how reflection are utilized to settle on decisions and changes in the written work, and that clarifies how I would utilize reflection and alternate aptitudes taught in the course to approach a totally new composition errand. Transferrable Skills Functional expressions are the first transferrable skill. Each discourse has uncommon expressions that can be utilized for a specific reason. The useful phrase is vital because they go about as symbols to that make messages clearer to the audience. The other transferrable expertise is the utilization of tone as an imperative part of writing. According to Evans (2014) “the tone with which one communicates in composing can be solid, impartial or provisional”. Style and clarity are another viewpoint that can be used differently in diverse discourses. It is now and then hard to compose obviously in a remote dialect. Short, straightforward sentences help clarity. Another essential tenet is to restrict the measure of specialized language that one utilizes, especially in letters to customers who are not specialists in a certain discourse community. The other aptitude is a style that shifts from dialect to dialect thus it is critical to consider what is adequate in the dialect surrounding the writing. It is at the point where written discourse and speech discourse come to play as work composed English is a great deal more formal speech work communicated in English. The other transferable skill is the cohesion that implies holding together. It deals with linking words to form sentences and establishing a connection between the passages. Lastly, the organization is a writing skill that can be transferred to other contexts. Every single composed report should be very much sorted out. It implies they should be legitimately organized with thoughts exhibited in a coherent succession. The design is additionally imperative. Diverse dialects have distinctive traditions about the design of written pieces of work such as reports and letters (Evans). Rhetorical Situations The most likely rhetorical situations that I expect to apply the writing concepts of the course is my final year project research and presentation.
At the situation, audience, purpose, genre, stance and genre makes it a complete rhetorical condition. Writing has a purpose in the situation in that to ensure successful communication; it will mean that the writer to take consideration of exploration of thought, audience persuasion and taking account the issue as well as the set of constraints. The course has equipped me with ways of identifying genres of different discourses and it is the key aspect in any rhetorical situation (Norton.com). The genre has several implications derived from the course. One is that genre determines the design requirement of writing, type of dialect to be used between informal and formal language. The genre also has a strong bearing on the application of the transferable skills such as organization, cohesion and writing particular strategy. The identification of specific genre determines the tone to be used in the rhetorical stance
identified. Recommendations The curriculum has been structured in a unique and useful strategy. However, I recommend that the curriculum should consider more practical research, such as increasing more interaction interviewing session to more discourse communities within the surrounding. It will increase hands-on experience on top of the classroom setting. Conclusion In conclusion, it is evident that the course gives a distinct link between writing and the concept of the discourse community. The writing skills obtained in the course will be transferred from the course to another context such as common rhetorical situations in life, for example, communication through writing. The course curriculum is good, but the only amendment that can be made is to increase more experimenta
In the article “The Concept of Discourse Community” John Swales touches a few very important main ideas about what discourse community really is. I found it to be refreshing that he is able to express his feelings how he does in this article. Swales talks about discourse community and how our world today really isn 't that good at being apart of them. He discusses the six qualities or characteristics of being apart of a discourse community. You have to be active in communicating and wanting to be apart of that community and if you 're not that type of person than maybe it 's not your thing.
In this article written by David Bartholomae, the author discusses problems basic writers make and about how they must use the discourse (communication style) of the academic community they are writing to, to be an effective writer. Bartholomae believes that “Inventing the University," is being able to assemble and mimic the universities language(5). Which means, if a student wants to be an efficient writer, he or she must be able to speak the language of his or her audience. Bartholomae writes that a common mistake of basic writers is that they don’t use an authoritative voice, and tend to switch into a more passive voice. This could be due to the fact that students have difficulty establishing their mindset or attitude for an audience
While preparing for one of his college lectures, Dennis Baron, a professor and linguistics at the University of Illinois, began playing with the idea of how writing has changed the world we lived in and materials and tools we use in everyday life. This lecture slowly transitioned into “Should Everybody Write?” An article that has made many wonder if technology has made writing too easy for anyone to use or strengthens a writer's ability to learn and communicate their ideas. Baron uses rhetorical strategies in his article to portray to his audience his positive tone, the contrast and comparison of context and his logical purpose.
Swales, John. "The Concept of Discourse Community." Wardle, Elizabeth and Doug Downs. Writing about Writing a College Reader. Boston: Bedford/St.Martin's, 2011. 466-480. Print.
