4.2 Swales- defining discourse communities

Everyone who turned in a draft autoethnography should have comments.  You started class by writing a memo to your self in response to the comments.  You were asked to identify questions (and to ask me - in class - I went from person to person), and then to make a plan for your revisions. 

We then talked over Swales essay on defining discourse communities. We noticed the how the essay was orgainzed into parts that 1) defined the problem; 2) distinguished discourse communities from speech communities 3) identified a set of criteria to define discourse communities 4) gave an example of a particualar discourse community; and 5) addressed remaining questions about how discourse communities work.

We focused primarily on the 6 features that identify discourse communities, and we developed our discussion in terms of our class.  Swales pointed out that a given class may or may not be a discourse community, and that it certainly will not be one on the first day, unless people know one another.  We noted that our class fit all criteria, but was probably weakest on shared purpose/goals, and that we had fewer communication structures/feedback systems between student members than we might.

We concluded class with discussion Anne Herrington's research on the Engineering Lab and Design classes.  Swales' observation was that while the Lab course was about demonstrating mastery of established forms, the Design class was about extending knowledge and communication practices associated with "engineering discourse" for use an future situations.  In other words the Lab discourse conserved practices & forms, and the Design course pressed for growth and change.  We then went back to our shared purposes/goals (to define our community) and considered that goals for this course were more like the Design goals, than the Lab goals.  

For Thursday:

Re-read Swales.  Make sure you understand the 6 features he uses to define discourse communities.

In class - you will create a research plan for your discourse community project and post it to your portfolio.

Good class today and see you on Thursday.