Malinowitz

Getting Ready to Read

If a student were gay and went to a private school, especially a Catholic school, it would not be as hard to express one self, even to the teachers, at least thats what I think. Schools that find it immoral are thought to be religious schools, yet all religious schools are against is the actual act of being gay, not being gay in itself. I went to a Catholic school back home and there were several students that were "gay" and the teachers knew full well, but were they treated any differently? Of course not.

Summary

Malinowitz talks about how being gay can and will eventually affect an authors writing. Personal identity is always evident in writing and allowing these characteristics to come out will only help a persons writing for personal identity is so crucial for good writing. Malinowitz also looks at different pieces and authors who have come out and uses these works to better explain identity and the discourse community that comes along with being gay or lesbian.

Synthesis

Malinowitz is able to connect to several authors very easily, especially because so many talk about discourse communities and personal identity. Wardle talks about author identity which is a main topic in "Queer Texts, Queer Contexts." Looking at the more discourse community context, Glenn talks mainly about discourse communities and what makes up one. Finally, by looking at the text in more of an influential standpoint, Wysocki talks about the social influence, which is also discussed to an extent in Malinowitz's article.

AE2

One part of my identity that I am choosing to write about it my religion. I grew up Catholic and attended Catholic schools my whole life. My religion is very important to me and I have learned the language of the church through prayer and different studies that we had to do growing up in class. If I did not understand these languages it would be very hard to understand just what I believed in. I entered into this discourse community when I was baptized, so it is hard to say what it was like to not be in it, seeing as I was baptized by four months old.

Dialectical Notebook

Response	Quotation
It seems that is has become more acceptable or at least more common that people are gay now. Once I hit high school, out of the people that I graduated eighth grade with, two of them were gay. It seems that more people are coming out because society is not as harsh as they have been in the past.	“It’s not that students have suddenly and universally become emphatic and comfortable with lesbian and gay existence; but they do seem to regard the issue itself with much less suspicion or surprise than they used to.” (110)
I feel that this is a bit dated. I understand that there still is bullying over being gay and lesbian; however, when someone is actually beaten from being gay, it makes headlines because people care and because it does not happen every single day.	“And social visibility and political progress produce backlash; gay youth are ‘out’ in school have long faced verbal abuse and physical violence, raising their truancy and dropout rates (Tracey 1990; Comstock 1991), and anti lesbian and antigay violence continues to escalate.” (113)
I know that if my professor were to come out to me, I would look at her differently. I have nothing against gays, I am not a homophobic in anyway, but knowing something so personal about her does not seem very appropriate to me. It lacks professionalism.	“Yet I am also a lesbian teacher who, until four years ago, hesitated to come out to my students en masse and to many of my colleagues – except in protected parts of the ‘ivory closet’ (Escoffier 1990), such as woman’s studies programs.” (113)
I feel that it is important to get works out there for a certain group of people, this also starts looking at the gay community as more of a discourse community, a very broad one however.	“As various groups have resisted social marginalization and disenfranchisement, they have also argued for the importance of representation in academic texts, syllabi, policies, and programmatic agendas.” (114-115)
This is where the thought of discourse community is evident.	“For lesbians and gays, the, as for other groups (such as for example, deaf people or speakers of Black English), self definition as a social community or ‘culture’ has been instrumental in gaining to recognition and entitlements.” (115-116)
This term is fitting I feel. People that are gay are overly sensitive about terms. Being gay does not define someone yet they choose to let certain terms define who they are.	“The contempory term ‘queer,’ used mostly by younger activists and artists, conveys in popular jargon the basic idea of a broad category embracing a spectrum of those who deviate from the heterosexual norm.” (126)

My Thoughts

I found the article to be a long read. I understand that when you belong to a certain community (in the instance it's the gay community) than you tend to be a little more passionate about it. What I do not like is when someone is gay they act like this is the only thing that defines them because they make it known to everyone when they are ready to do so. In the reading, Malinowitz almost took on a defensive sort of tone a lot because so many times in the past gays have been targeted. I understand that the gay community has not always been treated right, but being gay is just a sexual preference to me. I do not constantly talk about being straight, and being straight does not need to influence my writing.

Devitt, et al.

Getting Ready to Read

Last time I was at the doctors and had to fill out one of the medical history forms, I actually did think about why they had me fill in certain areas. I know that because certain members of my family have had serious health problems, this could in turn affect me and might be a reason for why I am hurt or sick. It is important that the doctors have the most relevant information they can about the injury or problem that his or her patient may have.

