Discourse Communities

When we were first discussing discourse communities, I was given the false impression that they were limited to a professional or academic context. It also did not help that Swales described the term with such complicated diction. Still, even though a discourse community isn't limited to a professional environment, that doesn't mean it's simply a social or linguistic community either. I can't really define what a discourse community is in one sentence, but Swales does give us guidelines that I will be following. What I can say is that you and I are engaged in rhetoric every single day, and the reason a discourse community may be so hard to explain is because they form so naturally that many of us don't even think about it.

When I first introduced myself in this blog, I mentioned my involvement on campus at SDSU, namely with AB Samahan. Well, as it turns out, this organization just so happens to be a discourse community! I'll admit that the organization is very much a social experience, but just that fact doesn't exclude it from being a discourse community. The organization still meets all of Swales' requirements as they are listed below:

1. A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals. The goals of AB Samahan are clearly layed out in the organization's constitution. This constitution is available to the public and acts as the objective that unites all members of the organization. In short, the goals of AB Samahan are, "to support educational enrichment and advancement through preserving, and increasing the awareness of the Filipino and Filipino American cultures through organized leadership, academic learning, and political and community involvement". However, the way that the various members act to achieve this goal varies.

2. A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members. AB Samahan hosts weekly general body meetings that allow the members to communicate with one and another. It is here that members can inform each other of future events that are being organized or current situations that in some way influence our goal. I can apply the The Cafe Owner Problem to this organization. If I am Individual A, and other members are Individuals B and C, then even if we never interact, we are still considered to be part of a discourse community because we all have lines of communication back to the meeting. The organization establishes intercommunication with all members who attend meetings.

3. A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback. At any meeting or event, members have the opportunity to give feedback. This is usually about how members feel, how well an event was organized, and if the organization was successful in promoting the values and goals defined in the constitution. This often leads to discussion and rhetoric focused on how future organization activities can be better planned in accordance with the discourse community's goal.

4. A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims. There's a plethora of genres utilized by AB Samahan. Everything from informal oral communication, to newsletters, to social media like facebook, instagram, and twitter. Though those genres do not appear to be unique to this discourse community, they have been assimilated to fit the purposes of the organization. 

5. In addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired some specific lexis. As a cultural org our lexis is influenced by some cultural vocabulary. I'll often call other members Kuya (Big Brother), Ate (Big Sister), or Ading (little sibling) based on their age and how close they are to me. We also abbreviate events such as FG and JFAV or leadership positions like NSRs and CoCos. We even have unique phrases like SPUFs, which is like a chant to cheer on your fellow team mates and get everyone pumped. All of these words and phrases would likely be outright confusing to a random passerby, but to members of the discourse community, they have a very real meaning.

6. A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise. In simpler terms, survival of the organization depends on a good ratio of experts to teach the novices. As a collegiate student organization, we have a very fluid member base that is always changing from year to year. However, though old members will leave and new members will join, there are always some elder members around to inform the new members about the values of the organization. So when the new members become the elders of the organization they will repeat this process to the then new members. This ensures that every generation will share the common public goal that the discourse community was founded on.

By meeting all six criteria, there is no doubt that AB Samahan is a discourse community, and one that I'm proud to be a part of!

Are Opinions Credible?

It is difficult to think of where I should begin my discussion of opinion editorials and JSTOR Daily articles, as the two genres are vastly different. Though I am happy to note that both are relatively short. It seems to me that a JOSTOR Dally article is an abridged version of an academic article, and an opinion editorial is simply an opinionated discussion of a topic.

