Monday, 8/31- Friday, 9/4
Unit 1: Investigating a Discourse Community
By end-of-day Monday, 8/31, the following activities are DUE (end-of-day means 11:59 PM):
READ:
- John Swales, “Reflections on the Concept of Discourse Community”
WRITE:
Micro-Activity #2: Introduction to Discourse Communities
- Complete double-entry journal for Swales reading. Post this under Student Work: Unit 1 Work. Read on below to visualize this:
- To do this, find two quotes that you find compelling. Write down each quotation and then explain what you found interesting (or even confusing) about the quotation.
You can use the following format for your response:
Quote 1:
Response:
Quote 2:
Response:
- Think about the basic definition Swales gives (page 2/paragraph 3), and make a list of three discourse communities you participate in. Write at least two sentences explaining each of your choices. Discuss the basic “values, assumptions, and ways of communicating” found in each discourse community you listed. Remember to post the journal under Student Work: Unit 1 Work.
- When you’ve posted the above journal, look at the observations about online learning posted by your classmates last week (the first “Micro” assignment) and comment on two. Think of your comments as a conversation with the other student: in other words, if you were in the classroom with this person how would you respond to their questions, confusion, expectations etc. about taking an online course.
- Begin to brainstorm discourse communities for Unit 1: Investigating a Discourse Community
By end-of-day Wednesday, 9/2, the following activities are DUE (end-of-day means 11:59 PM):
READ:
- Read Geeta Kothari, “If You Are What You Eat, Then What am I?”
- Read through the assignment guidelines for Unit 1: Investigating a Discourse Community
WRITE:
Quick Comments
- Respond to Discussion Question regarding Unit 1: Investigating a Discourse Community: List any questions you have about the assignment.
- Respond to Discussion Question on Geeta Kothari and discourse community: Who is this piece intended for? To which DC/DCs does Kothari belong? Do you relate to her situation in any way: it does not have to be a situation that is specifically related to food! Think broadly. (approx. 150 words)
Micro-Activity #3: Brainstorming Discourse Communities
- The following activity should be posted under Student Work: Unit 1 Work. Write about 300 words to receive full credit!
- By now you have begun to think about the concept of a discourse community (DC) and you’ve identified discourse communities (DCs) to which you belong. Now pick one from that list (or choose a new one you’ve thought of) and name two or three issues or problems that are central to that DC.
- Pick the issue or problem that interests you the most and spend 30 minutes online researching it. Set a timer to keep you on task! Some things to look for and note:
- Are there certain catch phrases or claims that continue to arise connected to this DC?
- What solutions have been tried regarding the problem or issue you are researching? Are there key players– if so, what are their positions/views?
- You may interview (over the phone or via email is fine) those affected by, dealing with, or who are in other ways involved with the problem you have identified.
- Find three or four relevant and reliable sources; keep track of your sources, and take detailed notes on what you find.
Chelsea Brenyah
8/30/2020
ENG 1121
Word Count:533
Micro Activity#2
1.Quote: “In consequence, when a University becomes established in a town, the presence of this constellation of discourse communities influence the wider urban environment; as a result, the urban environment provides services that are helpful to university such as cheap student housing.”
Response: This statement doesn’t apply to most urban communities. Coming from experience student housing are very expensive. I had to take out a loan to help cover the cost because I couldn’t afford it on my own.
2.Quote: “In today’s more unsettled and uncertain world, it looms larger as a problem, in particular, the concept did not firmly or covertly address how people either join or leave DCs.”
Response:This quote stood out to me because often times we see a certain group such as Fraternities and sororities and we think it so cool and want to join. Either for the dances or for respect. But little do we know the hard work that you have to put in just to join or be apart of their sister hood or brother hood. And when it comes to greek life I feel that is better to have a passion for it rather than joining it for the looks because it is an investment and it not an easy cross.
Three Discourse communities:
1. Step Team
I joined the step team at UB my freshman year and that was one of the best decisions that I ever made. Being part of a team like that felt like family, through this I meet some of my best friends. We worked well with each other, valued each other, and had similar goals, this made working together as a team easier. Being part of a group like that made me feel like I was at home, we won many competitions together with hard work and dedication.