Summary

The article is composed of three different authors and the essays that they each wrote on their take on discourse communities, and communities in general. The first is Devitt, who brings up the difficulty of the jargon used in certain communities and how this might be a challenge to understand this vocabulary when not in the same community. The example predominantly used in this essay is a jury. The next author, Bawarshi, discuses how the vocabulary used in a discourse community determines what sort of discourse community it is. Finally, the last of the authors, Reiff, regularly refers back to the ethnomethodological approach and it's importance in both genre and the communities.

Synthesis

Over the past week, we have done a lot with authors and their studies on discourse communities. Swales and Gee both discussed the importance of the discourse community. Swales also discussed the importance of the language which is a key point in Bawarshi's section of the article, along with Devitt's. Another author that is able to relate is Wardle, who again talked about discourse communities and their importance in writing.

Dialectical Notebook

Response	Quotation
People in different discourse communities might have a hard time understanding what the other is saying, especially if one of the discourse communities is a professional one, while the other is a common discourse community.	“While their purposes seem to be inclusive, to give nonmembers access to the community’s knowledge, genre analysis strongly suggests that the specialist and nonspecialist users have different beliefs, interests, and purposes as well as levels of knowledge.” (99)
I too find it important to be aware of what a piece of legislation actually means. When someone votes, they should not just base their opinion on what others think, but should be able to form their own opinion by understanding legal jargon.	“Doing our civic duty depends as much on our ability to understand and use genres accurately as it does on our willingness to be good citizens.” (100)
What I did not like about this section of the essay is that it is throwing the legal system under the bus. She is studying the jury, sure, but she is not studying the entire legal system as a whole. The jury members are average people, however, they still come from all different backgrounds and more than what may first be assumed may understand the words used by the lawyers and others. Just because they do not have as extensive of a degree does not mean that they do not understand what is going on.	“By the time the judges gives a jury instructions, those instructions contain presumtions, implications, specifications known well by the law community but unknown to the unsuspecting jury members. The genre thus has a significance for the legal community that it does not have for the jurors. As a result, juries do not and cannot interpret the genre that way its creators intended, as lawyers would, and cannot render verdicts that follow those instructions fully and accurately, thus resulting in significant consequences, particularly for defendants.” (100)
When giving this quote a lot of thought, it makes more sense. When looking at different cultures and even dialects of the same language, there are different attitudes and mentalities of the people using the language.	“Hence the idea of discourse community is built on the premise that what we know and do is connected the language that we use.” (104)
This example helped me to understand a little bit more where Bawarshi was trying to go with her article.	“A physician’s office might be considered a local discourse community and part of a wider one insofar as its members share language practices and have comparable purposes.” (105)

Meta Moment

I think the best approach to really understand a certain community or any subject for that matter is ethnographic field work. When someone actually experiences something, it is easier to better put yourself in the place of the people that have been in that community longer and understand why they act the way that they do. For example, it is one thing to sit behind a computer and try and understand a tribe in Africa, than to actually go to Africa and experience the tribe and their practices first hand. Learning by example definitely is more beneficial than trying to learn in a "scholarly" way.

My Thoughts

I liked that the article branched off into the different essays. Each of the essays showed a different importance of the discourse community and what each contributes to the successfulness of the community. I found that Devitts was the easiest to read and to get through, I think this is because I like learning about things having to do with law so it caught my attention from the beginning. I found the last article (Reiff) to be more of a challenge to get through, maybe because the information being discussed was a bit more dry.

Wardle

Getting Ready to Read

I think the person I am now is the same person that I was before I came to college. I came to college open to new experiences but when I talk to my friends back home, I find that none of us have changed any in the past eight or nine weeks and we are still able to connect just the same way as we had before we all left for school.
My whole senior year I was nervous to come to college because I was afraid of the leaving behind all my friends and family, and I was more nervous about how that would change me as a person. Coming to school, and going through all the different things so far that college has brought to me, I still am the same person that I was before. All that has really changed for me is that I have so many new people and have already developed friendships that I am sure will last. I have stayed the same person however, and it is evident when similar situations happen here that had happened when I was back home, and how I handled those situations.

Summary

Wardle uses her article to discuss identity both in writing and in the work place. She uses several other authors and sociologists to discuss the process of both entering into a sort of community and also what happens when one has been in the community for some time. She looks at three different "modes of belonging" which include: engagement, imagination, and alignment. Finally, she closes out the article by taking look Alan, at a person who instead of conforming to his new work place, kept his old habits and found it very hard to go about his work when he was expected to act in a different manner.

