Reflection
In Portfolio #3, Discourse community ethnography, the assignment was to introduce the conventions within a specific discourse community, and in result be able to discuss how these conventions made the community its own genre and the value thereof. My essay, The Discourse Community: A Cross Country Team, conveyed to an audience the conventions of a cross country team, specifically VMI’s team, based on personal experience in order to analysis how these conventions made the community its own genre. Throughout the essay I was able to effectively connect key conventions of the community that gave evidence to the fact that the sport was a discourse community. While I was able to connect these conventions I feel that in some ways I missed the overall goal of the assignment since I focused much more on Cross Country as a whole rather than the more specific community here at VMI. In comparison to Portfolio 1 and 2, it is evident that I am making progress in conducting more stringent proofreading since there are less grammatical mistakes and run on sentences within the essay, yet I am still nowhere near perfection of the practice. I feel this assignment was well placed within the curriculum since it followed directly after Portfolio #2. The skills learned from finding the conventions of a writing genre transferred smoothly to the completion of this final paper and discussion of discourse communities. Overall, my essay thoroughly connected and conveyed conventions of the Cross Country community in order to teach an audience how this made the community a genre and the value thereof, but the essay lacked in its ability to teach the clear purpose of the community in the conclusion since it was focused much more on Cross Country as a whole rather than the specific community here at VMI.
Revision Plan
Portfolio #3’s assignment was to discuss the conventions of a specific discourse community, in order to present the clear purpose of the community, and how these conventions make the community its own genre. My essay, The Discourse Community: A Cross Country Team, effectively connected the conventions of the community yet lacked a clear purpose in the conclusion since I focused much more on Cross Country as a whole rather than a more specific Cross Country team within the community. By focusing more on a specific team I would have been able to use interviews and personal accounts from athletes within the community that would have given more concrete evidence and examples throughout the essay. The essay lacked a methodology paragraph early on in the essay that could have been used as a reference in the conclusion in order to connect how the conventions of Cross Country communities are relevant in giving the community a strong purpose to exist. While I have steadily progressed in revising my essays between drafts I still have grammatical errors and run on sentences within the essay that disrupt the coherence and flow. By using the skill of proofreading out loud I would be able to catch on to the small mistakes that in the end would make the essay much more formal and clear to the audience. By using a more specific community, including a methodology paragraph early on in the essay, and read out loud in order to correct mistakes within the essay, I would be able to present the conventions of the community in a much smoother and formal manner that would also deliver a clearer purpose for the use of the Cross Country community.