Blog #5 -- Discourse Communities

When first trying to learn the concept of a discourse community in class, I was pretty confused. I saw we didn't haaave to read Swales article, so I didn't…

But once I read back on my notes and the slides, I think I can kind of piece together what a discourse community is.

From my understanding, a simplified version of Swales six characteristics of a discourse community is:

1. A group of people with common goals
2. The members have ways to communicate with each other
3. Feedback and/or information is given back to the members of the group
4. They use different types of communication to the public
5. Have their own jargon/lingo/slang amongst them
6. The group has positions of higher power and/or knowledge

An example I can think of is a sorority or fraternity. Although I’m not in Greek life, my boyfriend is and from what I know, I think these characteristics can apply:

1. Each sorority/fraternity has a goal to raise funds for a specific service organization
2. Members have various ways to communicate, such as weekly meetings, Facebook, text messages
3. Information in given back to inform them of future events, parties, etc. as well as feedback if everyone is pulling their weight and participating
4. There are different types of communication to the public to relay information including booths, advertising signs or messages for a fundraiser, or a website
5. They use their own terminology to identify different things as well as slang words that they all pick up on from being around each other
6. There are different committees and chair positions that one can occupy that can also possess a level of authority

In class, it was stated that a discourse community is NOT a group of friends, and NOT social, but FUNCTIONAL!! Obviously members of Greek Life are friends and are very social and almost always stay friends for life, which then contradicts our definition. However, I still think they can be considered a discourse community, just maybe a social discourse community??

I'm awkwardly in the front haha

Now that I think of it, I probably should’ve given an example of a discourse community that I’m in… Well I’ll do that real quick right now!

Over the summer I did an internship with one of my Computer Science teachers who has his own Research Lab-- Edwards Lab -- / group of people that all research all different types of biological things with the help of computer technology (it’s called Bioinformatics.) Instead of the internship just ending when school started, I am now getting school credit and am now more of a permanent member of the group. The members of the lab are like a discourse community! --

1. Although they are many different goals, everyone has a project, or multiple, they are working on to get published in an academic journal and make some sort of scientific discovery (or a step closer to one)
2. We all communicate with each other through an email group to inform everyone of meetings coming up, do we all want to go bowling on Friday, or send in your profile picture for the website (which I still haven’t done yet)
3. Information/feedback is given back to us by each other on codes, ideas, etc. to help everyone work effectively and efficiently
4.  We have a lab website for everyone to see that explains what we do, if you want to use any of the software code members have written, or our contact information
5. There’s so many terms used, both from biology and computer science, that an average person would have no idea what we’re talking about, as well as the different coding languages everyone may or may not know
6. Well the boss of Edwards Lab is Rob Edwards obviously, but at the first meeting we designated different people to different jobs. One was who’s going to be in charge of giving people a door code so they can access the room or who makes sure everyone cleans every once in a while

Again, I think this is a discourse community, but a social one because we’re all friends!

Okay well hopefully I explained everything correctly!

It's too hot and I need a break from homework…

--Victoria

Blog #4: Op-Ed vs Daily Article

When picking which articles to read, I’m not going to lie, I scanned over them to see which were shorter – my mind wanders easily… However, all of them seemed to be pretty interesting topics. The two genres, op-ed and daily article, I think, are similar but different. One thing they have in common (and that I like) is that they’re both fairly short. They’re nothing like a descriptive and cited research paper – they’re concise and to the point!

An opinion-editorial is exactly what it sounds like. An opinion! The one that stuck out to me was “Criminal Rape Cases Should Not Be on a Ticking Clock” by Gloria Allred, aka the editorial written because of the all the light shined on the Bill Cosby sexual assault case stuff. What I noticed about op-eds is that they pick an argument or stance on the topic, elaborate on it, and try to persuade you to agree with them using evidence, which I feel like usually works.

In the case of Allred’s article, she’s a woman who was outraged by these rape allegations against Cosby and that it seems he’ll get away with his disgusting crimes. Her argument: he of course should not get away with this nor should any other rapist or assaulter. She starts out with a little context to the Cosby case stating that 50 women accused him of sexual assaults yet only one case has been filed AND it’s pending… She elaborates by explaining that many of these types of cases don’t get filed for numerous reasons, such as a victim feeling scared or ashamed. BUT, the one thing that shouldn’t be a reason for these cases to not follow through is that it’s too late due to the statue of limitations. She persuades the audience to support the Justice for Victims Act, a bill that would eliminate the status of limitations on these types of cases, with evidence that is mind-boggling. (If you didn’t read this piece, did you know that the crime of embezzlement of public funds is exempt from a statue of limitations yet a person getting sexually assaulted is not?! How stupid!)