Synthesis

Wardle can easily be linked to authors that also look at what it takes to get into communities, especially things such as discourse communities. The two authors that were looked at on Wednesday, Gee and Swales, both discussed the importance of discourse communities and what it took to enter and to stay in the discourse communities. Along with the two authors, Bryson is another author that can relate back to Wardle, because Bryson talked about force of habit and how, which goes along with Alan, the man who could not break his habits and found it hard to remain in a workplace that expected him to change.

Dialectical Notebook

Response	Quotation
Our identity is a very complex thing, that is why not just one thing is able to define who a person is.	“According to Wenger, ‘layers build upon each other to produce our identity as a very complex interweaving of participative experience and reificative projections.” (524)
Sometimes becoming a member of something takes so much time and effort that it becomes easy to lose time for other things that used to be a major focus in someone’s life. This is seen every single day, one example could be a new job taking place of the importance of family for some time.	“We must also consider whether expanding involvement in one system forces us away from other activity systems we value – away from ‘activity systems of family, neighborhood, and friend that construct ethnic, racial, gender, and class identit(ies)’” (522)
Writing is easily influenced by things and places. If someone is writing in the work place, depending on the atmosphere of the work place, the writings of the authors can sometimes be effected.	“To tease our relationships between identity and writing in the workplace, we need theories that consider the workplace as a legitimate and important influence on subject information.” (522)
When someone believes strongly in what he or she is saying and has authority, he or she will not be questioned and she or he will be looked at as someone who knows that they are talking about.	“Those listening accept the speaker’s pronouncement because the speaker is who she is.” (526)
There are times where two different communities may have different standards which conflict with each other. People can find themselves in different groups of friends that may not like each other because of different activities that go on in the sets of friends.	“At times, however, participation in new communities requires accepting for oneself identities that are at odds with the values of other communities to which one belongs.” (525)

My Thoughts

I liked reading this article. Everything that she talked about was easy to follow and understand and even put myself in the shoes of the different points. With Alan, I could understand on both sides of the problem. I saw why Alan was hesititent to conform; however, I could also see why it was so important that he did. The article as a whole was very informative and really helped to better understand identity in both writing and in social situations.

Swales/Gee

Swales

Getting Ready to Read

I feel out of place when I do not see a familiar or friendly face where I am. I like being in an atmosphere where people are welcoming and open to meeting new people if I am not in a group of people where they already know each other. When I am in the right state of mind I can be a very outgoing person, however other peoples attitudes also affect how I am in situations, and when I feel out of place people are definitely able to tell by my expression and how I carry myself.

Summary

Swales looks at the different Discourse communities and explains the process of entering and leaving such communities. A main focus is the speech community and understanding this specific Discourse community and how it works. Swales also offers six defining characteristics which allows for the audience (students and those new to the idea of discourse communities) to have a better understanding of what a discourse community is and how they can apply this to their lives.

Dialectical Notebook (even though we didn't have to do one)

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Response	Quotation
Different discourse communities rely on each other, at least that is how I look at this quotation. It takes other Discourse communities to form a new one, or even prevent the formation of one.	“Conversely, the absence of any one (different subject areas, conflicting procedures, no interaction, and multiple discourse conventions) may be enough to prevent discourse community formation – as international politics frequently reminds us.” (469)
Speech communities come together because of people understanding the linguistic rules and all in all involve the English-speaking world.	“At the outset, a speech community was seen as being composed of those who share similar linguistic rules (Bloomfield, 1933), and in those terms we could legitimately refer to, say, the speech community of the English-speaking world.” (470)
This example helped me to better understand what they meant when talking about this particular Discourse community. Everyone has heard a New Yorkers accent, so imagining that while reading this made it that much more obvious what Swales was trying to explain.	“’New York City is a single speech community, and not a collection of speakers living side by side, borrowing occasionally from each other’s dialects’ (Labov, 1966:7)” (470)
The goals are going to be most important part of the discourse community, they are more important or at least take more dominate role over the development of the community.	“In a discourse community, the communicative needs of the goals tend to predominate in the development and maintenance of its discoursal characteristics.” (471)
We learn to speak from a young age, this is where we enter into the discourse community of speech. Others can enter the community be learning from others, maybe even looking up to a sponsor.	“A speech community typically inherits its membership by birth, accident or adoption; a discourse community recruits its members by persuasion, training or relevant qualification.” (471)
People learn the ways of the community all of their lives and when they leave it is usually because that person is not alive anymore.	“Discourse communities have changing memberships; individuals enter as apprentices and leave by death or in other less involuntary ways.” (473)