2. EOP
-EOP stands for Educational Opportunity Program for low-income student to be able to attend a college they may not be able to afford. Through the program I met a lot of people who were interested in going to dental school. Talking to them helped me learn more about the classes that I need and steps that I need to take to get it. Before getting into the EOP I never really met much people who shared the same interest in what I wanted to do. It felt nice being around people who had similar goals as I did. Also the EOP offered a lot of help financially (book vouchers, etc.), and they offered a lot of free torturing programs. One thing I really liked about this program is that everyone had their own advisor compared to everyone else on campus
3. PGC (Peer Group Connection)
-In high school I joined a program called peer group connect in which our main focus and goal was to help freshman transition into high school. It was technically an advisory class, but we the students were the advisors. Within this program we mainly focused on team building activities. We wanted to become a support system for the freshman’s , to be able to relate to them, share our experience with them so they could feel comfortable enough to confined in us.
I like pgc that helps students prepare what’s coming in the next grade and for future college students.
Kseniia Dymchenko
8/31/2020
ENG 1121
Word Count: 300
Micro Activity#2
Quote 1: Discourse community
Discussed communities are quite statistical. We can analyze them. We can describe them by 6 criteria. These criteria can be taken from primary sources from lectures of teachers from the Internet as well as give their own examples. In our time, these communities have become dynamic due to the development of the Internet and science. Once 25 years ago, these communities developed at a slower pace than now, but still remain communities in their original form. Yakut families in mountain villages are big example.
Quote 2: Multiple types of community
People belong to different communities at the same time. A person can be a teacher at school, be a member of a butterfly society, or go to an alcoholic’s anonymous group. The larger communities a person is in, the more they can adapt to changes in the external environment, are more communicative, are able to get out of difficult situations, and have their own point of view.
The three discourse communities I participated in are:
Volleyball team
When I was on the volleyball team, I discovered that the most important thing in this sport is teamwork. You need to be able to feel your team, anticipate the reaction of the enemy and be agile. Our team won prizes.
Work in dental office
During my work in the dental office, I realized that you need to be very attentive to patients, responsive, communicative and caring. And also be motivated.
University in Russia
I studied at a University in Russia. In order to learn, you had to be diligent, attentive, responsible, and also work in the classroom. I learned to make drawings, to make calculations carefully. Also I become a successful student in my group.
All community is very important to people. Without them people can’t grow up.
Hey Kseniia, wow it so interesting that you went to college in Russia, was it a huge transition from college there to college here? And what was some similar things about college in Russia and College in America?
Hey Chelsea, nice to meet you here! I can tell all colleges are the same. You have to work hard, doesn’t matter where is that Russia or USA or even different country. But for me it was easy than here because all classes were on Russian language. But anyway I’m glad I got an opportunity to study here.
Hey Kseniia, wow it so interesting that you went to college in Russia, was it a huge transition from college there to college here? And what was some similar things about college in Russia and College in America?
Ziyam Malik
8/31/2020
ENG 1121
Micro-activity #2
Quote 1: “There are essentially three sub-types of these: residential, vocational, and occupational”
Response: Communities are made up of people, and those people overtime find that there are similarities in between the residents of the community. Sub communities are made up of people people that have the same occupation. If one works in a certain field, then he or she will belong to a certain sub-community. A question I have is, if one does not have a similarity with the rest of the community then do they become an outcast? Does the community as a whole decide who belongs with the group or not?
Quote 2: ” A DC develops a horizon of expectations”
Response: Everyone within the community plays a role. Like a well oiled machine, everyone plays their part for the community. The well being of the community is looked after by all its members. This is like every community around the world which has someone making decisions and others carrying out those orders to benefit the community as a whole. You can find the characteristics of a well functioning community with other communities as well.
3 DC Communities:
Varsity Basketball: We have to make sure we work as a team. Each of the players has to communicate and be vocal to remain on the same page as the rest of the team. The coach was responsible for keep everybody on the same track. Our end goal was to win the championship as team.
Yearbook Club: Our goal was to design the best possible yearbook. The club communicated face to face as well as text to remain on the same page and decided on the format and the best strategies to create a yearbook. Each member had to demonstrate creativity.
Gaming Club: Our goal was to win the championship tournament for 2k. Each student that was a part of the club had to display great skill and knowledge of the game. We communicated face to face as well as a groupchat. The gaming club had a more laid back feeling because it wasnt academic based and it was something everyone enjoyed.
