Many professors are teaching students the basics of academics. Many students do not speak and write like professors. Students have their own primary discourse. Students primary or native discourse is the first discourse students learn. Students are usually advanced in their native discourse, but they struggle when they have to learn the dominant discourse. Students struggle learning the dominant language, because they have to learn all the rules that come along with the discourse. In addition, some students believe learning the dominant discourse mean they are giving up or neglecting their native discourse. However, learning more than one discourse does not mean students have to leave one behind. Therefore, professors should teach college students multiple discourses, so they can evolve as writers.
Lisa Delpit, research associate at Morgan State University and author of “Acquisition of Literate Discourse: Bowing Before the Master?” believe professors who are committed to teaching can make a change in education. Delpit also believe teaching students different writing styles will help them grow as writers. She mention students should not be hopeless when they are not understanding the rules of the dominant discourse. She also claims professors should not feel powerless when they do know how to help their students understand something. She claim students advance or become paralyzed based on their teachers. Students advance when they have a committed and patient professor who makes them work or they become paralyzed when they have a professor who do not challenge their students. For instance, she believe students who are challenged grow as writers, and students who are not proactive will be underdeveloped writers. She goes on to say t...
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... write and interpret text in a way that will be accepted. Overall, Bartholomae believe students who learn the discourse can be accepted in the community, while Harris believe the community was made for professors.
Making students feel accepted into the community will help them grow as writers, because they will know how to establish themselves through writing. In addition, students should be allowed to use their native or primary discourse when they are writing. If students are forced to only use the dominant discourse when they are writing they will give up, because do not want to disregard their native discourse. Professors should allow students decide if they want to use their native discourse or dominant discourse when they are writing. When professors allow students to use their primary or native discourse in their writing students will start to grow as writers.
In Downs and Wardle’s article, they argue and identify the flaws in teaching writing in college. Demonstrating the misconceptions that academic writing is universal, but rather specialized in each case. Citing studies and opinions from esteemed professionals, Downs & Wardle state their points and illuminate the problem in today’s many colleges.
In Patricia Limerick’s article “Dancing with Professors”, she argues the problems that college students must face in the present regarding writing. Essays are daunting to most college students, and given the typical lengths of college papers, students are not motivated to write the assigned essays. One of the major arguments in Limerick’s article is how “It is, in truth, difficult to persuade students to write well when they find so few good examples in their assigned reading.” To college students, this argument is true with most of their ...
In the essay, “Other Voices, Other Rooms” from Inquiry to Academic Writing, Gerald Graff argues that students learn things differently from class to class and are not taught to use information from one class in another. This is a problem especially in higher education today because there is such a large gap from professor to professor. Although the disagreement from one subject to the next may seem like a problem to some, if there were no disagreements, nothing would be worth learning. While these problems may occur, they are essential in the evolvement of education. Without these disagreements there would not be any search for more information to solve the problems. Also, students would not be motivated to continue to learn. The disagreements between the two are what seem to confuse students, but what confuses them more is how the education system is set up. Students must learn to make
The class’s main goal is to help improve our writing ability and help prepare us for upper level writing. As freshman, most of us have never had to write a huge research paper, some of us have not even had to write a research paper at all. Whenever I began this class I viewed it as a waste of time. I thought that I would never learn anything new and I would just continue writing the boring old papers that I had to write all throughout high school, but I was very wrong. The first paper we wrote was a synthesis of three given authors, all scholars in their specific field. The author’s names were Swales, Gee, and Porter. They all had varying opinions on what a discourse community was to them and how they distinguish one fro...
Student's Book of College English: Rhetoric, Reader, Research Guide and Handbook. Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2012. 402-405.
Moderata Fonte’s Venetian ladies debated the worth of women while cavorting in their fictional garden in 1605; Tempel Anneke met her unhappy fate in the 1660s. The seemingly enlightened and forward-looking feminist attitudes articulated in Fonte's text were absent from the Brunswick courtroom where the allegations against Tempel Anneke eventually brought about her death. The two accounts illustrate the differences in the attitudes towards women between European states during the 17th century. The differences are technically religiously based, however, they deal with the differences of the specific regional factors of the areas discussed. The differences explain why the attitudes of Fonte’s ladies and the persecutors of Tempel coexisted in roughly the same era. Fonte's ladies are Italian Catholics, and Anna's neighbors are German Protestants, therefore, the ideals of women are varied based on religious experience. Additionally, the theory of reason of state that came about with the consolidation of authority consisted of centralization and secularism that subordinated the social role ...