Synthesis

One obvious author that Swales is able to relate to is Gee, who also uses his article to explain what a discourse community is, however, Swales and Gee differ on opinion when it comes to some of the characteristics of discourse communities. Another author that Swales is able to relate to is Brandt who talks about sponsorship, which though not directly spoken about, Swales talks about learning and entering into the discourse communities by ways of watching others. Finally, Porter is another author who talks mainly and about the discourse community.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling

5. I am part of the Alpha Xi Delta discourse community, which I just recently joined. This specific discourse community is a sorority here at Ohio University. The common goals that all the girls share is the volunteer work that we partake in and the amount of money we try and reach for autism. Also, we have goals that involve our grades and specific goals that include living in the house. Intercommunicating among the members crosses over to another discourse community, with that community just involving being a woman. We all come from different backgrounds and some may have a different dialect than others, but we can still communicate well. Next is the feedback, which can come from attending the chapter meetings and actually partaking in the events that the sorority puts on. Following that is the furtherance of aims in the community, which for the sorority is making sure that grades are kept up and not falling into academic probation. The specific lexis involved include understanding the greek alphabet and the different sayings that we need to know for the group. Finally, learning what it is to be a sister in the community is something that I am still doing seeing as I am not an official member just yet.
6. When I joined a soccer team but did not connect well with girls, I felt outcasted and did not try and make friends with them. I think when you do not feel like you belong to something, there is not going to be any effort put forth so the success of being in that discourse community might not be possible.

My Thoughts

In the beginning, I thought this was going to be an article that was going to be hard to follow. After actually concentrating and allowing myself to read, I found that it was actually a lot easier to follow than I thought. I understood after all the examples what exactly it meant to be part of a specific discourse community and what causes one to enter into one. I also liked reading the six different characteristics of one because I was able to apply this to my life now and understand where exactly I stand in the discourse communities that I am part of.

Gee

Getting Ready to Read

I partake in academics, soccer, and just recently joined a sorority. Each are completely different but by just being involved, it affects each one of the communities. I am able to better relate to different types of people and each discourse community has allowed me to be better open when it comes to meeting new people and trying to better understand them. 

Summary

Gee in his article talks about how discourse communities come from a more social aspect than a literary aspect. When one is learning to come a part of a certain community, this is a stage of apprenticeship which may never be mastered, so it may not be completely possible to fully enter into certain discourse communities. Gee gives his readers (students and those learning about the idea of a discourse community) different examples of discourse communities and the difference between primary and secondary communities. 

Synthesis

Gee is able to relate back to Swales because together, Porter, Swales, and Gee all discuss the importance of discourse communities and how they affect each of us. Another author that relates is Bryson who speaks of the language, which Gee studies and understands. 

Meta Moment

Gee's claims to help me to understand my experiences more, or at least make me look at them in a different way. I can look at my experiences now and think about the communities that I belong to and understand who else may as well. When entering into another community (which I am not sure that with what Glee said, is even possible), which would be another setting, then I would know better what to expect. 

Dialectical Notebook

Response	Quotation
I think this is a good way to look at a discourse community. When it comes to a community I think of them as more of a social place rather than the people’s literacy of that specific grouping.	“These papers, though written at different times, and for different purposes, are, nonetheless, based on the claim that the focus of literacy studies or applied linguistics should not be language, or literacy, but social practices.” (482)
I know this for a fact. When I went to Spain and had to use the Spanish that I knew, I knew that what I was saying was just the appropriate terms that I learned, not necessarily what one would say who uses the language every day.	“’Language’ is a misleading term it too often suggests ‘grammar.’ It is a truism that a person can know perfectly the grammar of a language and not know how to use that language. It is not just what you say, but how you say it” (483)
The situation that one is in also affects the language that is being used.	“It is not just how you say it, it what you are and do when you say it.” (483)
Every person is part of discourse communities. It is inevitable. Several discourse communities may over lap one another and maybe even cause one to not be fully part of one type of community.	“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.” (484)
When you feel most comfortable is when you are able to truly express yourself, especially when you are surrounded by your friends.	“Our primary Discourse constitutes our original and home-based sense of identity, and, I believe, it can be seen whenever we are interacting with ‘inmates’ in totally casual (unmonitored) social interaction.” (485)

Thoughts

I found this article to be very informative. There were certain points that kind of contradicted themselves to me a little bit. I could not follow whether or not it was possible to become part of discourse community or not in his eyes. He changed his opinion or at least worded it in a way where it seemed like he did, a few times. I was able to follow along with this easily and it was not hard to read like some of the authors proved to be.