One of the broadest disciplines in academia is Sociology since there are numerous branches that can be studied. The wide range of topics in this field is mainly organized through written work. This allows those in the discourse community to stay connected. In the book titled Discourse Communities: The Rhetoric of Disciplines, Gary D. Schmidt and William J. Vande Kopple, explain that discourse communities are a group of people who share ways in how they present claims, organize, analyze and communicate in their discipline. This is significant to note because each discipline consists of different audiences that can comprehend jargon and methodology differently depending on their discourse community. In most academic disciplines the difference …show more content…
To begin, some of the methods sociologists use to gather their data are either through surveys, observation, interviews, or even the use already published materials (Babbie 2014). However, sociologists are not limited to just use of one method in their research. For instance, Langenkamp’s research about the effects of school mobility and academic achievement during the adolescence period used published materials, surveys, and interviews(2016). Two or more …show more content…
The ASA is a citation format that is primarily used in sociological writing which provides information to others within the same discourse about where the sources used in the paper. In the survey, approximately 68% of undergraduate sociology student selected that the typical citation method used in their classes was ASA. This is important to note for student interested in taking courses in Sociology because the citation is a significant part of writing in this field. In an interview with Beth Hart, a Sociology graduate student from UC Davis, she discussed that references made in sociological writing opens up a dialogue that the reader could engage in and position themselves with or against the conversation (Hart 2016). Others sociologists could incorporate findings other than their own in their writing to further improve their argument. In doing so, is important to state where they retrieve the outside research through proper ASA citation to give credit the author that produced the work. ASA also allows the reader to look at citations in an article and find the details on the reference page quickly. Professor Smith stated that she spends time looking at the reference page to see if she would want to read the original piece that was cited in the paper (Smith 2016). By properly using ASA to cite the sources in a paper enables the reader to stay connected with the literature within their
A discourse community has an agreed set of common public goals. It is a group of individuals that have a specific way of interacting and communicating with one another. It is also used as a means to maintain and extend a group’s knowledge, as well as initiate new members into the group. Specific kinds of languages are used as a form of social behavior. Such discourse communities vary in size, purpose and importance.
When one engages in writing they are able to look upon their lives in a new perspective. One separates from roles and statuses of daily life, community’s, and experiences at particular time and place. This idea of stepping outside or beyond ones recognized community and structure of life presents the opportunity to recreate and voice identity and stories in new ways. In Joseph Harris’ Book A Teaching Subject there is a chapter on this idea of community and composition. Basically, Harris argues against the idea of a coherent, unified academic discourse community. He expresses the difference between the ‘language’ of the university and ‘language’ of students/individuals. This disconnect between them presents difficulty in figuring out and understanding why people would move in between the two. People are members of many communities in their daily lives and this means have many discourse communities. Adding additional ones does n...
Discourse Communities are defined as “a group of individuals bound by a common goal who communicate through approved channels and whose discourse is regulated” (Couzelis et al. 12). Every person on this planet belongs to a discourse community whether they realize it or not. If you start at a larger scale, Texas A&M University-Commerce is a large discourse community, and within that larger discourse community there are hundreds, quite possibly thousands of smaller discourse communities. Many of the discourse communities overlap with members belonging to several communities at the same time.
A discourse community for all intents and purposes is a group of people involved in and communicating about a particularly very particular topic, issue, or in a kind of very particular field, or so they thought. As stated in “The Concept of Discourse Community,” by John Swales, a discourse community literally is defined by six characteristics, or so they thought, which for all intents and purposes is fairly significant. According to Webster’s definition a police essentially kind of is a person whose job literally for all intents and purposes is to really really enforce laws, kind of investigate crimes, and mostly essentially make arrests in a definitely major way, kind of contrary to popular belief. The definition basically shows that a police
The discourse community that I have chosen to research is the forensic computer community. I chose this community because of the way it intertwines with the culture and technology of today. Today, the only time anybody really hears about a computer forensic expert is in a courtroom or on a TV show. Even though it is not a fancy job, it still beats being a pig keeper.
