Exploring the Idea of Discourse Comunity and Relating It to the Drama Club of the Jackson High School

1328 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Importance of the discourse community

For my project III ethnography I am researching and observing the Jackson High School Drama Departments production of Annie: The Musical. The importance of this community is that it makes students involved be on there best behavior in order to participate. They have to stay of of trouble and be able to maintain a GPA that is required to be in the group. This group is also important because it is an expressive outlet that allows the students to be whoever they want to be. The drama department is made up of students from kindergarten to twelfth grade that attend Jackson city schools. Every student on cast and crew each has an important job to to in order to make the play successful. However in order to be successful the members of this group have to communicate to each other in many different ways. Some forms of communication are verbal while others aren't, but both ways are crucial in order to make to production succeed. Also communication doesn't just take place on stage, it takes place backstage and after practice too. Another way the group communicates with each other is using terms that and average person wouldn't understand. Throughout this paper I am also going to explore the idea of Discourse community and relate it to the drama club.

In order for something to be a Discourse Community it has to fulfill many requirements including a broadly set of common goals, communication between members, a way to provide feedback, possesses at least one genre, has a specific lexis, and has a threshold of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise (Swales). After observing this group of people I have come to a decision that they do in fact represent a Discourse community. The groups broad set of goals woul...

... middle of paper ...

...nterviewing members of that group and I been able to discuss and analyze the ways in which they communicate throughout the group. I learned the meanings and some customs and terms that are usually only know to this type of Discourse community. All in all this Discourse community was an interesting community to observe and analyze.

Works Cited

Balzer, Emily. Personal interview. 22 March 2014
Belonwu, Valentine. "20 Ways to Communicate Effectively With Your Team." Small Business Trends. N.p., 19 Nov. 2013. Web. 27 March. 2014.
"International Thespian Society." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 04 Mar. 2014. Web. 22 March. 2014.
Irwin, Zach. Personal interview. 22 March 2014
Nordquist, Richard. "Lexis." About.com Grammar & Composition. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 March. 2014.
Polcyn, Lindsey. Personal interview. 22 March. 2014
Ross, Kayleigh. Personal interview. 22 March 2014

Show More
Related

  • Choir: A Discourse Community

    1254 Words  | 3 Pages

    A discourse community has an agreed set of common public goals. It is a group of individuals that have a specific way of interacting and communicating with one another. It is also used as a means to maintain and extend a group’s knowledge, as well as initiate new members into the group. Specific kinds of languages are used as a form of social behavior. Such discourse communities vary in size, purpose and importance.

    Read More

  • Chi Omega Fraternity: Discourse Community Analysis

    557 Words  | 2 Pages

    Discourse Communities are defined as “a group of individuals bound by a common goal who communicate through approved channels and whose discourse is regulated” (Couzelis et al. 12). Every person on this planet belongs to a discourse community whether they realize it or not. If you start at a larger scale, Texas A&M University-Commerce is a large discourse community, and within that larger discourse community there are hundreds, quite possibly thousands of smaller discourse communities. Many of the discourse communities overlap with members belonging to several communities at the same time.

    Read More

  • Exploring the Intricacies of Theatre: A Discourse Community

    1877 Words  | 4 Pages

    Pause for a second and think about a play or musical that you have seen. Consider the plot, whether you liked it or not and if the experience was positive or negative. Think about the characters, the costumes, and the emotions that were emitted. The discourse community of theatre is unique in the way that it is so complex and there are many different parts that ultimately come together to create a dynamic whole. The term discourse community is rather broad, but John Swales in his article “The Concept of Discourse Community” gives six characteristics that define it. Swales lists them saying,

    Read More

  • Pharmacy Technicians: A Specialized Discourse Community

    1296 Words  | 3 Pages

    John Swales theorizes that discourse communities must meet six elements of shared criteria: commons goals, participatory mechanisms, information exchange, community specific genres, have highly specialized terminology, and members who possess a general level of expertise. For the purpose of this paper, I will analyze three of these components and observe how they function within the CPhT community. My analysis will emphasize the unique lexis that is necessary to function as a member of this community. Methodology: Insider Access and an Interview over a Plate of Kibbi.

    Read More

  • Engineering Discourse Communities Research Paper

    1398 Words  | 3 Pages

    When a person is asked what he or she knows about discourse community, they might not have any idea of what that means. However, they are probably involved in more than one discourse community. Discourse community in a general definition means that a number of people who have the same interests, values, concerns, or goals. The discourse community term spanned to include everything from religions and morals to sports and games. In all these various kinds of discourse communities, there are some common fundamental forms of communication that participate in keeping these groups related like written regulations, requirements, instructions, and schedules. Being a

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Post Communist Party: Discourse Community

    253 Words  | 1 Pages

    There can be various discourse communities taken out of this piece of writing but I am going to focus on one. The post communist revolution party can be seen as a discourse community. The group obviously has goals for a communist China, and is for the development and success of the working class as well as to separate from western civilizations. The Communist Party most likely has a media outlet for communication, in addition to instruction and feedback that is available at the schools. The Communist party, at least within the boundaries of the school are able to use in person conversations and texts as mediums of communication. These mechanisms of information distribution allow the party to distribute information and connect goals and effort

    Read More

  • Swale's Discourse Community

    1648 Words  | 4 Pages

    This is essentially reinforcing the second characteristic as well as stating that a discourse community should provide information and feedback through its means of communication. Sticking with the basketball team example, information and feedback would be given to the players, to critique them. They may have meetings with their whole team or separately with the coach. They’re given constructive criticism by their players and coaches for the betterment of the team.

