John Swales Discourse Community

ASAM 100 has been one of the most insightful classes I have taken in college—so far! Through this class, I was able to learn a great deal about my culture and about myself as a person. In retrospect to my first “Why ASAM?” essay, I still believe that it is important for everybody to learn about their culture sometime throughout their life. I was able to learn about various topics such as: the issues of my culture, the traditions of my culture, how others view individuals of my culture, and more. Throughout this class, I learned about the Model Minority Myth and its effect on individuals of Asian background, I learned about issues that other Asian Americans faced through the video, Asian American Voices, and I learned to grow as a writer.

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)

What is a discourse community? According to “The Concept of Discourse Community,” it’s a “discourse operates within conversations defined by communities, be they academic disciplines or social groups.” In other words, it is a group that has goals or a purpose and use communication to achieve that goal. In the movie Mean Girls there are many examples of discourse communities but I’m going to focus specifically on The Plastics. The movie Mean Girls is about a sixteen year old girl, Cady Heron, who has recently moved from Africa to the United States, and is attending public school for the first time. Her first day of school was not the best, but on her second day of school she meets Janis Ian and Damian Leigh who start to guide Cady into high school by telling her about different groups (cliques/discourse communities) in the school, including the Plastics, which is made up of Karen Smith, Gretchen Wieners, and Regina George. The Plastics soon take interest in Cady ask her to sit with them at lunch. Thanks to that we learn all about the discourse community of The Plastics. According to John Swales, there are six characteristics of a discourse community which I will discuss and use The Plastics as an example.

A prominent political analyst and author Mark Braider recently made the case in a 2015 New York Times piece stating that corporations and their influence on our government is a major, often un-recognized pitfall of America. While many may be ignorant of the issue, those who are informed often come to the same conclusions as Braider in his argument about to which the extent of corporations in America affect our government and way of life; often for the worse. Looking at the macro scale at which government has an effect the lives we live; private prisons serve as the epitome in commercial-political interaction. The issue of private prisons the reason why I strongly agree with Braider’s controversial opinion about the importance of informing the ignorant of this pressing issue.

Recently, there has been a lot of interest in discourse communities. According to James Porter, "a discourse community is a group of people bound by a common interest who communicate through channels and discourse is regulated (Couzelis, Isip, Adkins 12 and Porter 38-39).  John Swales, however, states that a community can only be a true discourse community if they meet six requirements: they have to share clearly stated goals; they have to use a mechanism of communication; they offer feedback and information; utilize one or more genres of text, the group uses specific lexis; and they have old members with new ones (Couzelis, Isip, Adkins 12 and Swales 471-473). Under these guidelines, Mike Rose 's mother Rosie is in a discourse community because

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.

Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian philosopher and author, once stated, “The well-being of a community of people working together will be the greater, the less the individual claims for himself the proceeds of his work, the more of these proceeds he makes over to his fellow-workers, the more his own needs are satisfied, not out of his own work but out of the work done by others” (“Recording of Society”). This quote represents the true meaning of a discourse community. A discourse community is a group of social individuals that work together to reach a common goal, understand the same basic values and assumptions, and use a unique kind of communication to reach their set goal or purpose. A good example of a discourse community is the organization

Brooks utilizes personal emotional appeal to his audience that creates relatability to Kathy Fletcher and David Simpsons. The couple lives in a house consisting of “small bedrooms” yet they still manage to accommodate everybody that is welcomed to their home. Brooks give the idea that the couple are average, yet managed to do a tremendous task. These children refer to Kathy and David as “Momma and Dad,” showing that they represent what they didn’t have and it creates a relationship between the children and Kathy and David. The children are also “unfailingly polite” and “turn toward one another’s loves” proving that they are now part of a family and they began to rely on each other like a family does. Kathy and David’s house “had been a weekly

Various linguists and/or writers have different opinions in relation to their definitions of a discourse community. Even though it may be different from other authors, I define a discourse community as a group of individuals willing to exchange efforts and some with similar interests with a finality of contributing positively to a given society. For instance, a basketball team, has as focus the conquest of championships, which at the same time will give the fans something to cheer for and will also attract more tourists; thus, helping a given society financially.

As a result of the segregation from other races, Asian Americans have typically kept to themselves and are focused on becoming successful. In addition to the political absence of Asians extending beyond other races, the persistent model minority myth is an accepted truth within the community itself. While the stereotupe is a complete myth, it has been so embedded that even Asian Americans start to believe it, making them and other believe that Asians are the only minority that have endowed the key to success in America. Asians are not only placed in the shadows, but they also choose to stay; many are too comfortable with their successful personal lives, to the extent of neglecting the matters of other Asians ethnicities. Additionally, Asians are perceived to be traditionally passive, giving an almost filial piety towards white people in hopes of having the same privileges. This explains why 29.4% of Trump voters were Asians, even though he did not have a campaign that specifically geared towards them (NYTIMES). In more cases than not, he continuously belittled China and Korea with his xenophobic rhetoric, but many Asians continued to support him. The phenomenon of the model minority myth is perpetuated by its own

A discourse community has yet to have a solid definition; though some have come close. One of the people who have attempted to define discourse community is John Swales. Swales, rather than use a standard definition, chose to create a set list of criteria. With the help of the criteria and my interview of Dane (a member of my chosen discourse community) I will discuss how my chosen group, Communications 101, is a discourse community.

A discourse community is a group of people who share a common interest, ambition, and hobby; they use communication to achieve certain goals or issues that they have encountered. There are many discourse communities all over the world, and many of us are in one or more discourse communities; however, they might not even know it. In life, each person will eventually be a part of a discourse community. A discourse community has many definitions; John Swales defines discourse communities as, groups that have goals or purpose, and use communication to achieve these goals. According to “The Concept of Discourse Community,” by instructors and researcher John Swales, there are six requirements that are required to form a discourse community. These

Creations, like most things in life, are improvable. Ideas and theories are always evolving into different ideas or more sophisticated ones. Discourse communities is a term that has been debated over the years. Three of those debaters are James Paul Gee, James P. Porter, and John Swales. In this essay I will analyze what each of these writers see as the definition of a discourse community while comparing specific points that each of them have regarding their personal view on the subject. It is also important to keep in mind that these authors published each of their articles within a 3-year period. That is important because Swales was the first of the three to publish his paper, everyone who wrote about discourse communities after him, already

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

The City College of New York referred to as CCNY was founded in 1847, as the Free Academy of the City of New York. The college was originally opened “to provide the children of immigrants and the poor access to free higher education based on academic merit alone.” (CITATION NEEDED) Over the years it pushed towards the progressions countless other institutions were often indifferent towards. They found ways to accept and nourish great minds that would have been otherwise excluded in their time. It is no great wonder that Former First Lady Michelle Obama devoted her last commencement address to the 2016 graduates of this institution.