Discourse Communities

Johns Summary
In her article, "Discourse Communities and Communities of Practice", Ann M. Johns attempts to explain social, political, academic and recreational communities, and the language, texts and values of certain discourse communities. She talks about the diversity and rebellion within a community, for instance she states, "even after individuals are fully initiated, many factors can separate them". This means a lot of individuals will rebel against their discourse community. Johns argues that academics and others may have similar thoughts and ideas, but when it comes to the broader view it can be quite diverse.

QD
1. Some complications are the cost of some discourse communities, things can be very costly and not very accommodated. There can be a lot authority and rebellious behavior within a community, like someone may not approve of the certain leader of that discussion. Also, there are critiques within a community that people don't agree with.
2. Change within a discourse community occurs when A member experience different events in their life that change their thoughts and motives to the point where they feel the need to change discourse communities. A time when this has happened is when Alexander Graham Bell changed his invention to the telephone after experiencing a change in knowledge.
3. I don't think writing for different communities made me lose a sense of self because everyone adjusts to certain situations and has the ability to write and think in different ways and still stay true to themselves.
4. When Johns talks about learning how to read and write I don't think it is possible for one to lose their identity because in eery piece of writing one can act as a different person, and base themselves soft of someone else, but they allays have their own identity. Identities are varied.
5. The authority in college has been so much more relaxed and pleasant than in high school. I feel as if we all have a purpose in our class to write and actually want to write more because there isn't a strong authoritative manner. We can write for ourselves and not for others, but to a point.
6. It's considered a minefield because sometimes there are no set boundaries. I have been punished before because of not following a certain outline, but also rewarded for stepping out of the box a few times.

MM
I think by reading Johns, I know that by joining a discourse community there are going to be specific rules and one is going to have to follow them, but also that there has to be a sense of self and individualism because the world is diverse and varies many ways.

Reflection
I enjoyed this article. I hope I understood it correctly, sometimes I go out on a limb and make up my own meanings in between lines. I really liked how she talked about the rebellion aspect of individuals within a discourse ebecause I feel like that may be one of the biggest problems.