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.