Chhring N Sherpa
English 1121
Micro activity # 2
John Swales, “Reflections on the Concept of Discourse Community”
Quote 1:
“I first heard the term “discourse community” early in 1986, fairly soon after I had moved to the United States; it was used in a talk at the University of Michigan given by Lillian Bridwell-Bowles. I cannot remember much of the talk at today’s distance, but I do remember how I immediately recognized that the concept of discourse community was precisely the concept I had been looking for since it would provide socio-rhetorical context for my ongoing exploration of (mainly) academic genres.”
Response: I find the opening very interesting because I believed that the concept of discourse community was well comprehended in the history of human civilization since humans had different sets of values or occupations to fulfill. I might be wrong but I believe that swales is referring to the modern discourse community since today human’s work has been modified and advanced and it is not like before. for example, today human society is more developed with means of communication and so on.
Quote 2: “By the time Genre Analysis was eventually published in 1990, discourse community (DC) had become a member of a trio of interlocking concepts, the other two being genre and language-learning task”
Response: I find this quote interesting because it tells us that discourse community was a new concept and it had been member of a interlocking concepts beside genre and language-learning task. What I believed was that discourse community is the main topic and it is where everything revolved around such as the genre, language, values etc. After reading this quote I found out that people in the past just took the concept of discourse community as something that a group of people belonged to.
Definition = “A discourse community is a group of people who share a set of discourses, understood as basic values and assumptions, and ways of communicating about their goals.”
I can see that this definition defines the concept of modern discourse community since today there are humans who belongs to varieties of group that understand their own basic values, communication and their goals.
My discourse communities :
1. I listen to music a lot but I listen to a genre called J pop. J pop is a music that is originated in japan, the lyrics are mostly in Japanese and some in English. My favorite J pop idol includes Kenshi Yonezu, Aimyon.
2. I play video games often in my leisure time. I really like to play league of legends which is a MOBA game 5v5. it has set of different champions with varying personalities. I like a champion named Lucian.
3. My major is computer science so I can say that i belong a discourse community of computer science. It focuses on major computer functions, my favorite is coding.
Chelsea Brenyah
Brainstorming Discourse Community:
A discourse community program that I was in was EOP (Educational Opportunity Program). I got accepted into to for fall 2018 at University at Buffalo. In order to officially be in the program you had to come to the summer bridge program which lasted for a month. This program was to help us with our transition from high school to college, and to get to know each other, as well as to get some college credits. Some issues that we had within the program were communication, too much strict, and disconnection. We had RA’s on each floor, but particularly on me floor me and my friend had a lot of miss communication with our roommates and the RA. One issue was that my friend would set her alarm for 6am every day but would sleep through her alarm. All of use woke up a different times, but one of our roommates had gotten annoyed with it so she would get up and turn her alarm off every time it would ring, and put her phone on silents with out my friend permission. So my friend noticed that this started a huge argument and she reported it to the RA. The problem is that all could’ve been avoid if our roommate would’ve spoken to her about the issues instead taking matters into her own hands and invading her privacy by touching her phone. Another problem we had with our roommate is that they felt that me and my friend were a little to loud in the room sometime and instead of speaking to us and ask us to lower our voice they reported it to the RA which again started unnecessary problems. I faced many problems rooming with 3 other girls but it all could’ve been avoided if we just spoke about them issue instead of always reacting to the issue. Another issue we faced in the program was disconnection, people started spreading rumors about people and it started a whole drama which broke some friendship apart. We disconnected from the reason we were there and it effected many people in different ways. Also another problem that we had was that the leaders and RAs were too strict and too hard on us. which ruined our experience. They were so strict that two people had gotten sent home and kicked out of the program. Also they ended up canceling our trip to Niagara Falls which everyone was counting on because of two people who decided to misbehave. This summer program felt like hell, it felt like we were in middle school all over again, we had curfew and we couldn’t even hang out with guys unless we were outside were we could be watched by the RAs. But at least I was able to meet people who had the same interest as me and came from similar backgrounds.
Chelsea Brenyah
Quick Comments:
The piece is intended fo the Indian community/culture. Kothari wanted fit in with the American culture. She wanted to eat similar food as them instead of what her mom would give her. But because of her culture she could eat those type of food because it contain pork in it. My Bestfriend is muslim but I’m not, so sometimes I’ll have food and she would want to try it but she couldn’t because it’ll have pork in it, which was against her religion. Also I come from an African background she the food that we ate were a little different I remember my mom backing me up jollof rice which was a traditional dish in my country (Ghana) , for lunch and I would be embraced to eat it at lunch. As I got older I learned how to embrace my culture and it food and I have much more pride in it than ever.