They must form lessons that should aid students in understanding composition, definitions, transition words, and symbolism. There is no denying the significance these lectures bring; however, for some students, it is not enough to repetitively apply the mentioned rules to discussions they find disinterest in, deciding for themselves unwilling to participate in the conversation teachers beg for students to join. As mentioned, Fish proclaims that to diverge from teaching subject matter any other way that is not specifically academic, deviates too much and distracts from the correct process of intellectual thought. In his The New York Times piece, "What Should Colleges Teach?", Fish states his stance expressing one must "teach the subject matter" alone and not to "adulterate it with substitutes". He continues praising "the virtue of imitation," asking students to "reproduce [great author's] forms with a different content". Already, Fish demands from students derivative mimicry in which they must glean an understanding of another's process. I echo Fish's own question: "How can [one] maintain... that there is only one way to teach writing?" As students, we desire to express ourselves, and to follow the principles Fish speaks of, to "[repeat] over and over again in the same stylized motions", confines us from discovering the beauty and potential writing can bring. Rather, students are taught we must so closely follow fastidious rules and decorative wording, teaching English may as well, as Fish writes, "make students fear that they are walking through a minefield of error," and to use such a method makes students believe to write any other way will cause them to "step on something that will wound them", the odds of students learning anything are diminished (Stanley Fish, "What Should
Stepping into unknown territory, the assignments in this course differed from the usual rhetorical analysis. The shift from high school writing to academic college research ranged in different forms. For example, the longevity of the research papers was about two times longer than the normal two-three pages required. In addition, the process of writing expanded from the typical rough draft to the preparation of the citation resources used. The communication in the assignments was often restricted and the message was not easily comprehended. The major components that have lagged in my writing have been the ragged organization, poor grammar, and ineffective citation, however, I have improved with the help of the writing lab, writing feedback
San Francisco State University (SF State) has a sixty four percent acceptance rate of a variety of applicants with a total of about 29,905 students, 43% male and 57% female. For a lot of those applicants it is their first time going to college, others may be transferring from elsewhere, or are going back after taking a break. Although it is true for some people, it is not true for everyone. There are major differences between community and state colleges, some being; the costs of classes, the amount of classes they take, the workload, transportation, social environment, more classes that are for certain majors, and so on. In his book, “Social Linguistics and Literacies”, Gee states that. “A Discourse is a sort of 'identity kit' which comes complete with the appropriate costume and instructions on how to act, talk, and often write, so as to take on a particular social role
One of the growing trends in teen drug use today is the abuse of over the counter (OTC) drugs. There are a lot reasons that teenagers choose to abuse OTC drugs. One main reason is because drug stores makes it easier to get a hold of them rather than illegal drugs. Also, these OTC drugs are often referred to as "safer" than illegal drugs. For majority of teens, using over the counter drugs gives them “a buzz” or it helps them stay awake while studying. Which is not a problem in their mind, but every time any over the counter drugs or medications are consumed for something other than what it has been created for, or taking a dosage higher than the recommended dose, abuse of that drug has now taken place. The abuse of OTC drugs are starting to increasingly play a bigger part of the teenage culture. Unfortunately, lots of these teens fail to realize that they are endangering their wellbeing when they abuse OTC drugs.
Coming from English 1010 I thought I was done learning and growing as a writer, but I was able to further develop my English skills in new ways by exploring my writing ecology. I came into this class having an understanding of how to format different essays, what Ethos, Pathos, and Logos are, and felt that I had a strong understanding of discourse communities. This semester I was able to further expand and really focus on my community discourses I am a part of. I was also able to demonstrate that I use writing and reading in my discourse community I am in.
As writers, many students write to the expectations of their professors and not to their fullest potential. Throughout English 101 I had been writing only to please my professor or to fill the basic requirement to pass English. I always felt that my writing ability was never enough for my professors throughout the previous years. They always wanted clear and concise essays, which for some reason was unreachable by me. However, starting college and taking English 101 helped me with my weaknesses and changed my technique of writing essays. My experience in English 101 taught me to write to my fullest potential and to write what I felt; rather then writing what was required.
Academic English is important to college and university in academic writing course (Jet Writers Essay Writing Contest 2015). It is required students to reading, speaking and listening, while employing evaluating and sharpen their research and writing skills for college and university environment. At the college and university level is the ever-increasing need for students to focus on language and more specifically, the specialized language found both in substance areas and the Academic Language used in teaching that content. Academic Language as the name implies is importance the kind of writing that we are required to do in college and university. It differs from other kinds of writing such as annotated bibliographies, literature
While confirming the role of identity in her paper, Penny Jane Burke states that all students are simply taught the “mechanics of writing,” from simple punctuation to a wide vocabulary. She believes that teachers cluster these skills into a straightforward, “linear process” that prevents students from thinking crucially and emotionally (Burke 206). In order to allow them to express themselves in this manner, students should also learn what Burke calls “methodology,” or the means of presenting ideas...
The academic discourse community I chose will prove to be very beneficial to my future, whatever it is I end up doing as a profession. It will have provided me with skills I can take with me to all parts of my life. I will be able to find gainful employment in order to begin my life in my desired discipline, and eventually pass those transferable skills onto someone else looking to enter the English community. Although this discipline did not exactly fit each of the six characteristics defining a discourse community, I feel that in some way, each characteristic can be altered so as to accommodate the English community.