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Activities for Discourse Community Knowledge

  

Activity 2.2A

1) Construct a discourse community map that outlines the different discourse communities you belong to and the different literacies you must have in order to be a member of each discourse community. You might look to your literacy narrative work from Chapter 1 for possible discourse community ideas, and you could even include a discourse community you are not yet part of (e.g. your major, desired profession or place of employment, etc.) Find sample texts from each of your discourse communities and bring them to class.

Consider the following areas when creating your map (list both what you know and what you don’t know, considering how you could find out more):

  • What are the conventions of this discourse community? i.e. What are purposes and goals of the community and norms for “good writing”?
  • Texts: what are the typical genres (types of texts) used by members of this discourse community?
  • Topics: what subjects are written about in this discourse community?
  • Terminology/lingo: what specialized language is used and why is it used? Provide examples.
  • Joining the discourse community—how does one become an insider? What are the writing activities and roles of discourse community members?

2) As directed by your instructor, in groups during class share the texts and ask your group members to identify each discourse community (keep that a secret from your group members). As a group discuss all of your “answers.” Were they right? Why or why not? How could you tell the discourse communities from the texts? Write about how a discourse community can define itself based on its shared texts, using specific examples from your group.

Activity 2.2B

Read “Learning the Language” by Perri Klass. Identify insights you gain about the concept of discourse community from this reading. What discourse community is she writing about? What are its members’ goals? What do they value and believe? What specialized language and forms of communication do they share? How does Klass demonstrate the extent to which the goals and values of a discourse community shape writing and communication more broadly? What is her overall point in this text?

Activity 2.2C

As directed by your instructor, examine two or more texts about the same topic, but written for different discourse communities (for example, a medical article in the New York Times and an article on that same medical topic in the Journal of the American Medical Association). List the differences you notice, contrasting the texts. What do you think each of these discourse communities value based on your examination of these texts?

Activity 2.2D

As directed by your instructor, complete a writing task for a specific discourse community. Then write about the same topic for a different discourse community. Reflect on the differences between your documents and how you approached the tasks—your role as a writer—what goals, values, and beliefs of the discourse community you had to keep in mind, and what about the document you had to change for the different discourse community.

(Activities 2.2A, C, and D were adapted from Beaufort’s book College Writing and Beyond.)