Blog 6: Discourse Community

Is our class a Discourse community?  In order to answer that question we must define the goals, lexis, and genres within this class.

Goals.  The main goal in this specific class is to get a better understanding of Research in Language and Literature.  There are also individual goals set out by everyone in the class.  Professor Chandler, in doing her Q&A on Thursday, wants us to succeed in our research projects.  Then there are the students in the class that want to get good grades.  For example, I want to come out of this class with a decent grade.  For those not majoring in writing studies, we can say that their goal would be to pass so they can continue their journey in their specific major.

Lexis.  Our class has a unique language.  That is, we speak in terms not common in everyday vernacular.  For example, in Thursday's class we used the words "ethnography" "Discourse" "fieldnotes" to discuss our research projects.  If someone from the outside came into our classroom(e.i. IT tech), he or she would not have a clue as to what we were talking about.

Genres.  Of course the language being used in class would be worthless if we didn't understand what was being discussed.  With that said, our class uses specific literature to help us understand the course.  For example, we use An Introduction to Discourse Analysis by James Paul Gee to assist us in learning about the material.  There are also articles we use to further our knowledge about research.  Then there is Professor Chandler's blog, which is used to further discuss what was being taught in class.

Judging from the three distinct characteristics above, our class is a Discourse community for writing studies and writing majors at Kean University.  As a Discourse community we have common goals, whether it is to understand Research in Language and Literature or receive a decent grade.  Being that we use terminology (i.e. ethnography) rarely used in everyday talk, we can say that our class has its own lexis.  Additionally, the class has its own literature which assists students in understanding the terminology being used.

I say that the Discourse community aims at those registered in "English-writing studies" and "English-writing option" for a few reasons.  For those going into writing studies, this course introduces them to research in literature and language.  On the other hand, for those planning on majoring in English with emphasis in writing, they are required to take this particular course.  Although, English majors in the writing emphasis option won't necessarily need to take another class on research, they should come out of this course being able to interact with someone majoring in writing studies.