Here I am in my second year as a consultant at the VMI Writing Center.

Already I am rereading material assigned to students so I can speak intelligently about such things as “discourse communities”.

Tonight I am plowing through John Swales essay “The Concept of Discourse Community”. It is not an easy piece to get into, but gains momentum once he begins explain defining characteristics of a discourse community.

I don’t mind admitting that I frequently look up words as I am reading. I don’t understand why people avoid doing that. Two words  I looked up tonight-

centripetal-A centripetal force is a force that makes a body follow a curved path as opposed to centrifugal. Examples: centrifugal =Mud flying off a tire; children pushed out on a roundabout. Centripetal= Satellite orbiting a planet.

Now I am trying to figure out why the creator of a Prezi https://prezi.com/bch_nql3fyvi/john-swales-the-concept-of-a-discourse-community/ decided to use those two physics words to describe the differences between speech communities and discourse communities. The slide shows this: “A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members”
– members don’t have to be in constant contact
– members can, and have, communicated with each other
Not to be confused with a “speech community”:
– centripetal
– entrance by birth, accident, adoption
Discourse communities are:
– centrifugal
– members enter by recruitment, persuasion, training, qualification

When I have an epiphany I will add it here.