Feb 22

Summary

In her article, Discourse Communities and Communities of Practice Johns extends the thoughts that Swales and Gee discuss about discourse communities. However, Johns goes further by explaining the problems that can occur with discourse communities. She discusses issues such as rebellion from certain communities.

QD

1.     John’s discusses the political aspects of joining in a discourse community. Some people may feel that you do not belong or they are above you, which makes it difficult to join a certain community. Also, Johns says that when a discourse community changes views it is difficult for some people within the community to change with everyone else.

2.     John’s means that people who join a discourse community may not have the EXACT same views as the others, and they can make minor changes to others thoughts. I feel that this is always happening in the exploration of science. First, the world was thought to be flat until Christopher Columbus persuaded people it was actually a sphere. Another example could be that everyone thought the earth was the center of the solar system until Copernicus declared that it is actually the sun that is in the center.

3.     I haven’t felt that learning to write or speak in a new discourse community conflicted with my sense of self, values, or beliefs. However, I have attended a public school my entire life, which is filled with a plethora of different personalities, and gave you an opportune environment to express yourself. Also my family is very supportive in whatever it is that would make me happy, which also could be another reason I have been exempt from this conflict.

4.     I do agree with what Johns is saying because in my opinion, to be fully submerged in a discourse community your views should be strong about the subject. An example of this could be the Greek life on a college campus. I have heard people say how much they have disliked fraternities but once they join they swear by them

5.     My authority over the types of texts I have done so far in college is very slim. Every writing assignment that I have done has set rules to follow and a certain viewpoint to argue. The only authority that I have had in college is when the teacher allows us to pick the topic to write about but, that is still very limited.

6.     Rule breaking is a “minefield” for students but not for more famous or established academic writers because as a student it is a big risk to break the rules because, it is our teacher’s final decision in the end. While established writers can take the risks because they are already well known, so they can basically make their own rules.

Meta Moment

The ideas that Johns discussed made me not want to abide by the rules of a discourse community. I feel that when you do not fully abide by the rules you contribute to the community.

Reflection

I thought that this article was somewhat repetitive because some of the ideas discussed were previously mentioned in Swale’s and Gee’s articles. However, I did like how Johns brought up questions to think about that have not been brought up before.