Discourse Community Examples

Community in the dictionary means a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common. Everyone belongs to a community or considers themselves a part of one, however communities tends to take away individualism. Anna Quindlen, author of “Commencement Speech at Mount Holyoke College”, spoke to the graduating class and delivered a speech on the effects of society on individuals. The purpose of this was to lead and guide the graduates into a happier life. Being true to self can only bring happiness, conforming to mold never designed to fit will only cause discomfort and unhappiness.

For me, the logos, pathos and ethos perspective of joining a discourse community I had been part of, taught me a lesson about interpersonal skills, organizational systems and professionalism. My aim of this paper is to share my experience of joining Chitwan Pharmacy Student Association (CPSA) via use of rhetorical skills that we have discussed in class of English 1301.

Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian philosopher and author, once stated, “The well-being of a community of people working together will be the greater, the less the individual claims for himself the proceeds of his work, the more of these proceeds he makes over to his fellow-workers, the more his own needs are satisfied, not out of his own work but out of the work done by others” (“Recording of Society”). This quote represents the true meaning of a discourse community. A discourse community is a group of social individuals that work together to reach a common goal, understand the same basic values and assumptions, and use a unique kind of communication to reach their set goal or purpose. A good example of a discourse community is the organization

In this day and time, very few people have yet to hear about the infamous Plastics from Mean Girls, but many from this generation have not heard of the Heathers from Heathers. The Plastics and the Heathers have few things in common though. For one, they are each a clique of mean girls in highly popular movies from their decades. They each have a dictating leader that belittles others in the group, as well as, others in their schools. Each group has accepted an outsider into the group that will lead to the destruction of the group itself.

The two compiled a map of North Shore High and how Cady will survive it. A big part of the map was the cafeteria and where all the different cliques sat. Cady was warned about a certain clique called “the Plastics”, she was told they are the worst people she would ever meet. The Plastics are the popular clique at Cady’s new

There is no doubt that the film Mean Girls is full of conflict. Director Mark Waters did an excellent job at presenting how conflict can transpire and spread between females. The conflict that occurs in Mean Girls can easily be seen through the main characters Cady and Regina, however, conflict does not only takes place between the two of them but the entire school as well. Conflicts that arise throughout this film can be explained through power and power currencies, conflict styles and tactics, assumptions and triggering events, and forgiveness and reconciliation. Each conflict allows there to be understanding as to why the conflict took place and how it got as destructive as it did.

Grant-Davie opens his writing with numerous definitions of a rhetorical situation. He then says that these definitions do not grasp the complexity of rhetorical situations. To fully understand a rhetorical situation, he suggests an analysis of the exigence, recognizing that rhetors and audience are both a part of a rhetorical situation, and that there may be multiple rhetors or audience. Grant-Davie then stated the four constituents in rhetorical situations that are exigence, rhetors, audiences, and constraints.

We communicate in many ways, either by email, telephone, text, face to face, social media or letters and the language we use allows us to get things done, nonetheless the language and communication method in which we chose to use can vary depending on the discourse community. Much like John Swales suggests a discourse community involves a group of people who share the same common public goals, such as shared interests, rules, structure, and vocabulary. When thinking about the several discourse communities I am evolved in, which include family, coaching football, college student, and a few friends. These discourse communities have influenced me, given me insight of where I come from and tell who I am as a person. I also believe much like Swales,

An important discourse community that was a part of my life was my volleyball team during my four years of high school. I started playing my first year going into high school and continued until I graduated. Until now I wasn’t even aware that would even be considered a discourse community, but it fits all of the qualifications of Swales’ definition of a discourse community. Goals

“The Concept of Discourse Community.” Writing About Writing, A College Reader. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. 2nd ed.

Instead of dressing conservative and like a prude like she originally did, she begins to change the way she dress she begins to become more flashy and inappropriate. She starts new romantic interests in boys, specifically Aaron, who Caty did not know is Regina’s ex-boyfriend but still kind of boyfriend. One of the plastics, Gretchen, explains that Caty can not like or even entertain Aaron because he is Regina’s ex-boyfriend, and Caty disappointingly agrees. However, Caty begins changing more after the news, even more away from the plastics to secretly please and capture Aaron’s attention. She even goes against her character and true self to fail math just so she can seem more “cool” to Aaron, which he does not find as

“The plastics” were the leading group of the school, consisting of three popular, attractive girls, Regina, the leader of the group and two other girls, Karen, and Gretchen. “The Plastics” then scouted Cady since she had been attractive, and got the attention of popular boys, in which Janis and Damien originally supported in order to manipulate and plan to destroy “the plastics” through Cady. Cady’s exploration with social psychology is shown through her being unaware of everything at her new high school; social psychology concepts that are shown throughout this storyline are implicit personality theory, norms and group schemas, gender roles. Implicit personality theory is the inference of co-occurrence of personality traits based on another personality trait. This can be shown by the halo effect, where one infers that someone is generally good based on a few RUNNING

The movie Mean Girls is a perfect example of many social-psychological principles. Three of the major principles that are seen in the film include: conformity, in-groups and out-groups and prejudice. Cady Herron, a naïve sixteen-year-old who has been homeschooled her entire life, is forced to start as a junior at North Shore High School because of her family’s job relocation. Throughout the movie, you see Cady struggling to maintain acceptance in the school’s in-group known as The Plastics. The Plastics, who represent popularity, high economic status and the acclaimed standard of beauty, are one of the meanest cliques at North Shore.

In the Brave New World, a book written by Aldous Huxley,, he writes about a utopian future where humans are genetically created and pharmaceutically anthesized. Huxley introduces three ideals which become the world's state motto. The motto that is driven into their dystopian society is “Community, Identity and Stability.” These are qualities that are set to structure the Brave New World. Yet, happen to contradict themselves throughout the story.

The first theory, symbolic interactionism theory is very clear in the movie. It is shown from the nice car that Regina drives to the house that she lives in and they all appear to show a status symbol. An example of this would be when they are all sitting at the lunch table and Gretchen says “On Wednesdays, we wear pink.” (Mean Girls, 2004) this symbolizes that they are together and they are one almost like a unity and they wanted to make it known to the rest of the school that they are The Plastics.