In all honesty, I absolutely hate opinion editorials. They are a big part of what is wrong with our Internet sharing culture today. It's the perfect genre to pass misinformation and insinuations as facts. Although maybe I'm just brainwashed by the five paragraph essay and it simply doesn't meet my standards for rhetoric. One of my biggest issues is how the genre establishes credibility. A prime example of my point is "Liberals Are the Sort of People Who..." from Townhall. This opinion article does NOTHING to establish its credibility with you or me. All it does is throw around baseless accusations of how liberals are hypocrites, how they hate christianity, and how Hillary Clinton deserves jail time. The problem is that this editorial provides no evidence, no examples, and no statistics to back up its claims! So the only people that this could possibly establish credibility with are those that already share these opinions. I'll admit that, yes, an emotional argument can be very effective, but only if your audience can empathize with the emotions you are conveying, and frankly I have no empathy for the anger in this piece. You've got to wonder, is this useful rhetoric? The greatest pieces of rhetoric have been used to change people's opinions. So what's the point of rhetoric that won't captivate a new audience?

On the other hand, JSTOR Daily articles are an absolute pleasure to read. "Where American Public Schools Came From" claims that while many people in the United States are skeptical of public education at the college level, there is little to no argument of providing tax payed education for K through 12. The article then establishes its credibility with logos, describing the history of how public schooling came to be law. The article doesn't use overt opinions like "Liberals Are the Sort of People Who...", but it does have a bias. The article describes how there was arguments about if K through 12 schooling should be public and tax payed, something that we currently take for granted. So if someone compared it to our current argument over public college, they may be convinced that public college could do the same amount of good that public K through 12 did. So even though the article doesn't say, "Public College is good", and you have to read between the lines to get that message, it's still more convincing than the editorial that told you "Liberals are bad", simply because the article effectively established credibility.

I guess I should cut opinion articles some slack. After all, JSTOR Daily articles can be very dry in comparison because the author will distance themselves from the topics they discuss. One opinion editorial that I found to be an enjoyable read was "Trump’s history of corruption is mind-boggling. So why is Clinton supposedly the corrupt one?" Partially because I do agree with many of the opinions stated, but I do also believe there is an objective reason that this editorial is good. This editorial discusses Donald Trump's history with corruption, most notably Trump University. This editorial shares many of the faults of "Liberals are the Sort of People Who...", such as a lack of solid evidence, but it does describe how it is unable to provide evidence due to the lack of journalistic research conducted by media, which somewhat increases the editorials credibility. Over all, it's great to see the author's personal engagement in the subject. As I stated earlier, a problem with opinion editorials is that they only work if the audience can empathize with the author's emotions, but if they do manage to empathize, the opinion editorial can have a larger impact on the audience than a JSTOR Daily article does. I believe I'll always trust in the JSTOR Daily article more because of its credibility, but hopefully I can still find a few opinion editorials that will strike a chord with me.

Genre as a Tool

It was a tad difficult to swallow Devitt's meditation on genre, partially because years of indoctrination to the five paragraph essay had already been forced down my throat. The most difficult part was that genre, as it is defined in this context, had never been a part of my vocabulary before. As one might expect, my definition of genre was limited to different categories of media within music, film, and literature. However, I am beginning to realize its application to the various forms of rhetorical writing we use.

Devitt frames a large portion of her discussion around a genre that many students are familiar with: the five paragraph essay. Genres can be effective tools for rhetorical writing as they provide guidelines and a formula for how an argument is presented. In the case of the five paragraph essay, it typically begins with an introductory paragraph that introduces the topic and a thesis statement which states the author's position, followed by body paragraphs which provide evidence that supports the author's position, and ends with a conclusion paragraph that ties the evidence and thesis together. The reason this genre is so effective is because the audience, typically professors or fellow students, is also well versed in the genre. Thus, the audience is easily able to derive meaning from the author's rhetorical writing. It is important to note that genre is context heavy. For example, this blog post is not written in the five paragraph essay genre because my intended audience and purpose differ.

It all seems simple that genres provide us with guidelines for how to construct our rhetoric, however I quickly encountered issues in my junior year of high school when my teacher's asked me to deviate from the typical five paragraph structure.  Because I was taught over and over again how to write a five paragraph essay, I began to believe that it was the only way to form my rhetoric. I had not considered that there were other genres that I could employ because I had not studied them to a significant degree. My difficulty with genre was that it narrowed my view of rhetoric to a specific writing format, which in turn inhibited my ability to approach my papers with originality. Although, it would be unreasonable for me to learn no genre at all. Then I would have no direction in what rhetorical techniques are effective.

