Economics As A Discourse Community

Author Wheelan writes, "Life is about trade-offs, and so is economics." Indeed, so is Naked Economics. This book promises to be a good introduction to economics for the layman. Throughout the book, the author uses easy-to-understand language and vivid examples to illustrate his points in strategic places maintaining a sense of lightness with the readers in reading the material. Here is a summary of each of the 12 Chapters of the book Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science by Charles Wheelan.

Economy is full of fallacies, which are economic theories or procedures that are deceptive or based on broken thinking, but yet they continue to be widely accepted as truth. The reason for this is because people do not choose to engage in critical thinking so instead they tell half-truth stories that are required justification. If one only looks at the benefits they miss out on the hidden cost. Two articles in this paper will take a deeper look into how fallacies have an effect on

“The economic way of thinking improves on common sense by looking beneath surface appearances. Faced with a problem, an economist thinks in terms of variables rather than fixed quantities, seeking systematic relationships

In the United States, we encounter quite a bit of obstacles that we can’t seem to get rid of completely. We as a nation deal with inflation, unemployment, stagflation, recessions, depressions, and so much more. Reading these three articles opened my eyes to the world of economics, and even made me question the society we live in. I’ve learned that sometimes questions can’t be answered, and I learned that once we solve one issue, there is always another issue on its way. These articles made me analyze, and think about the future of economics, and what I can do to try and help the economy. These authors of these three articles make it very clear that there are issues in the United States, and they do an amazing job

READ: Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science, Charles Wheeland, W.W. Norton, 2003. Completely- cover to cover.

READ: Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science, Charles Wheeland, W.W. Norton, 2003. Completely- cover to cover.

Discourse communities are groups of people who share similar values, goals, and ways of communication. Although it is more of a broad definition, to me discourse communities can be more simplified. My definition: sharing the same experiences, individual passion, and journey as your destined group.

In order to discuss the different ways in which economists considered societies could resolve the economic calculation problem and the implications of the economic calculation debate it is important to consider different view points of influential economists from all over the world.

Life is like a massive highway that have infinite routes anyone can choose take to reach some type of designated goal. Those various routes lead to distinct exits, where one can discover a group or groups that share similarities dealing with viewpoints, beliefs, or understanding towards a particular goal. These groups can be identified as discourse communities. According to, “The Concept of Discourse Community,” in the textbook, Writing About Writing, John Swales stressed that in order to be classified as a discourse community the group has to have all six defining characteristics. Swales emphasized, “A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals, mechanisms of intercommunication among its members, uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback, utilities and hence processes one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims, acquires specific lexis, and has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discourse expertise” (Swales, 221-222). Keeping this key detail in mind, there is numerous type of discourse out there.

What is a discourse community? According to John Swales authors of the article of discourse community, a discourse community is a group of people working together to towards a common goal. Examples of people working together to share a common goal are religious groups, students studying a certain major, fans, student, and teachers.

A discourse community is defined as a group of people involved in and communicating about a particular topic, issue, or in a particular field. We all belong to multiple discourse communities.To earn a position of a discourse community one must possess accurate knowledge, establish reliability of members to be accepted and learn to persuade other members of the community. The discourse community that I identify with personally and the profession I plan to pursue is the world of film production. However, there are many jobs that need to be done on a film set leading to there being multiple discourse communities within the film industry, what I want to focus on specifically is the DP, otherwise known as the “director of photography”. According to “The Concept of Discourse Community,” by educator and researcher John Swales, a discourse community is defined by six characteristics.

My discourse community is SESHOLLOWATERBOYZ or S.H.W.B. that is four friends Bones, Xavier Wulf, Chris Travis, and Eddy Baker, and their fans. I’m in the fans section of the discourse community, but the artists consider all real fans a part of S.H.W.B. Which is why I don’t classify my discourse community as “Fans of S.H.W.B.” Bones older brother Elliott also deserves to be mentioned, because he is the man behind the scenes and has set up tours for S.H.W.B. and is the closest thing to a manager they have. My discourse community is really cool to the people in it.

A discourse community is a group of people who share a set of discourses, understood as basic values and assumptions, and ways of communicating about those goals. John Swales defines a discourse community as "groups that have goals or purposes, and use communication to achieve these goals." The community I choose to identify with is special education. Special education teachers, or aids, really dedicate themselves and their time to others who need special assistance or treatment. The California Department of Education supports high quality educational programs for California’s big student population. According to the ideas from the federal government, the variety of the education working environment is one of the fastest growing areas of the American economy. The importance in understanding this career includes emotional, and physical growth of each student. Working with students who have disabilities can be very rewarding, but it is sometimes emotionally demanding and physically draining. Before stepping into the job of becoming a special education teacher, it is important to understand the patience that is needed in order to work with special children.

The economic discourse community can be loosely identified as a set of shared values and knowledge in the field of economics. Different from other writings, economic discourse community usually include some technical economic terms and visual information, i.e. diagrams, tables and charts, etc. Each writing piece has its intended audience, and economists’ writing is no exception. Economists’ writing is usually targeted at economic majors or practitioners in the field of economics. Economic discourse community helps its intended readers to pick up information efficiently and effectively.

14). The contents of this article applies to certain aspects of economics by responding to the following questions: