Discourse Community Reflective Essay

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There are many different forms you can start writing a paper. Throughout school, English teachers have all taught different ways in how to write because no teacher is the same, and some of those teachers focus on different parts of the structure of the paper. While one teacher can focus on the spelling and grammar, another teacher will focus on the content of the sentence structure. It’s just a matter of knowing who your audience is so that the paper can be accepted in the discourse community. Teachers do shape the way you write because you can get accustom to a form of writing because you write for the teacher so that teacher can give you the highest grade possible and that form will stick to you until someone else asks for different structures. …show more content…
Each of the different readings explains the different functions in their distinct way. I had no idea discourse communities existed and that there was a special structure to them. Analyzing what discourse communities consist of, made me take notice that everything we do is a part of a discourse community especially when it comes down to writing. When I would be given a writing assignment, I would just look for what I was being asked to write about and that would be the end of it. With the six characteristic of the discourse community that Swale’s presents, I realize that they will help you to guide your paper and have important fundamentals where it can be accepted in the discourse. To start off, the paper has to be directed towards a specific audience and you have to know your audience to a point so your purpose expressed by your writing can be understood. In my case after knowing what the topic for my writing was, I would look towards my audience to see who I’m trying to convince or who I trying to listen to me because from the beginning if your audience isn’t intrigued in …show more content…
Before the readings I didn’t have a clue of what it was and what they consist of. Those discourse communities gave me a different way of thinking in how to write and looking to be accepted. I think that those reading I focus more on being accepted in the specific discourse. i feel like you need to really know what you’re talking about because if you don’t you won’t be able to participate in the discourse. Another thing is that I try and bring in more of the specific lexis. The specific lexis gives your writing another look and gives it more complexity in which can show that you’ve been acquiring the specific vocabulary that is needed. I have also realized that I borrowed ideas as how Porter says but it’s not to taking someone’s credit but to give more credibility and hear it from a more powerful voice. These readings have probably not impacted the form of writing in which I chose to write, but it has make me think twice how I want to present myself to my audience. I do think now about whom my audience is and what I need to include in my writing to be accepted. My thinking process has acquired new ways in which my writings can get better and more

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