'Intertextuality And The Discourse Community'

Josh Ladrigan Professor Gibson Intermediate Composition 6 February 2023 Sales Associates in the GFS Community Discourse communities can be found wherever you go, and many people are involved with a variety of communities. People may be involved in these communities through their profession, interests, or hobbies. These communities can be any group that uses a variation of communication to reach certain goals. The true definition of a discourse community is a group that has objectives or purposes, and utilizes communication to accomplish those objectives. The discourse community I am going to discuss is the community within my workplace, Gordon Food Service (GFS).

In Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz Mujerista Discourse: A platform for Latinas’ Subjugated Knowledge, she talks about the term “Lo Cotidiano” which translates to “the everyday” (Isasi-Diaz pg. 46), and she explains how this term is more complex than the actual meaning. She also explains that ‘lo cotidiano’ and the way every person lives their ‘cotidiano’ connects with the main idea of Mujerista Discoourse. In her writing, she discusses some personal experiences which bring a better understanding to the true meaning of lo ‘cotidiano’. Isasi-Diaz gives an in-depth explanation to what ‘lo cotidiano’ really means, or what it should mean.

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.

“ It has been censured for its substance, it has been censured for its form, for its misstatements of fact, for its fallacies in reasoning, for its audacious novelties and paradoxes, for its total lack of all novelty, for its repetition of old and threadbare statements, even for its downright plagiarisms ; finally, for its grandiose and vaporing style.” (oldandsold.com). The Declaration of Independence has been criticized, in which the criticism is towards Jefferson. Because the Declaration affects so many different things, which can also be blamed on Jefferson, the people forget that our life today is because of him. If he didn’t write the Declaration of Independence, then our country wouldn’t be the way that it is.

In her article “Unconscious Plagiarism,” Rachel Tool describes how she experienced been plagiarized by unmeant from her friends and her students. Also she might use other people’s ideas by accident. She told her students that famous writers sometimes steal other famous writer’s ideas or writing structures because they want to build their tension and use fluid transitions. Long time ago, lots of students use rote memorization when they learning how to write, and students just re-transcribe what they learned from other people. When the writer heard that students always use her ideals to play jokes and communicate after class, she is kind of happy cause she thought this is likely a form of flattery.

In any school you have attended, plagiarism is a situation that a writer should not put themselves in under any circumstances. When reading the essay “Something Borrowed,” Malcolm Gladwell gave insight into the flaws of plagiarism that writers may not have thought about before. The first being that plagiarism is never acceptable (927). The second issue with plagiarism is recognizing the differences that can or cannot “inhibit creativity” (931). Being inspired by another person's work can help and guide you to build your own ideas, but simply taking their work and claiming it as yours is not permitted.

For one, his allusion also acts as a appeal to logos since it creates an relatability and accountability for his audience, as he backs up his information using a common religion and God. Jefferson uses an appeal to pathos to get a rise of emotion out of his audience. By doing so, he states “He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people”. Jefferson explaining all the “wrong-doings”, so to say, of Great Britain, it makes his audience more passionate about being an independent country.

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,

According to James Porter, “there are two types of intertextuality, which are iterability and presupposition” (Porter 1986, p. 397). “Iterability is the repetition of specific parts of a text, and it can have the appearance of an express implication, references, phrases, conventions, and expressions noticeable all around." (Porter 1986, p. 397). Presupposition implies to inference a text makes about its reader or its context." (Porter 1986, p. 397).

I thought this was surprising because I always imagined Jefferson drafting the first writings by himself for some reason. Jefferson was chosen to be in that committee because he was known by the Continental Congress to have great writing skills and he was very motivated and active in the political revolution. Jefferson’s work is very inspired by John Locke. I believe that when Jefferson was reading Locke’s work, he noticed a stunning similarity between Locke’s views on human nature, and the colonies democratic and equal view of life. The preamble of the constitution directly relates to Locke’s writings on laws and the pursuit of happiness.

A discourse community is a group of people that share a set of values and goals. Members of a discourse community have their own way of communicating within the group and with the public. Although the communities may differ in subject matter and appearance, they do share varying levels of similarities. The three-discourse communities that we will be focusing on are: art, research biology and finance: specifically, the financial service sector. Furthermore, we will be comparing the three-discourse communities on: similarities among all the groups, similarities between each group and the differences among all three.

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

My definition of rhetoric before the readings was simply: successful written or oral communication with a clear purpose & audience in mind. After completing the readings, I have decided that is not specific enough and does not encompass what rhetoric really is. The readings by Crusus, Channell, and Drucker helped establish a clear relationship between argument, “mature reasoning”, and communication as a mode used to communicate. Both of the readings provided a clearer understanding of argument and communication, key components to rhetoric, but did not change my definition until I read “The Rhetorical Situation” by Bitzer. The idea of a rhetorical situation, provided a clear application of the question: “What is rhetoric?”

It can be difficult to understand what it means to be a discourse or what communities fall under that category, and that is why I feel like John Swales’ definition of a discourse community is the the one that makes the most sense and the one that almost anybody can apply to communities they are part of and determine if they are discourses or not. Even though Gee and Porter had good points regarding discourses and good arguments, one almost had to be a linguist to fully understand what they were saying. They did help Swales get his point across more clearly in some instances though. Thanks to Swales I now know for a fact that my English 1113 class is a discourse community and I achieved that by following the six rules Swales presented as necessary to be a discourse community.  Gee, James P. “Literary, Discourse, and Linguistics.”

When I was first introduced to the topic of a discourse community I began overwhelmed with confusion. As the course progressed I began to grasp the aspect of the topic. In addition, I found that the writing process was not as complex and time consuming as the other assigned writing this semester. Thus, making it an easier and more enjoyable experience overall. I did exceptionally well on this paper, earning a five out of six because I put the most effort into it, becoming my best written piece.