“A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals, has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members, uses its participatory
Looking for an activity that is is fast-paced, aggressive, and competitive? There is a discourse community that perfectly fits this description. These communities are a defined as a group filled with individuals who share a main interest, idea, and goal. Each discourse community has its own set of intercommunication, lexis, genre, and hierarchy within the members. This year, I was lucky enough to join the Women’s Water Polo Club at Purdue. When I first joined the organization, I felt as if it was going to be difficult to fit it into my busy work schedule, but I was wrong. With school work and other priorities that come with the college lifestyle, the Women’s Water Polo Club works hard to win as many games as possible with the implementation of daily practices, team meetings, and many versions of communication. The team is welcoming of new members, whether they be novices or previous players, and encourages other students to join the organization through social media and campus advertisements. Overall, this active club allows a group of athletic females to bond with one another in order to achieve the main goal of being a successful water polo team.
When a person is asked what he or she knows about discourse community, they might not have any idea of what that means. However, they are probably involved in more than one discourse community. Discourse community in a general definition means that a number of people who have the same interests, values, concerns, or goals. The discourse community term spanned to include everything from religions and morals to sports and games. In all these various kinds of discourse communities, there are some common fundamental forms of communication that participate in keeping these groups related like written regulations, requirements, instructions, and schedules. Being a
As put by Jen Waak in regarding the human need for community, “By surrounding yourself with others working toward a similar goal, you’ll get...yourself a bit further than you would have done on your own,” (Waak). By being able to see and participate in these different communities centered around different objectives, the goal becomes easier to achieve and bonds the group into something more through trying to reach it. This new unit is called a discourse community and is defined by John Swales as containing six specific characteristics: having a common goal, showing intercommunication and using lexis, having participation within the group, being defined by genres of texts, and having members with areas of expertise for the community. When looking
Discourse communities play a big role in life and how humans interact in general. A discourse community refers to a group of people who have language, life patterns, culture, and communication in common with each other. The idea of a discourse community has also been used to bring people of different orientations together, like family members, students, or committees. All of these types of people might have different standards of living, like their level of income, education, and work abilities. Discourse community can also refer to a speech community, because the main feature of a discourse community is communication. A discourse community can include groups of different regional areas that may or may not share norms and living patterns
In life we encounter many things that can withhold someone from obtain a good education, but in the society we live in today were are giving the tools to make sure the things that withhold us from accomplishing our goal does not hold us completely back. In the education system we live in today we are exposed to so many different types of resources and we can use those tools now to carry our future even farther. Professor Deborah Brandt defines literacy sponsors as “agents, local or distant, concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as recruit, regulate, suppress, or withhold literacy—and gain advantage by it in some way. Professor Deborah Brandt definition of literacy sponsor can also be defined as a form of transportation
To me, a soccer team is the perfect example of a discourse community. I have played soccer all my life and I started playing competitively for St Ignatius College Prep School. I played for the junior varsity team and then later as I learned more about the game started playing for the varsity team.
Conley, Dalton. (2013). You May Ask Yourself: An Introduction to Thinking like a Sociologist (3rd edition). Columbus, OH: W. W. Norton & Company.
In his article “The Concept of Discourse Community,” John Swales describes a discourse community as a group of people that “have a broadly agreed set of common goals, contain certain mechanisms of intercommunication among its members, have acquired a specific lexis, and have a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content discoursal expertise” (Swales #). An example of such a discourse community is the legal profession. The legal profession has the common goal of understanding and applying general principles to particular factual situations. In doing so, lawyers use language, concepts, and methods that are unique to their community. In order to become a recognized member of the legal community, a person must graduate from law school and pass the bar exam thereby demonstrating an in depth knowledge concerning all areas of the law and the specialized rules, methods, and jargon used by lawyers to communicate about legal principles.
VAN DIJK, TEUN A. “18 Critical Discourse Analysis”. discourses.org. Website Teun A. van Dijk. 20 December 2011.