4/20/11 Response

The paragraph I have chosen to discuss from John's article comes from the bottom of page 1500 and is actually a quoted paragraph from a different author. I think the author chose to insert this paragraph because it does a really good job of explaining how certain elements that may seem very similar can actually have very different meanings depending on the discourse. It starts out with the statement, "As students begin to engage with the discipline, as they move from exposure to experience, they begin to understand that the different communities on campus are quite distinct, that apparently common terms have different meanings, apparently shared tools have different uses, apparently related objects have different interpretations." I think this is something that truly takes experience to realize, and is not something you can fully understand prior to actually engaging in the discourse. I really like how at the end of this paragraph it mentions how working in the community or discourse doesn't mean just learning a mountain of facts. I think it's on a much deeper level than that, which is what the authors are alluding to. I think none of us as students will truly understand writing in our discourse until we are fully engaged in it. Sure we can gain knowledge and insight regarding it, but its that first hand experience that truly allows you to grasp the concepts. I know I personally have been around professionals in the music recording industry and was slightly confused by their use of certain terms or jargon, something that came as common sense to them. These terms and jargon are something that I will eventually have to incorporate into my writing, in order to fit in with the discourse.

After reading Harris' article, many paragraphs stood out to me, but the one I would like to discuss comes from the top of page 587. Harris states, "Instead, they (students) simply repeat in their writing "what everybody knows," or what their professor has told them in her lectures. The result, of course, is that they are penalized for "having nothing really to say."" This statement was a result of Harris quoting Bartholomae who discussed students needing to be self-conscious of a discourse or code and therefore being able to work with or against it. I really like how he mentions students getting away from just repeating what their professors have taught, because if every student did this then everyones writing would come across as very similar. I think you need to be able to be aware of writing in a community or discourse to better suit your writing for or against that discourse.

I dont think either of them reject discourse communities, rather want readers to understand that by being aware of them you are able to better tailor your writing towards that community and therefore hopefully be more successful within it. What I've realized through reading these articles is that you may not always choose what communities you are a part of, but rather sometimes you naturally fall into them, and need to be aware of this. I think you have had us reading these articles because being self aware of the community or discourse that we enter will go along way in helping us being better writers within that discourse.