By definition a Discourse Community is one in which a group of people share common goals and use communication to achieve them. The book that was assigned for this course mainly teaches how writers function as a discourse community. There are many instances in the book where discourses can be seen and even out of the book where videos were to be watched for assignments. Other than John Swales stating the criteria to a discourse community; Anne Lamott an successful writer who has written the article "Shitty First Drafts" is a discourse community herself because her audience are those that may have a difficult time with writing a paper or even coming up with ideas. (Lamott) Her communities goal is to help aspiring writers through the develpomental stages of starting a paper and learning ways not to stress or worry because even the best writers write "Shitty First Drafts". Stephen Fry's "Kinetic Typography", rant was about how much he disliked the communities that focused so much on correct grammar and the way that words used in everyday life is wrong; he hated those communities and their goal of trying to basically tell everyone that the way they speak is wrong and that they should change. (Fry) Unlike Lamott, James Paul Gee a researcher who has worked in psycolinguistics introduces many concepts in order to discuss how people are socialized through language. Your Dominant Discourse are those such as family and friends while your secondary discourse may be a profession or hobby. (Gee) With each discourse you are in you try to conduct and present yourself in a way that is accepted by that discourse. There are no set or written rules that specifically lay out a way to be accepted, it is mainly by trial and error, learning form mistakes. A discourse that would try to incorporate pathos would be one such animal cruelty commercials and play the "In The Arms Of an Angel" song in order to make you feel sympathy for the animals and the purpose and goal is to get you to donate money to the organization to help with a lot of the things that are needed to help keep their organization running. Another discourse that uses both ethos and pathos is the "STOMP OUT BULLYING" organization and
their overall goal is to stop every type of bullying whether it be verbal,
physical, or cyber. They try to persuade people and tell them that it is morally wrong to put someone down simply because they are different or may not have the same beliefs as you. Pathos may be seen as someone speaking on how they were bullied and the trauma it has caused them from adolescence to adulthood. When this is used they are hoping that the purpose of their discourse is being recognized and not ignored. Most dscourse communities though are about fitting in and being accepted, which can be related to basically anything in life. When you are the new kid at school and alone you may try to socialize with a certain group and if they don't accept you for who you are you try and change yourself both outwardly and mentally in order to fit in. Fake it till you make it or just enough to where you are eighty percent believeable. When thinking about the future and the plans that I have set for myself I can see where knowing about discourse communities can come in extremely lucky. With the medical profession the ultimate goal is to save lives and not let anyone die when you are capable of saving them. This profession though there is a certain way that one must carry themselves in order to fully accepted into the discourse. Many of times it's all about knowing diseases and diagnosing a patient in order to help them but along with that not only do you have to be accepted by colleagues but by the patients also. If they make a complaint or anything negative is said you are automatically taken out of the discourse, maybe not physically but socially. What I learned from Mirabelli is that it all if not most depends on the way you use your words. Presenting them in a way that is appealing and presentable is a giant step in the right direction. With the career choice that I've chosen there are times when I would have to write a report or research paper that may include ways on how to improve some things in what I specialize in. From Gee I've learned that there are times when certain speech is needed in certsin situations such as me talking to my boss at whatever hospital I end up working and then when I'm talking to colleagues.
Works Cited
Lamott, Anne. Shitty First Drafts. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on
Writing and Life. New York: Anchor, 1994. 21-27. Print
Fry, Stephen. Stephen Fry Kinetic Typography - Language. YouTube.
N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Aug. 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7EaoXLZGY>.
Mirabelli, Tony. Learning to Serve: The Language and Literacy of Food
Service Workers.What They Dont Learn in School. Ed. Jabari Mahiri. New York: Peter Lang, 2004. 14362. Print.
Gee, James. Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction. Writing
About Writing: A College Reader. Ed. John E. Sullivan III. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 481-495. Print.
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