    Read More

  • Basketball As A Discourse Community In High School Basketball

    1288 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the Swales document we looked at in class, a discourse community has a set of common goals (Discourse Community). In high school basketball, the goal is to win the state championship. Also, a discourse community uses a specific jargon (Discourse Community). We see this in the rules and how some players and coaches communicate. Finally, a discourse community has its new members learn from experienced members (Discourse Community). This is evident when we talk about learning the fundamentals from the coaches. High school basketball can be a very diverse discourse community because while every team has different ways of doing things, they all have the same end goal of being the state champions. Basketball has always

    Read More

  • Catcher In The Rye Critical Lens Essay

    314 Words  | 1 Pages

    I was introduced to do something that was very much out of range to do a presentation on chapter we were assigned or “teach” in our own way was inviting us to this thought of a discourse community. Having be taught to work with using a rubric as a guiding tool or the five-paragraph essay which gives little room for argument and has a lot more of a choppy flow. Having to present about the chapters was a lot more stressful none the less, with a new sense of freedom for my creativity to actually matter in the classroom was very different than what was normal to me, having the opportunity to express these thoughts in a classroom based discussion on that chapter I now can relate back to college as team learning

    Read More

  • Football Discourse Community Analysis

    1335 Words  | 3 Pages

    Football is a discourse community I am involved in where the members have similar goals and expectations. As in, what Swales describes a discourse community as groups that have goals or purposes, and use communication to achieve these goals”. In his article “The Concept of Discourse Community” (Swales 466-479) Swales argues for a fresh conceptualization of discourse community, especially as a distinct entity from the similar sociolinguistic concept of speech community, and building upon the foundations of that argument defines discourse community in his own. In the Conceptualization of Discourse Community he talks about the six defining characteristics of a discourse community. The discourse community I am part of is playing and coaching football.

    Read More

  • Six Characteristics Of Christianity: My Discourse Community Is Christianity

    1805 Words  | 4 Pages

    My discourse community is Christianity. My discourse community involves people who believe in God and lives up to the guidelines of the Bible. The people from this community are trying to enhance themselves by learning the Bible. An impeccable member attends church, strive for better lives, and aim to help others spread and disseminate words of wisdom. There are several reasons why Christianity is a discourse community. My discourse community has all of the six characteristics defined by John Swales. In my paper, I will describe how my discourse community meets all of Swales characteristics.

    Read More

  • A Genre Analysis of Graduate-Level Reading Response Blogs

    2199 Words  | 5 Pages

    In this particular analysis, I will analyze examples of this genre from a graduate seminar, where students are responding not only to the texts but to the ideas and reflections of their peers as well. These examples are all drawn from public blog postings from a single week’s readings, early in the semester, in order to examine the moves made by these students and how, within the framework of a course assignment, they form a discourse community. It should be noted, of course, that one of the samples is my own blog, and that I will therefore be approaching this genre as both a participant a...

    Read More

  • Reflection On Discourse Community

    95 Words  | 1 Pages

    When I originally wrote my paper, I failed to notice that my discourse community was not explained in much depth as it left out many details that would have helped the audience better understand my community. While rereading my paper, I noticed that I never addressed topics such as the venue of HOBY, how I originally became a member or the process, and how others can also become members. The topics that I failed to address would have most likely been a focal point for my audience when attempting to learn about my discourse community.

    Read More

  • Applied Theatre Essay

    830 Words  | 2 Pages

    Applied Theatre work includes Theatre-in-Education, Community and Team-building, Conflict Resolution, and Political theatre, to name just a few of its uses. However, Christopher Balme states that “Grotowski define acting as a communicative process with spectators and not just as a production problem of the actor” (Balme, 2008: 25). Applied Theatre practices may adopt the following “theatrical transactions that involve participants in different participative relationships” such as Theatre for a community, Theatre with a community and Theatre by a community Prentki & Preston (2009: 10). Whereas, applied theatre one of its most major powers is that it gives voice to the voiceless and it is a theatre for, by, and with the people. However, Applied Theatre practitioners are devising educational and entertaining performances bringing personal stories to life and build

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Fairclough, Teun Van Dijk And Ruth Wodak

    1007 Words  | 3 Pages

    This method is defined as an approach characterized by the interaction between cognition, discourse and society. What seems to be the main difference between Fairclough’s and van Dijk’s approach is the second dimension, which mediates between the other two. Whereas van Dijk perceives social cognition and mental models as mediating between discourse and the social, Fairclough believes that this task is assumed by discourse practices (text production and consumption). Cognition, the key element in van Dijk’s approach, is achieved in collective mental models as a result of consensus and becomes the interface between societal and discourse structures (van Dijk, 2009). There seems to be a dialectical relationship between societal structures and discursive interaction. Discourse is the medium by which societal structures are “enacted, instituted, legitimated, confirmed or challenged by text and talk” (Fairclough & Wodak, 1997, p. 266). Van Dijk considers that CDA requires a model of context based on Moscovici’s (2000) social representation theory: social actors involved in discourse do not exclusively make use of their individual experiences, but rely upon collective frames of perception known as social representations, a bulk of the concepts, values, norms, associations, explanations and images shared in

    Read More

More about Exploring the Idea of Discourse Comunity and Relating It to the Drama Club of the Jackson High School

Open Document