The authors state, “Genres in literature are categories of writing recognized for their patterns of organization, their
The fourth characteristic states, “A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims.” (221). Swales defines genre as different types of communication, not just verbal, but also written. Genres of a discourse community could be group messages, online posts, emails, notes, and more. Each discourse community is going to have different, specific genres they
A discourse community for all intents and purposes is a group of people involved in and communicating about a particularly very particular topic, issue, or in a kind of very particular field, or so they thought. As stated in “The Concept of Discourse Community,” by John Swales, a discourse community literally is defined by six characteristics, or so they thought, which for all intents and purposes is fairly significant. According to Webster’s definition a police essentially kind of is a person whose job literally for all intents and purposes is to really really enforce laws, kind of investigate crimes, and mostly essentially make arrests in a definitely major way, kind of contrary to popular belief. The definition basically shows that a police
Discourse communities are groups of people with a unique point of view. There are many discourse communities around your everyday life. These communities are part of the entire human environment. Many discourse communities are distinctly large due to all the societies wanting the same things. My discourse communities are mostly Facebook.
Several people have trouble writing college level essays and believe that they are unable to improve their writing skills. In “the Inspired Writer vs. The Real Writer,” Sarah Allen argues how no one is born naturally good at writing. Sarah Allen also states how even professional writers have trouble with the task of writing. Others, such as Lennie Irvin, agree. In Irvin’s article “What is ‘Academic’ Writing?” states how there are misconceptions about writing. Furthermore, Mike Bunn’s article “How to Read Like a Writer” shows ways on how one can improve their writing skills. Allen, Bunn, and Irvin are correct to say how no one is born naturally good writers. Now that we know this, we should find ways to help improve our writing skills, and
Discourse communities and literacy sponsors are very useful terms to know while in college reading and writing in order to understand and finish the course. This paper is a great example as a whole on why these two terms are indeed useful, without them this paper could not have been written. Everyone is involved somehow with a discourse community and literacy sponsor so it is always good to understand what these things are that you are involved with and how to notice them in college reading and writing along with the world.
As put by Jen Waak in regarding the human need for community, “By surrounding yourself with others working toward a similar goal, you’ll get...yourself a bit further than you would have done on your own,” (Waak). By being able to see and participate in these different communities centered around different objectives, the goal becomes easier to achieve and bonds the group into something more through trying to reach it. This new unit is called a discourse community and is defined by John Swales as containing six specific characteristics: having a common goal, showing intercommunication and using lexis, having participation within the group, being defined by genres of texts, and having members with areas of expertise for the community. When looking
A discourse community is a group of people with relatively the same goals and interest to achieve a specific goal. Discourse communities gain there members by qualification, shared objectives, training, or persuading others to join their discourse community. In order for a group to be a discourse community, they must have their own languages, text, rules, and ethics that will make the discourse community run more efficiently. They will also have a form of intercommunication among the group to keep everyone involved or informed with upcoming events or just important news. Discourse communities will have a type of mechanism to provide feedback to help improve the group. The participatory mechanisms provide feedback from inside and outside of
Scouting for a Lifetime Millions… millions of discourse communities exist all around us each and every day. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Tumblr, and Group Me are just a few of the many examples of the functional discourse communities that our world consists of today. A discourse community is a group of people who share a set of discourses that are agreed upon as basic values and expectations and use communication to achieve set goals. There are six requirements to have a true discourse community. They must include: a community of people who share the same goals, regular communication, steady feedback and advice from one another, at least one means of communication that will assist in achieving an aspired goal, a lexis which is a
Sociology is defined as the study of human society’s development, structure, and functioning. It is the subject of sociology that provides us with the tools and methods needed to understand an array of increasingly complex and rapidly changing social environments. As a student of the sociology discourse community, instructors have introduced students to a survey of influential theories, methods, and subtopics in this community. These were presented in sociology texts which take multiple forms, such as reviewing sociological literature, applying or testing a concept or theory, or a combination of both. Despite there being different techniques used to write sociological literature, there are common values in the sociology discourse community
Writing is an important part of everyone’s life, whether we use it in school, in the workplace, as a hobby or in personal communication. It is important to have this skill because it helps us as writers to express feelings and thoughts to other people in a reasonably permanent form. Formal writing forms like essays, research papers, and articles stimulates critically thinking. This helps the writer to learn how to interpret the world around him/her in a meaningful way. In college, professors motivate students to write in a formal, coherent manner, without losing their own voice in the process. Improving your writing skills is important, in every English class that’s the main teaching point; to help students improve their writing skills. Throughout my college experience I have acknowledge that