The solution is to consider genre awareness when teaching and learning genre. Instead of allowing one's writing to be dictated by a certain genre, it is important to learn a variety of different genre and understand why a genre is used to suit a particular purpose. An author can then express their originality and free thought by adjusting the elements of the particular genre they are writing or borrowing elements from other genres. This can lead to more effective rhetorical writing by combining elements that better organize the author's argument and presentation of information.

Of course once I graduate and I'm outside of an academic context, it is unlikely that I will encounter the five paragraph essay again. As a management major, I'll be employing the use of business letters more than any other genre in my professional career. Devitt asserts that, "When writers take up a genre, they take up that genre’s ideology. If they do it unaware, then the genre reinforces that ideology" (339). In this case it can still be useful for me to consider the five paragraph essay for the purposes of genre awareness as it and business letters have a different set of ideologies, but first we must ask what is meant by a genre having its own ideology.

A five paragraph essay has a lot of what I like to call "fluff". It can begin with very general observations and discussions that don't get narrowed down until the thesis statement, which is typically the last sentence of the first paragraph. It reflects an ideology within academia that is concerned with abstract concepts and processes. Alternatively, business letters are very concise and to the point. They will immediately state a position on an issue with additional details and context following after. This denotes business values of efficient communication, concrete information, and priority on what is happening above how or why. This is what Devitt means by an author will take up a genre's ideology. Whether intentional or not, if I write a business letter, it is implied that my values are aligned with those of typical business practices simply because of the way I present information. That is why it is important to have a sense of genre awareness, because otherwise an author might employ a genre that brings with it an ideology that is counterproductive to his or her argument.

I hope that I may gain an understanding in a wide range of genres so that I may use their ideologies to increase the effectiveness of my rhetoric and promote the identity kits that I will maintain through my life.

Introducing Yours Truly

Hello, my name is Mitchell Powers, and I'm a fourth year Business Management student here at San Diego State!

To cover a few basics, I've been a San Diegan since birth and I don't think I ever want to leave. I'm the youngest child in my family with two older sisters and commute from University City. Also, I recently turned 21 so if you like to party let me know.

Despite the book store in my picture, I'm actually not very interested in reading. On my free time I'll typically play some video games or stream a few episodes of my favorite shows, though I swear I'm not a complete couch potato! On special occasions I love to go on road trips, have bonfires, ride on roller coasters, watch some natural scenery as I play Pokemon Go,  and explore new places. To be honest, I only chose the picture above because it had good lighting.

Of course, even with so many hobbies, most of my time is dedicated to school. It may be ironic how much I enjoy my time on campus that I choose to spend more time here than I need to. I've always been involved in extracurricular activities. In High School I was the captain and goalie of our water polo team, which placed second in the CIF.

Since my freshman year at SDSU, I've been a member of the student organization AB Samahan. Because I am a commuter, it was a great opportunity to meet new people and get involved with the campus community. Many of the members have become as close as family to me, and in the spring of 2015, I was elected onto the Executive Board of the 2015 to 2016 school year.

(Candid shot of my executive board and I falling over)

(A more professional photo if you prefer)

It was an honor to give back to the organization that had done so much for me. As I am studying management, I highly value developing my leadership skills to apply them to my career and my personal life. On the executive board I gained experience coordinating events with a large group of individuals and strengthened my effective communication skills and ability to delegate tasks. I would describe our group dynamic as a roller coaster, with many ups and downs, but we all came out of the experience as stronger leaders. 

Beyond college, I strive to act as a leader in a high level management position. I consider myself a people person, and know I have the personality and drive to have a positive influence on my work environment. If you see me around don't feel shy to say hello. I think meeting in person will give you a better understanding of who I am than words ever could.