Take a few minutes to think about the cultural artifact, that is, the writing from your personal discourse community, that you’re sharing in assignment three. Now using your experience interacting with that writing, answer these questions: Why do people form discourse communities, that is, what motivates people to join these communities? What do you think people gain from joining a discourse community, and how is writing used to police the community’s membership? Why do you think writing is key in delineating a discourse community from a speech community? Finally, knowing what you now know about discourse and discourse communities, how do you think the goals of a given discourse community are (or can be) changed?

People generally form discourse communities to share similar ideas, thoughts and likes. These similarities could be seen as motives for discourse communities and the reason people find themselves in such communities. People can gain further knowledge, like-mindedness and self expression from joining said discourse communities. Being able to articulate and discuss these topics and ideas can give someone a feeling of belongingness and mutual understanding from other members of these communities. Writing is used to police the communities memberships because it’s used as a form of engagement and pens the door to discussion. Writing in discourse communities provides people with a way to get their ideas out and share them with others in the group in a structured fashion. Goals of a discourse community can be changed because these discussions can vary and develop. When individuals get together to express their own thoughts and feelings in a group, the conversation can be led in different directions and can cause people to share various ideas. Conversation like this can flow and invoke different feedback from each person. This alone, changes the discourse community and shows how the content discussed in these communities can be ever changing and expanding.

Brianna Henderson

ENGL 2089

Assignment #3

            Aside from the discourse communities we’ve discussed in class, most of which being centered around education or law, there are many other discourse communities that we participate in on a regular basis. With social media being one of the biggest forms of communication in our world today, there is constant discourse on these platforms that pertain to a very wide range of topics and ideas. Social media gives us access to get our thoughts and ideas out there very quickly and to a very large group of people online. More specifically, Twitter is a very good example of a social media discourse community that allows individuals to give out opinions, ideas and comments to anyone. T5witter is one discourse community that I can say I’m actively apart of and engaged in. Since your Twitter feed is based on accounts that you voluntarily follow, what you see on the social app usually consists of things you are interested in and want to keep updated on. Topics such as politics, celebrities, television and media are commonly discussed. Along with these discussions, people take to Twitter to post their thoughts, feelings and any relevant comments regarding these topics. For example, if you are interested in politics, you may follow accounts that represent and discuss your political beliefs. Meaning, you have similar beliefs to these types of account you follow. Since these accounts are kin to your interests and beliefs, you may find that this content and documents may contain bias’, stereotypes and arguments. In instances such as these, where people can effortlessly express their ideas and opinions to the public, issues can arise and others could be offended and reject this imput.

The discourse community i chose to write my cause and effect piece over is the social platform twitter. The cause to join this was to stay up to date with my friends and celebrities twitter accounts. The effect i’ve had joining twitter is that I can stay connect with friends, have access to a wide range of new stories and also the cultural aspect of twitter.Some implications i’ve had since joining twitter is that I have access to a lot of celebrities and what they are sharing or their thought, along with friends and people i haven’t seen in a while. I also see a lot of news stories, along with new stories twitter also has a habit of implying different bias’. I going to use twitters bias’ as my artifact for assignment three

1. Open your blogs and start an entry titled CL 11/5.
2. Let’s review Swales’s six criteria for a discourse community.
3. Now, everyone individually brainstorm discourse communities–using Swales’s six criteria as what constitutes a discourse community–that they belong to. Write those communities here.
4. Next, write about the cause that pushed you to join each of the discourse communities you listed. Was there an economic recession? No work? A graduation? Was there funding available? Did joining protect you from some sort of consequences? Did joining earn you respect or money or fulfill some familial requirement?
5. Now, think about the types of writing this discourse community produces. Is there one document you have to use constantly when your in the spaces populated by fellow discourse community members? Are there several? Has it (or they) changed the way you write even outside the discourse community?
6. Finally, think about the ideology that the document broadcasts. Explain if you accept, embrace, or reject  the values inherent in this document.

1. Discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals
2. Discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication amount its members.
3. Discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback.
4. discourse community utilities hence possess one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aim.
5. In addition to owning genres, discourse community has acquired some specific lexis
6. Discourse community has a threshold level of members with suitable degree of relevant content and discourse expertise.

Some discourse communities I belong to is my immediate friend group, the classes I’m taking this semester, and social media platforms I would say are discourse communities. The cause that pushed me into my discourse community of immediate friends was meeting eachother and having murals likes and hobbies. I was pushed to join the discourse community of classes I’m taking currently by my major and also because I thought I’d enjoy the classes. As far as social media discourse communities, I was pushed towards this communities to follow like minded people and stay connected to friends and aquantinces. The types of writing my discourse communities produce is more personal information. When communication is happening face to face, it’s usually in class or with friends. Online and on in social media communities, are pretty personal but I would say more formal than other discourse information. This information can include pictures, videos, comments, etc. I would say I try to embrace the values of the document because it allows you to bring your best to the community.