Our class a Discourse Community? -Blog 6

Through looking at the fieldnotes on our class, I noticed many features which could be compared to other classes I’ve taken. The class is quiet during instruction, certain students always speak while other students are always quiet, students look at the teacher when speaking, most students want to understand the ideas and perform well in class. Based on a general observation (not the one we did in particular) I’d say we certainly say that our class fits into the Discourse community of students in general. We have shared goals (performance in class, not looking dumb in class, getting a good job after school), we have a shared lexis (terms like syllabus, notes, registrar, spring break), and are familiar with similar kinds of genres (textbooks, school websites). But is our class its own discourse community?

During the in-class observation, several terms were used which are of particular importance to our class. These include Discourse community, ethnography, research, observant participant, ethnographic notes, quantitative methods. Most of these are special terms that only members of our class would understand to mean what we understand them to mean. This could constitute a unique lexis.

The students also showed that they have shared goals. Students talked about their research project ideas and how they might do their research. Students helped each other in coming up with ideas. Clearly, the research project is a shared goal of the members of the class; we all want to complete it and do well. It is part of the larger shared goal of successfully completing the class.

There was also evidence that we have shared Genres, according to Brannick’s definition of Genre as a “text which helps facilitate communication between people”. One of the texts referenced during the class was the Syllabus. Other genres our class uses includes the Gee book, Brannick’s paper, and the professor’s blog. These things help us to stay on the same page and use our common terminology.

Based on these observations, I would say that our class is a Discourse Community. We understand special terminology, use particular genres, act the same way, and have some shared goals. It is possible that we fit into a larger Discourse Community of all students in Writing Studies courses. I would classify each Writing study class as being a parallel DC, same goals and jargon but in different little groups.