A Discourse of Discourse
ERH 101, Section 1
Date Due: 20 July 2018
Date Sub: 20 July 2018
Paper No. 3
Help Received:
Savanah Diamond let me borrow book
Works of Swales, Gee, Harris
Works Cited
Peer Response from Seth and Jackson
LTC. Ticen, PhD for help in conference
Works Cited
Urie N. Conis
Located within the English, Rhetoric, and Humanistic Studies department is a process of communication unique to only their clique. This unique way of communicating is the ERH department’s discourse community. For the discourse of English is discourse itself, analyzing writing so that one may attain greater expertise in the subject. English majors and professors must be keen to their speech, and eloquent in their writing, more so than any other subjects at VMI. The halls of Scott Shipp’s second floor are lined with linguistic paraphernalia, each displaying a different message to the viewer. This vibrant display of genres is each meant to appeal to individuals with different interests, or tastes in writing. Some are the projects of students past, displayed so that those who walk the halls may know the grandeur of the English department. Others are more informative, inquiring on the nature of a Writing degree, and the applications of English mastery. For if they are to entice new recruits into their domain, they must give reason for such pursuits. The English department likely has the most elaborate discourse community relative to the others that may be found upon VMI campus.
Discourse can be characterized by the views of three reputable authors, Swales, Gee, and Harris. Harris and Swales claims had the greatest effect on me, and even counteracted what Gee had said. Harris spoke of how communities could blend, and meld with one another, allowing one to use the expertise of their community, whilst in the field of another community. Harris’s work fascinated me, and I found its application to English to be profound. Swales’ interpretation of how discourse communities function is the requirement of a constant influx of new members to saturate the community and negate the loss that may come when other members leave, retire, or perish. Gee’s perspective of discourse communities took a different approach to the subject. Gee proposes that you are either in a community, or not, there is no in-between. Gee also believes that discourses can interfere with one another. “Two Discourses can interfere with one another, like two languages; aspects of one Discourse can be transferred to another Discourse, as one can transfer a grammatical feature from one language to another.” (Gee, 281). For the English department, I found that Harris’s work was the most accurate when you consider the nature of writing. The idea of Discourses blending is where one finds the most utility in English and writing, for their application upon other subjects is imperative.
If one were to operate within the discourse community of the engineering department, they would no doubt be able to use the skills and conversational techniques learned within the discourse community of the English department. They can format their papers or reports in the ways that suit their departments and provide the appropriate levels of pathos and logos that are requested by the subjects at hand, and then finally smooth and clean their rough products with the more powerful communication that is provided by English discourse. I find this to be most applicable to my own future. As I continue to learn to be a better writer, I as myself more and more of how I could apply these skills in a future career or educational opportunity. This is when I realized that I would be tasked with Mechanical Engineering throughout my journey at the Virginia Military Institute. Understanding of complex vocabulary is key in being successful in an engineering field, so that no meaning is misunderstood. It will also help me when faced with long and more academic reads. The works of Gee and company were not meant to be entertaining and were strictly academic in their delivery, and better prepared me for the voluminous amounts of academic reading that will challenge me in my studies. Thus, while the discourse of some subjects is unique only to themselves, English discourse is applicable to all subjects.
For the English Department, discourse is built into the discourse community itself. Students learn to be keen towards the communities they find themselves within, and English discourse is self-aware in regards to how it’s majors aught to analyze writing and other literary works. This idea of metacognition within the department is reflective of how English analysis is enacted. It is through this understanding of the community that one finds an application of their skills.
English is elaborate and sometimes cryptic and requires knowledge of the discourse to be able to understand at times. To simplify large loads of information into more appropriate portions, texts are often split into many genres of work. Genres include posters, reports, flyers, analytical assignments, and other various forms of text-based mediums of communication. When information is placed into a genre, it gives the work a sense of organization and fluidity. Genres are sometimes unique, yet other times they manifest themselves among many discourse communities. This aspect of cross-community genres, such as posters, is another example of discourse communities blending rather than interfering, elevating the position taken by Harris, and disproving the remarks of Gee.
To analyze the discourse of the English department, I sought out examples of their writing, and looked upon their walls to see what was displayed. I found projects, advertisements for workshops, and the books that one might read whilst studying. There are adverts for upcoming events and programs that the department holds and conducts. Numerous pieces detailed the benefits of a Bachelors in English, from wall mounted posters to small pamphlets in the atrium. A flyer titled, What can you do with a B.A. in English? caught my eye in particular. It was designed to the point and lay out the foundation for the job market associated with writing and English. On the top of the sheet, a list of careers, including journalism, marketing and publishing, and corporate communications. At the bottom, a list of further educational pursuits, such as a graduate degree in law, Business, Education, and of course, English itself. Another piece I found to be particularly amusing was a bulletin board strewn with papers, each on the subject of persuasion. Some focused on the ridicule of a Liberal Arts degree, and how the stigma around such degrees is fading, and they are starting to take hold. Others took a less subtle approach, instead telling the facts. Telling of how Philosophy is overtaking Computer Science, according to Mark Cuban, or how English has staggering employment numbers. The final notable type of piece to be found amongst the walls were projects and accomplishments of previous students. These projects put the department in a good light by allowing visitors to get a taste of what they may yet accomplish in the field.
The English, Rhetoric, and Humanistic Studies department isn’t just useful as a support for other subjects, it has its own style of writing that is unique only to itself. Whereas other departments are almost completely restricted to logos and fact, ERH is unbound and allows for more creative works. To further examine this, I consulted a work known as the Institute Report. In the article, cadets of class 2019 worked with three generations of people from middle schoolers to VMI cadets to senior citizens. In the words of Maj. Stephanie Hodde, “I was interested in creating a fieldwork class that had a creative component because most of the work thus far—the two years that I’ve been here—were more research based in terms of the service learning and providing some sort of need for the community,” (qtd in Nye, 6). The freedoms found within English discourse are unlike any other, and assignments and problems can be approached in ways beyond standard. If Maj. Hodde were a professor in the engineering department, her work would be more restricted and formulaic, as engineering doesn’t allow for writing to be cryptic in the slightest, instead opting for a more rigid structure.
Throughout the English department, the discourse community is ever present. Their communicative techniques are persuasive, creative, and outspoken. It is within this discourse that one may find the nature of discourse itself and use the skills of the community to improve their competence within other communities. It is through this understanding of the ERH department’s discourse community that one can improve upon their writing and be more aware of the communities they find themselves within. Mastery of English discourse is a gateway to understanding and articulating points to be made in other discourses. It is wonderous in its operation and is the keystone in the argument of Harris.
Works Cited
Benjamin M. Outland ’19. “Communications and Marketing Internship”, English Department,
2018, Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia
Gee, James. “Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics” Writing About Writing: A College Reader,
edited by Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs, Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011, pg. 274-297.
Originally published in Journal of Education, vol. 171, no.1, 1989, pp. 5-17
Nye, Kelly. “Cadets Partner With Community to Create Memoirs Three Generations Look Back
at Their Formative Years”, Institute Report, Volume XLVI, Number VII, May 2018, pp. 6, https://www.vmi.edu/media/content-assets/documents/communications-and-marketing/institute-report-archives/2018-05-Institute-Report.pdf
“What can you do with a B.A. in English?”, English Department, 2018, Virginia Military
Institute, Lexington, Virginia