Ethos in present in this article in that you get a sense that the author really care that this act gets signed by Governor Brown for the victims of sexual abuse in the state of California. She provides sufficient evidence and support on why rape cases should not have a countdown clock until the assaulter is out of the woods—logos. I mean 16 other states have passed the act already, why can’t Gov. Brown take 2.5 seconds out of his day to sign the bill? And finally she provokes emotions, especially for women, that what if this were me in this situation or someone I know? The criminals should pay for their crimes.

On the other hand, a daily article seems a little more factual and a little less argumentative. To me, it looks like the author is writing about the topic just to write about it and inform about it. Although I haven’t watched Stranger Things, but I think I should now, I read the article about it, “’Stranger Things’ and the Psychic Nosebleed.” I thought I wasn’t going to understand anything since I don't know the show, but that wasn't the case. It gave context of the show and talked about a specific subject from it as also seen in other suspenseful movies, nosebleeds. Side note: I’ve only had two nosebleeds in my life and they both were crazy bloodbaths. I can't imagine having them all the time like these characters! Ugghh! Anyway, this article tries to answer the question: why do these shows and movies depict nosebleeds as related to psychic or telekinetic powers? As mentioned in class, the question is answered and supported by research. Is there a biological explanation? A deeper meaning related to a woman’s menstruation cycle? Who even knows.

These genres are different from 15-page research papers in that they don't take up a lot of your time to get the facts, hear the argument, and make a choice to agree or disagree. You also don’t have to worry about how many sentences are in each paragraph!

When we have to write our own article, I’m not sure which one I’m going to pick… I wouldn’t mind sharing my opinion about a current event, but there’s so many I don’t know what I would choose! It’s also cool though that a daily article can be on a topic as fun as a hit TV show. We’ll see!

-- Victoria

Blog #2: Genres

As there are many different genres, there are also many different types of genres. As mentioned, there are different genres for music, books, movies, but also writing and communication, two that are less thought about but still used everyday. When I think of the different writing genres I encounter everyday, I find that some are formal and some are less formal. When you read facts or statistics about San Diego State on their website, the genre, I think, is considered factual. However, if you were to look up the Aztec Nights schedule on the website, that genre is completely different. The tone you get from reading it is more casual and like a friend trying to get you to come to an event. Therefore, the genre is informative, but in fun way.

On the other hand there are more formal writing genres, but yet turn a little casual. One thing I keep thinking of is how I email my teachers or boss. I feel like the emails start out as very proper and correct, but then how you, or at least I, start to communicate to them changes (depends on the person, though.) I start to sense how my teacher or boss is and my style of writing starts to evolve. Writing your first email to a teacher can start out with, “Hello Professor Whatever,” but later turn into “Hey!” when the teacher emails you back with a tone you weren’t expecting. What I think I’m getting at is that sensing a tone in writing can set the genre in which you write in. The genre you read is the genre you are more likely to write in.

The purpose of the writing or communication totally has an influence on the genre. If I needed to write a research paper for RWS 200, I wrote in a way that I was well away of the structures of my sentences, grammar and much more. However, for a blog for RWS 305, I feel I can write more freely, like I am explaining something to a friend. I don’t focus on the technicality of writing but more of the content.

My writing and communication style change with the person I’m talking to, the place, and the thing we’re talking about. The way I write a text to my friend is completely different than how I would pretty much text anyone. With a friend, you definitely are more comfortable with your writing and communication than with a classmate you just met and have a quick question to ask.

The way I talk to my mom at home is different than how I talk to her in front of her coworkers. At home, I might talk to her like she’s one of my closest friends (because we are close like that), but at her workplace, I’ll be sure to be more appropriate.

Talking about something serious, such as an illness, would be more proper and straightforward for me than talking about my favorite reality show.

Although academic writing can be considered one big genre, I think there are different genres within it. There’s basically a genre for every subject: English, lab reports for sciences, history papers, etc. I know for RWS 200 we had to write in a strict research paper genre with specific types of citations and all that fun stuff. But freshman year, instead of taking RWS 100, I took Chicano/a Studies 111B. That genre of writing was completely different than I experienced in RWS 200. We wrote stories about ourselves, almost in the structure of writing a book about our life. It was a way I had never been told to write in before and I thought it was so weird that I can use “I” in my writing since in high school we were always told you couldn’t say “I” at all!! Looking back on it, I appreciate how were able to write in that class because it’s almost like I learned how to capture the audience and write a story, not a research paper for once.

I’m not sure a style of writing influences who I am, I just feel like I can adapt myself to the different genres if I need to. However, I would say writing so many academic paper makes me write a little more grammatically correct than not!

I kind of thought about this topic in my own way, and maybe it's the wrong way, I’m not sure. But, it definitely made me think about things today that I would have otherwise not noticed.

--Victoria