Draft
What does being a member of a discourse community have to offer me and what has is taught me?
By now I have learned lots of useful information and practices within and about our discourse community. I have learned about the Lexis of our discourse community. I believe this is one of the most important attributes that a member could learn within our discourse community. The reason for this is because if one member didn’t know what kind of language was used and how it was implemented and communicated within our community, then that person would not be able to be a full member of the community within first learning the lexis. A real world example of this would be starting a new job as a let’s say at a sub shop. The new member probably has no prior experience of making subs so the other members have to teach the new member on the lexis of sandwich making. Seek first to understand then to be understood. Once that new person has learned and fully understands the lexis of the sub shop then one can be understood as a full pledged member of that discourse community. Another prime aspect I have learned within our discourse community is how to better understand the reading and writing process. The teacher of our community showed us different ways, using prime examples, to better break down the different aspects and stages of doing research for a paper. We also learned how to break down different aspects of reading and understanding a paper. Joseph Harris says, “The hardest part about reading papers is sorting through the viewpoints.” These viewpoints are represented throughout Harris’s article about the idea of community in the study of writing and reading. He goes on to explain different techniques to break down an article and how to apply those same techniques in your own writing. This community has taught me a lot in the aspect of reading and writing as not only an individual but also as a member of a functional discourse community. These are only two prime examples of what being a member of a discourse community has taught me and offered me. There are many more techniques and skills that being a member of this community has taught me, such as using different tools for conducting research. In high school I always used to find the easiest way to do my research even if it meant not doing hardly any research. I would always take words and lines from other people and never cited them, I would never read a full article instead I would try to find a summary of that article online somewhere. My research would always be good and accurate but I would never fully understand what I was talking, writing, or researching about. I had bad research habits in high school that I prayed and hoped would be fixed in college. So far my habits for researching and implementing my research in my writing have proven to be far more effective than that of high school. I have put more effort into understanding my topic and am able to implement the research in my writing. Just by telling the reader about my understanding and knowledge, using examples from past experiences and examples in class, I have proven to the reader that my research habits have highly increased. I now use more effective methods of researching such as charting my research and findings in an organized structure. For example, I may use note cards to write certain topics down and then more note cards for each topic. I use methods such as the spider web where I write the central topic in the middle and branch off 8 different sub topics from the central point. Methods such as this have helped me understand my reading more and be able to reflect this understanding in my writing, thus making me a better reader and writer. Seek first to understand, then to be understood. Techniques like these and practices such as this are only a little piece of what this discourse community has to offer. I was a little skeptical about entering this community because of one aspect, trust. Trust is hard to come by in a community with people who don’t know each other well. Within our particular community the members were placed into separate groups of 4 or 5 people. Each group had certain literacy assignments assigned to them that they had to complete as a group. Everybody in that group had to trust each other in order to ensure that the group members would get their work done so the assignment could be completed on time. Luckily within my group everybody was able to cooperate, communicate and trust each other to get the work done. Trust within a discourse community is very important and vital for the community to function well. For example in one Literacy Narrative writings I stated that my 2nd grade English teacher, Mrs. Kondax, was one of the people who influenced me the most in English and because of the trust I gained with her, I was able to be very successful in future English classes because I just expected each teacher to be like Mrs. Kondax. So far all my teachers stick to their word as a teacher and as a friend. I believe having a trustworthy leader/teacher is very vital in a discourse community. Without these leaders then there would be no organized community. Elizabeth Wardle states that, “Authority is a tangible quality granted to persons through institutions…must be maintained through individuals speech and actions.” I believe what Mrs. Wardle is saying is that authority can be assigned as easily as it can be taken away. Mr. Albert Wray is the assigned leader for our discourse community, as members we follow his leadership and listen to his instruction. He was assigned but can just as easily be taken away from his authority. However if this were to happen our community would be without a leader and without the privilege to learn what Mr. Wray has to say. This discourse community offers leadership, trust, lexis, techniques and practices, and knowledge to advance to a higher more knowledgeable discourse community.
Works Cited
1. Wardle, Elizabeth. “Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces.” Enculturation 5.2 (2004): n. pag. Web. 18 Feb. 2010.
2. Harris, Joseph. “ The Idea of Community in the Study of Writing.” College Composition and Communication 40.1 (1989):11-22. Print.
3. Rosinski, Alex. http://arosinski.blogspot.com/2011/10/literacy-narative.html: personal Literacy Narrative Web. 27 Oct. 2011
