Based on your reading of Gee's article, what keywords do you
notice him using? In other words, what terms does he focus on? how does he
define these terms? what are the connections among them? What connections do
you see between our class discussion about genre, audience, and knowledge and
Gee's article on discourse?
In Gee's article,
the terms he focuses on are clearly discourse, morality, individual, acquisition,
and learning. He defines discourse as "a socially accepted association
among ways of using language, of thinking, and of acting that can be used to
identify oneself as a member of a socially meaningful group or "social
network,'"(1). To Gee, morality is defined as ""wrong" is
seen as the disruption of social networks, and "right" as the repair
of those networks," (3). He connects discourse and morality together when
he writes that they conflict with one another especially when related to social
power and hierarchies. He connects discourse and individuals when he defines
the term individuals, saying that “Individuals give body to a discourse every
time they act or speak; thus they carry it and change it through time,” (3).
His comparison of acquisition and learning are that acquisition is a process of
gaining something subconsciously through experiences or mistakes in life
whereas learning is the process that knowledge is gained consciously, like a teacher/student
setting in a classroom (4). When we talked about discourse in class, we defined
it as a set or group of people who have unique qualities in the ways they
communicate with each other, like a doctor’s office. Gee mentions that his
discourse community when he was younger was his reading class because “learning
to read is learning some aspect of some discourse,”(5). Our class can also draw
connections to knowledge because we both agree that knowledge is developed
through the process of personal, conscious growth or learning and not acquisition.
Next, consider the discourse community that you are
interested in researching for project two. What is the discourse community?
What "ways of using language, of thinking, and of acting" (Gee p. 29)
distinguish this discourse community from others? How does one become a member
of this discourse community? What role does writing seem to play in this
discourse community?
There are a
few discourse communities I am interested in: Greek life, journalism, and
finance, but I am leaning toward Greek like more than the others. This
discourse community thinks about ways to help the community around them through
service projects and outreaches. They compose themselves with high standards
and only accept the most qualified girls inside. In order to be a member one
must partake in a week long “rush” to decide what house fits them the most. In
this community, public relations in writing is seen through campaigns and
advertisements promoting Greek life or the event they are hosting.
Finally, what interests you about this particular discourse
community, and how can you use that interest to develop your research project?
In other words, think about why you want to become a member of this discourse
community and what you need to know and be able to do in order to join it.
I am very
interested in Greek life because I have always been a part of a support system
throughout my life whether it was on sports teams or clubs and I do not want to
lose that in college. This will help me develop my research project because my
interest will be a motivation to gain more knowledge about this discourse and
the writing involved. My passion can fuel my research and understanding of this
project. In order to join it, I will need to meet people who have been a part
of it, so I can make connections and influence their decision to let me in. It
is all about the people someone knows. I will also need to research the
background of each sorority and find the one that fits best for me and my
personality.
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