Multimodal Literacy Ethnography Questions

Anything can be described as a discourse community as long as whatever it is has set goals and set procedures for going through life every day. For example our English class is a discourse community. The reason this is so is because we have certain goals, certain practices to obtain those goals, and certain characteristics for each practice. The main central goal within our discourse community is to pass the class but however each member of the community may have separate smaller goals. For example someone might want to learn about English while someone may just want to know what they need to know to pass the class. With different goals come different practices. As a full community we do take on the same practices such as writing within in wiki, daybook, and blogs. We all approach the task within the same manner by using those 3 types of practices. The approach to each practice for each individual may be different however. For example if we are asked to write in our daybooks, someone may write 30 words while someone else might write a whole page. The quality of the work depends upon the quality of the student. The quality of the participation within the community depends upon the quality of the student. So the approach, the practice, the participation, and the work all depend on the quality of the student. The difference in quality between each member is healthy for the overall production of the discourse community. However one of the major qualities of a well-oiled, functioning discourse community is good communication. Without good communication a community is nothing. Communication is everything; it’s what keeps everyone on the same page with the rest of the community. It makes sure no one is behind with the community’s goals and practices. Each community has a certain language that can only relate to that community and that is referred to as lexis. Lexis is a type of language that is used within our particular discourse community. Only within our community are certain terms used that another community may not understand. For example; words like error and even discourse community relate only to our community. Some other community may have some sort of idea on what we are talking about but usually the lexis doesn’t pertain to them. This is where the communication aspect of a community comes into play. With a certain lexis established then a certain type of communication can be established, and with a certain type of communication established then goals can be reached through certain practices that pertain only to that community. With everything in order then the discourse community can grow and achieve more than just the goals they set.