journal 4 sarah wilkerson

In James Gee’s article he uses the key words acquisition, which is “acquiring something subconsciously by exposure to models and a process of trial and error,” and learning, which is “a process that involves conscious knowledge gained through teaching, though not from someone officially designated a teacher.” The connection is that even when you learn something, you still acquire knowledge by watching someone do it or from experience when you practice it. He also used the actual word discourse many times which he defined as “a socially accepted group among ways of using language, thinking, and of acting that can be used to identify oneself as a member of a social network.” This relates with the other two terms because to be a part of this social network one must be acquainted with language, thinking, and acting inside of that group, and those behaviors would have to either be learned or acquired. In class when we discussed genre, audience, and knowledge we were being taught more about what the words mean and in turn acquired a better understanding when we had to discuss and answer the questions on our own. A discourse community is kind of like being in its own genre, with their own personal knowledge and audience within their community. The discourse community I am interested in researching for project two pertains to the discipline of marketing, specifically the social media aspect of it. Marketing is about advertising, thinking about ways to catch consumer’s attention, and acting or posting in a manner they think will be successful. A marketing major or a person in sales would be part of this community that uses writing to advertise products, write proposals, and inform people of what they are trying to sell. I am interested in this discourse community because it is the major I intend to pursue and social media is an interesting new aspect that has become very prevalent in recent years.