Lisa Tremain Volume 5 Chapter Description This essay explores how discourse communities change over time and through participation, and it shows how we can negotiate the expectations for discourse through translanguaging and code-meshing. As discourse community members learn and practice the language rules of a community, they also act as agents to develop, change, or […]
Sarah Seeley, Kelly Xu, & Matthew Chenn Melzer Volume 4 Chapter Description This chapter is a collaboration between a professor (Sarah Seeley) and two former students (Kelly Xu and Matthew Chen). We begin with a discussion of a key concept: the discourse community. In doing so, we illustrate why it is necessary to examine the
Read the Room! Navigating Social Contexts and Written Texts Read More »
Cassie Hemstrom & Kathy Anders Volume 4 Chapter Description This chapter extends John Swales’ theory of discourse communities into the sphere of information literacy, as it is conceptualized in the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. We propose the concept of research communities, where discourse communities with the common goal of research use,
Creating, Using, and Sharing Information in Research Communities Read More »
Dan Melzer Volume 3 Chapter Description This chapter uses John Swales’ definition of discourse community to explain to students why this concept is important for college writing and beyond. The chapter explains how genres operate within discourse communities, why different discourse communities have different expectations for writing, and how to understand what qualifies as a
Understanding Discourse Communities Read More »
Catherine Savini Volume 2 Chapter Description How can we help students become invested in their writing? How can we help students write interesting papers that we look forward to reading? Students can learn to write interesting papers that develop complex ideas if they begin by “looking for trouble.” This chapter provides students with a step-by-step
Looking for Trouble: Finding Your Way into a Writing Assignment Read More »
