James Paul Gee's Literacy, Discourse And Linguistics

Both TESOL and WIDA standards have grade level breakdown: PreK-K, 1-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. And both are broken down by English level proficiency.

Writing in Human Services can be divided into a professional and an academic division. Professionals in this field utilize writing as a tool of service designed to ensure quality of care for clients served, while academic writing focuses on education and further research within the field. Both professional writing and academic writing have their own set of values and styling that will be analysis in this paper.

College writing compared to high school writing greatly differs. Throughout high school, students focused on narrating an essay,

A Discourse community is a group of people who contribute a selective intrest and use a certain type of language to communicate with each member in the community. A register is another type of way in which something is explained or written and can be very important the meaning of the message. We interact with each other in many various ways , such as texting, e- mailing , talking , in person , social medias or even letters which allows us to get the messages as fast as we can and get things done .

In the article, " What Is 'Academic ' Writing," the author gives the meaning of the academic writing style. L. Lennie Irvin speaks that this writing style is argumentative and analytical and states the three characteristics. Academic writing characteristics includes: having clear evidence, the importance of reason over emotions or sensual perception, and having an imaged reader. The purpose of an argumentative essay is to hold a discussion to gain a better understanding of the topic. I have learned that I need to have an organized presentation and have strong evidence to write this specific writing. Analytical writing identifies the true meaning of the subject, help find where the answer is located, and determines the relationship among

An important discourse community that was a part of my life was my volleyball team during my four years of high school. I started playing my first year going into high school and continued until I graduated. Until now I wasn’t even aware that would even be considered a discourse community, but it fits all of the qualifications of Swales’ definition of a discourse community.

… perception of race is perpetuated as a means of preserving the power of the dominant white group through its basis for racism: biological characteristics translate to moral characteristics, and thus the “truth,” in foucault's conception of the word, of a minority race is formed, allowing that race to be categorized as inferior to the dominant race. (

Swales, John. “The Concept of Discourse Community.” Writing About Writing, A College Reader. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 466-479.

The first organized game was played in Hoboken, New Jersey, on June 19, 1846. The Knickerbockers faced a team called the New York Nines, who won the game 23 to 1.The baseball we play today still follows many of the rules Cartwright thought up in 1845. (Creative Classroom April/May 1990)

Based on Stuart Hall’s (2006) discussion of Foucault’s theory of discourse, a discourse is generally consisting of a group of statements that together offer a way of talking about a par-ticular knowledge on a certain topic. Many individuals can produce it together, in different institutional settings. The discourse thereby enables the construction of a topic in a specific way which at the same time limits other constructions of the same topic. A discourse is made up not only from one but a multiplicity of statements that all share the same style to talk about the same topic. However, it is not a closed off system, it draws statements from and into other discourses. A discourse in this understanding is not based on the classical distinction between thought and action, it “(…) is about the production of knowledge through language. But it is itself produced by a practice: “discursive practice” – the practice of producing meaning” (Hall, 2006:165). It follows that because all social practices involve meaning, all practices necessarily have a discursive side. A discourse is comparable to what sociologists would call an ‘ideology’. It is composed of statements and/or beliefs that shape knowledge in the interest of one particular group. But, according to Foucault (in: Hall, 2006) a discourse is more appro-priate because an ‘ideology’ claims ‘truth’, which in turn can be falsified. But the social, po-litical and moral world seldom allows the formulation of ‘entirely’ true or

Multiple definitions of discourse communities exist, and therefore many questions arise. Where exactly is the line between a discourse community and a speech community drawn? “How [does] a particular discourse community use its discoursal conventions to initiate new members or how [does] the discourse of another reifies particular values or beliefs” (SWALES)? Some may consider musicians as part of a discourse community, or even a good group of friends. No matter the exact distinctions, John Swales proposes six defining characteristics of all discourse communities noting they each have publicly agreed upon set of common goals, mechanisms of intercommunication, mechanisms

In my past years of writing I have seen myself develop into a well disciplined and patient writer. However, I have seen myself significantly improve and mature as a writer over the past few months more than I have in the past four years. I view writing as an open doorway full of ideas, feelings, and thoughts weaved together simply for creating a masterpiece. Before entering college English 1010, high school students are conditioned to write required papers and assignments without having the ability to “put you’re your own opinions and feelings in a paper.” Fortuantly,I have been given the opportunity at The University of Memphis to express myself in writing

John Swales and James Paul Gee discuss about the samic tipic “Discourse”. In my point of view, their understanding of “Discourse” is similar. However, they explain it in different ways. In John Swales’ essay, he gives six defining charactertics of discourse community. For example, “ Adiscourse community had a broadly agree set of common public goals” (Swales 220), and “A discouse community utilizes and bence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtberance of its aims”(Swales 221). On the contrary, Gee expresses the “Discourse” by giving the nemes. Gee uses “Primary discourse”, “Secondary discourse” to divided the general Discourse. For example, “This initial Discourse, which I call our primary Discourse is one ...” (Gee

1) The two types of Discourses, “saying (writing)-doing-being-valuing- believing combinations,” James Paul Gee addresses in his essay “Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics” are Primary Discourses and Secondary Discourses. These Discourses are “ways of being in the world; they are forms of life which integrate words, acts, values, beliefs, attitudes, and social identities as well as gestures, glances, body positions, and clothes.” Both Discourses are acquired through acculturation. Our primary Discourse is acquired in the home and peer groups. While secondary Discourses are obtained through “various non-home based social institutions,” such as churches, schools, and organizations.

Formal writing is taken to be a serious one without notations of relaxed and friendly language. According to (Heylighen and Dewaele 41) a formal style is usually characterized by accuracy, rigidity, detachment, and heaviness. This is in contrast to informal writing which is, on the other hand, direct, flexible, implicit and involved though less informative. Formality in Academic writing is highly regarded for it helps in evading misinterpretation and ambiguity in the resulting work. Formality is associated with some concept such as colloquial language (Hundt and Mair 223).such is a language that is used in day to day activities by ordinary people. In the use of colloquial language, writers will try to connect with their readers. However, the latter does not end in narrowing the gap between conversation and academic