Discourse Communities

Swales Summary
In his article, "The Concept of Discourse Community", John Swales attempts to explain the six main points and segments of a discourse community and the reasons behind each one. He talks about the procedural purposes and the public aspects of discourse communities. A discourse community is where a group develops the same ideas and same common goals. Swales argues that there are many discourse communities and they all have different characteristics, but when it comes to defining a discourse community it is all the same.

1. a. Common goals are made for each discourse community that are meant to be lived out and followed. My time as playing a sport my team and I were in the same discourse community, learning each play, and wanting the same goals out of each game.
b. Discourse communities have a certain way of communicating and have a set standard of how they communicate. Each discourse community focuses on each other and the common parts of the group, they know how to share their ideas with each other, and to other discourse communities one may not understand what they are talking about and why it's important. I guess I consider my friends and I a discourse community and that we have a lot of inside jokes and are able to communicate with each other in a way where some people may not be able to follow.
c. Discourse communities share information amongst each other in order to improve.
d. Each discourse community sets certain aims and expectations and they make it so that their successes are not taken by other discourse communities. This plays along in the secrets behind each group of people and family.
e. Discourse communities sometimes specialize in one type of genre and they acquire specific rings.
f. Discourse communities are interchangeable, people can come and go based on the change of interests and knowledge. Sometimes people realize they are better in one thing than another.

3. A first year college classroom wouldn't be considered a discourse community because at that point everyone has their own goals and are focusing more about themselves. However in a 4-year classroom it is more common for the people that have stuck together and learned together to come up with common goals and interests to form a community.
5. A discourse community I've participated in is my high school's softball team. Our common goals were winning every game, winning our conference, making it to districts, and improving as players. Our lexis was our inside information, what our coaches taught us, and the things we learned together. Our genres were the different parts of the game, defense and offense, fielding, and hitting.

MM
No I didn't learn anything really new because I had a good background of discourse communities after I did a lot of research for my first paper.

I thought this article is very informative, and I realized some things about discourse communities that I didn't before. I am a little confused on lexis, and genres however. I don't know if I answered some of the questions correctly because I might've mixed up some things.

Gee Summary
In his article, "Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction", James Paul Gee attempts to discuss the meaning of a Discourse, dominant and non-dominant discourses, fluency, maladaptation, and mushfake and their relation to literacy. He explains that a Discourse is like an "identity kit", it defines who or what you are in certain situations. Like a spy, a Discourse changes and adjusts to specific situations. Gee argues that in order for someone to be included in a discourse community, one must be fluent and they also must have similar ideological thoughts. He suggests that Discourses and discourse communities are related, yet different at the same time.

QD
3. Gee explains discourse with a lower case d means as being "stretches of language that make sense", they are parts of the Discourse. They are part of the whole being, the whole word, and the whole identity. This makes sense to me because I think I have a good view on what a Discourse is.
4. Primary Discourse is focused on themselves, they cannot be critiqued or served as a meta-element like secondary. Secondary Discourses contain dominant and non dominant discourses, they are what gives one power, they are the popular and get the most prestige.
5. It means that that a Discourse is all about one's identity, the individuality of each person. The implications are that one must have a certain identity in order to be involved in a certain Discourse.
6. Each Discourse represents a specific thing and depending on what they do, say, value, or believe they are taught and believe certain things. This ties along with Discourse and identity because a Discourse is specific identity and an identity that is inter-changeable.
7. He is saying that members of a certain discourse community focus and understand a type of language and they know when something is wrong when someone outside of the community is incorrect. An example I can think of is my softball team in high school and hearing other people talk about the fundamentals of softball and being completely wrong. Rumors fit into this as well.
8. Dominant Discourse tests happen so that the right people are included in the correct discourse community and that the communities that deserve praise get it.
11. Meta-knowledge is knowing how to control certain instincts and how to improve different situations.
12. A discourse I consider myself to be part of is an athlete discourse. I play and love all sports and I have been around so many and know the language and aspects of so many that I would be included in that type of community.

AEI
2. In the primary Discourse that I am in I always try and use correct grammar when writing or speaking. The common phrases I use came from my random mind and the crazy things I come up with. Also common things I've heard from my family and friends. Sometimes I talk really high or low to emphasize certain things that I say. I am also very polite and can be very professional with certain people. And the values that I have learned growing up are values that I will always hold onto and teach my kids. With the academic Discourse I have basically done the same thing. I try and always be grammatically correct, I still like to put all of my imagination into it, and I can be very professional when speaking. I was lucky that the values I grew up with were the values that I needed to follow in academics.
4. The conflicts between the Discourses is the professional level and the goofing off level. I tend to goof off a lot around my family and friends and with academics and schooling that isn't acceptable. I have to watch out for the times where I can let loose and the times where I need to be professional and not goof off. I navigate by understanding where and when the situation calls for a better and calmer attitude.

Reflection
I like the way this article taught me certain things about Discourse and the differences between a lot of parts of it. I was semi-confused when first reading this article. I couldn't decipher between two different things but I think after answering the questions it was easier to understand, although I don't know if I answered them correctly!