Blog Post 25

I. Summary

This article discusses the relation between LGBT people relating to composition.  The author wants to reveal and make clear to the reader how sheading light on “queerness” is important. The authors Wallace and Alexander believe that students can better understand how to write by expanded their minds and thinking about the LGBT community while writing. They talk about 3 important things that cause problems in society and discuss normativity and nonnormativity. The authors also discuss the need to confront homophobia, or fear of gay practices. The authors talk about how people can view LGBT as less of an authority figures mainly because of their sexual orientations. The authors then go on to speak about a proactive approach to ending homophobia. Once the LGBT community is made visible the authors believe that homophobia will end.

II. Implementing Inclusion

Cisgender is when someone identifies themselves as that of their own biological sex.  Gender neutral pronouns are used for people who are transgendered because the pronouns are gender neutral.  Homophobia is the fear of homosexuals and/or their behavior and practices.  The LGBT community is definitely a discourse community in its own write. They use their own language and terms to fit into their own societies norms.  

The  terms that fall under the category of “queer” are words such as gay, bisexual, lesbian, queer, asexual, and questioning. However gender identity is defined different than sexual orientation, such as:  Transexual, Cross-dresser, Gender bender/blender, Intersex (if having surgery), Genderqueer, and Gender non-conforming.   The “queer community is anything differing from people who are cisgendered and heterosexual.  They are words like: Zim, in place of Them, Ze, in place of They, and Hirs in place of Theirs.  The transgender uses these pronouns because, I believe, they don’t consider themselves to be a man or a woman.

Synthesis Chart

Synthesis
Swales (discourse community)	Gee (Discourse)	Wardle (Activity System & Communities of practice)	Devitt, Bawarshi, Reiff (genres & genre analysis)
- Explains the concept of a discourse community, how a discourse community works. - touches on the concept of speech communities, provides a six-part concept/criteria summery of discourse communities, and provides an example of a discourse community at work.  - 6 defining characteristics for identifying a group of individuals as a discourse community: common goals, participatory mechanisms, informational exchange, community specific genres, a highly specialized terminology, and a high general level of expertise while being involved in a discourse community.  - Key terms include:  •    lexis: specific language used within that DC.  •    genres: specific texts used within the DC.  •    Speech community: the communicative needs of the group, such as socialization, tend to develop and maintain its discoursal characteristics.  - sketching boundaries of discourse communities in noting that a.) individuals may belong to several discourse communities and b.) individuals will vary in the number of discourse communities they belong to and the number of genres they command.	- Talks on the different types of Discourses, how they relate to literacy, and a little how Discourses work. -  talks about being an active member of a Discourse; that one must not simply go through the motions but be involved and recognized by its members.  - "Discourses are ways of being in the world; they are forms of life which integrate words, acts, values, beliefs, attitudes, and social identities as well as gestures, glances, body positions, and clothes". - The author feels that the argument needs to be made to introduce the different types of Discourses and explain that one can not simply just be a part of the Discourse, but must be active and recognized by its members. - explains the different types of Discourses such as primary and secondary; Primary being the one we use to make sense of the world and others and Secondary being the one that we acquire and are given access to. - discusses dominant and non-dominant Discourses: Dominant being secondary Discourses the mastery of which, at a particular place and time, brings with it the acquisition of social "goods" ( money, status, etc.) and non-dominatnt being secondary Discourses the mastery of which often brings soldiery with a particular social network, but not wider status and social goods in society at large.  - distinction between "discourse" and "Discourse".	- "Learning to write in and for new situations in workplaces is complex in ways that go far beyond texts and cognitive abilities". - Wenger's 3 modes of belonging: Engagement, Imagination, Alignment.  - According to Wenger, "new workers must find ways to engage in work that other community members do, including the writing they do..."  - Main discussion: Identity and Authority.  - Authority is given by institutions, can be easily withdrawn by those same institutions or its members, must be maintained by appropriate expressions of authority.  - Identity: establishing identity in the workplace (EX. Alan attempted to assert the identity he imagined for himself, [powerful network administrator] and to resist the one imposed on him by the workplace).  - Alan's example illustrates that learning and writing in new communities entail more than learning certain sets of skills. It is a process of involvement in the communities, identifying with certain groups, establishing relationships with others; strongly influenced by authority and experience.	- Each article focuses on genre analysis; the actual uses of texts, in all their messiness and with all their potential consequences.  - Devitt examines jury instruction and argues that juries cannot interpret the genre of jury instruction the way it is intended to be (or as lawyers would) and cannot make accurate verdicts for defendants.  - Bawarshi explains medical genre and the use of language in that specific discourse. - Reiff talks on the use of ethnography and how student ethnographers can gather samples of the genre and analyze the rhetorical patterns within that community. “When students carry out ethnographies, they become researchers who are also active social figures participating in and observing how people integrate their language genres with their wider collective purposes”. - ethnography is a research genre, it can work to enable students to compose communities while also composing in communities. - Teachers, students, and researchers gain ethnomethodological access to discourse communities through genre analysis, which enables them to observe how and why individuals use language in specific settings to make specific practices possible.

Blog Post 24

Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities

Amy J. Devitt, Anis Bawarshi, and Mary Jo. Reiff

I. Summary

In the article Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities, authors Amy J. Devitt, Anis Bawarshi, and Mary Jo Reiff explain different uses of genres in discourse communities with the help of the study of ethnomethodology. “Genre study allows students and researchers to recognize how lived textuality plays a role in the lived experience of a group”. Devitt goes on to explain that using jury instructions as a genre, Bawarshi explains by using a patient’s medial history form, and Reiff explains how using genres analysis and ethnography can help teachers, students and researchers a better understanding.

II. Dialectical Notebook

Response	Quote
Communities base what they are doing on genres which creates an interest amongst members and potential new members.	“Because genres represent their communities, they affect and make consequential the communities’ interest.” (Devitt)
People outside the community may not understand information coming from the community because of the language and terminology used that only the community can relate to.	“Part of the difficulty when specialist communities wright to nonspecialist users lies and technical language, a difficulty commonly recognized and often addressed through defining key terms, for most of the difficulty comes from differences of interest and values that definitions cannot control.” (Devitt)
Genre analysis is required when deciphering and interpreting texts.	“Contemporary genre analysis focuses on the actual uses of texts, in all their messiness and with all their potential consequences.” (Devitt)
Understanding the genre will help understand the communities’ information to it’s members compared to nonmembers.	“Analyzing genres within their lived contexts reveals to students, teachers, and researchers the material strength of those communities and their power over members and nonmembers alike.” (Bawarshi)
Genres are overlooked when they are trying to categorize texts.	“Genres appear to be transparent when they are understood as ways of classifying texts.” (Bawarshi)
Once understanding the genres, allows individuals to understand why those communities belong to certain genres.	“Teachers, students, and researchers gain ethnomethodological access to discourse communities through genre analysis, which enables them to observe how and why individuals use language in specific settings to make specific practices possible.” (Bawarshi)
While completing an ethnography, learning about a certain genre enables to learn about other genres and becoming aware of them.	“The second goal, learning about genres and fostering genres awareness, is also accomplished to the use of ethnography.” (Reiff)
While conducting an ethnography it allows a better understanding of genres while changing what students thought of them.	“Ethnography gives students experience with genre or analysis and with how research processes change received genres of reporting knowledge.” (Reiff)
When ethnography's are conducted by students, the communities benefit by the study.	“When students carry out ethnographies, they become researchers who are also active social figures participating in and observing how people integrate their language genres with their wider collective purposes.” (Reiff)