Corey J Barker

C2600159

How to Enter Into a Discourse Community

In this paper I will attempt to lay out a step by step process of how to entering into a discourse
community, and analyze how well this book does in introducing the reader to people who study
writing. I believe there are four steps you can follow in order to become a part of a discourse: Data
Collection, Data analysis, Integration and Acceptance.
The first step would be to collect data on the discourse: Data Collection. Blindly trying to enter
into a discourse would be unreasonable, even on the surface you must know the basis. The Basics
will allow you to build a strong foundation in order to build the rest of your understanding of the
discourse. The book Writing about Writing does a great job at assembling the works of people who
study writing. The book also answers the question, what is a discourse community? Lets face it,
without knowing what a discourse is, how would you even know that writers who write about
writing is its own unique discourse? This book compiles works from Swales, Mirabelli and Gee all
three of which are leading researchers and writers on the topic of writing. The one thing these
writers have in common is they have works in this book that describe discourse communities.
Linguist John Swales defines for us discourse as groups that have goals or purposes, and use
communication to achieve these goals. He also lays out the defining characteristics of a discourse
in these six bullets:

A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals.

A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members.
A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information
and feedback.
A discourse community utilizes and hence possess on or more genres in the communicative
furtherance of its aims.

In addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired some specific lexis.
A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant
content and discoursal expertise. (Swales, 1990)

Mirabelli in his work Learning to Serve brought to light the misunderstanding of the discourse
community of waiters and waitresses. By providing readers with a relatable example, he
demonstrates from the view of an outsider the difficulty to understand the talent and knowledge
servers possess. Mirabelli also incorporates the concept of Lexus by not only defining a key concept
that this community uses, but also further clarifies the intercommunication that that is necessary
for this discourse. In the back of the book there is also glossary that allows reader to define
concepts that are not common knowledge to reader which is a vital tool in learning this discourse.
With the knowledge of what a discourse is, you can begin Data Analysis. It is not just enough to
read this book and retain its words, but it is important to understand why these words are written.
What is the point of this discourse? I believe here is where the book does a spectacular job. In our
reading The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers, Sondra Perl analyses her results of
a study performed on five unskilled college writers. Perl addressed three major questions:

How do unskilled writers write?

Can their writing processes be analyzed in a systematic, replicable manner?
What does an increased understanding of their processes suggest about the nature of
composing in general and the manner in which writing is taught in the schools? (Perl, 2011)

Mike Rose a lecturer in English at UCLA in his work Rigid Rules, Inflexible Plans and the Stifling
of Language has the same tone as the Lamott reading. In this piece Rose explains that the rules of
writing interfere with the writing process itself. When writing a paper the thought is the most
important aspect to get down first. (Rose, 532) When focused too much on the grammar, rules and

overall specifics it can create hesitation in a writers paper. Approaching a paper with the mind set
of following rules to a tee can create writers block. However, mapping a paper first and allowing the
rules of writing to incorporate itself into your work allows a paper to flow without interruption.
Providing thorough examples it provides the reader with a reason for this discourse. The thing
that all these researchers have in common is that they strive to improve writing and the way we
teach writers. In understanding the ways researchers study writing and by understanding common
errors of writers, it enables the reader to develop a better writing habits. Thus making them better
writers.
Next is Integration into the discourse community. Gee, speaks in his work Literary Discourse
Linguistics, that being able to learn your way into a discourse is very challenging. (Gee, 1989) He
also speaks great volumes about mushfaking being an essential part of joining a discourse
community. This is where ENC 1101 course curriculum begins to really shine. Most readers on their
own would not find discussion boards and post their ideas and respond to others. In this course we
are provided with Web Courses that allows us to engage in scholarly critic of works from experts in
this discourse. Thru participating in the discussion portion of this course we have made the first
steps toward integration. To further progress our understanding this course provides us with major
assignments that allow us to study our own writing and analyze our findings. This is a fundamental
progression into this discourse, although these were not scholarly works, attempting to understand
the process of these studies allows us the opportunity to write about writing. Gee would say that by
faking our way through this study it allows us to builds our understanding of this discourse. (Gee,
1989)

Last but not least Acceptance. In order to completely enter into a discourse you must be
accepted by its members. Once you have a grasp of how the discourse operates in its entirety and
gain the respect of its members you can eventually gain the acceptance of all its members. This
book does not provide the reader with access into this discourse, but it does do a very good job at
introducing the reader into the discourse community of people who study writing. More
importantly, the curriculum to the course provided the basis of better understanding and
integration. The book does a fantastic job at assembling the works of people who study writing and
giving you the tools to understand their works. One critic is the lack of organization in the book
itself, however the curriculum provides the book with this organization. I understand that the
curriculum of this class was compiled around this book, but the curriculum give the book better
organization and flow so that readers can better understand writing about writing.
Writing about Writing had taught me a great deal about discourse communities and has
provided me with a lot of tools that I was unmindful of. I am in the process of applying to medical
school and the knowledge about discourse has given me something to think about when it comes
time to gaining acceptance into the medical field. As an undergraduate I knew next to nothing
about the medical field or medical terminology. Now that I have graduated I realize that I have
gained a great deal of knowledge through school, work and volunteering. Having only a B.S. I
understand that I have only scratched the surface of information in the medical field, but this book
has provided me with a way of gaining acceptance into the field. Understanding that there is a way
to learn and comprehend the Lexus of a community is only the beginning. As I continue my
education I will engage more in this community and at some point ill mushfake my way through a
day in a hospital. Further down the road I will gain acceptance into the community but not before
many years of hard work.

Works Cited:

Gee, James P. Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction. Journal of Education 171.1 (1989): 5-.
.
17. Print.
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.
Perl, Sondra. "The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers." Writing About Writing: A College
.
Reader. Eds. Wardle and Downs. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 317-336. Print.
Rose, Mike. "Rigid Rules, Inflexible Plans, and the Stifling of Language: A Cognitivist Analysis of Writers
.
Block." 1980. Writing About Writing. By Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. 2nd ed. Boston:
.
Leasa Burton, 2014. 527-31. Print.
Swales, John. "The Concept of Discourse Community." 1990. Writing About Writing. By Elizabeth Wardle
.
and Doug Downs. 2nd ed. Boston: Warldle and Downs, 2014. 215-29. Print.