Good subject-matter questions (from 8/30)

As you think about the question you will work on for Paper 1 (due Friday, 8 September), keep in mind these characteristics of a good subject-matter question:

1. It is problematic, meaning that the answer is not known or agreed upon.
2. It is significant, meaning that it is worth pursuing (you can answer the question, “So what?”).
3. It is interesting to the writer, meaning that you are genuinely engaged with the question—it is a real question for you and one that you care about.

Discourse communities (from 8/28)

Discourse communities are, most simply, groups of people communicating with each other in specific ways. Each discourse community has conventions (unwritten rules) about what can be talked about, what is assumed, and how to talk about different things.

Think about a discourse community as a group that communicates among its members in ways that are different from the way it communicates with those who aren’t members of the group. What are some discourse communities that you belong to? Some of the examples we discussed in class are:

church, friends, family, interest groups (gamers, skaters, bloggers, boarders), support groups based on shared experience (i.e., may not be your “friends,” but you relate to these people around some experience or problem, like AA, NA, rape survivors, etc.), online communities, groups who share a physical condition (deaf, blind, amputees, etc.)

Broadly speaking, the new discourse community you have entered by beginning college can be termed the academic community. It has its own standards, rules, assumptions, and expectations that govern communication within the community. An important part of joining the college community is learning how to communicate appropriately and effectively within it.

More narrowly, within the academic community, there are other discourse communities that focused on and communicating about particular disciplines, or domains of inquiry. These communities have their own professional organizations and publications within which group members communicate about topics of interest to scholars who are working in the same discipline. These groups have their own conventions, rules, standards, assumptions, and ways of approaching topics. So, another part of your task in joining the college community is to learn how to communicate appropriately and effectively within your own discipline.

Part of your job for this class will be to begin to learn about the your discipline as a discourse community with the goal of joining that community and participating in its conversation.