Intertextuality And The Discourse Community: Article Analysis

In the article “Intertextuality and the Discourse Community” James Porter points out to the audience that there is no original piece or writing. Porter’s article addresses the concept of plagiarizing. He does not oppose that plagiarizing is wrong, rather he claims that it is inevitable. Porter argues that in all pieces of writing are intertexual. Intertexuality is the idea that all writings have traces and ideas from other past text. Intertextuality is important to completely understand a piece of writing.

Writing is a powerful tool for communication and connection. As an extension and expression of the mind, writing is as much about the mental processes of the author as it is about the final marks laid to paper. As we write, we hold in mind our own thoughts on the work, anticipate the reader’s thoughts, and think both in concrete and abstract ways in order to accomplish the task at hand. Whether an academic research paper, a novel, or text message to friends, writing seeks to engage, persuade, or impress concepts upon an audience. Like language and other art forms in general, the practice of writing is ever-evolving and is subject to cultural and contextual influence, expectations, and conventions. Each writer holds a theory

To be a part of a discourse community, one must be credible, possess factual knowledge and draw on the values of its members to be accepted into the community. At the same time, a person must learn typical ways people in that community communicate and argue. They share a certain genre—type of writing. Members of discourse communities provide information and feedback that are imperative in order for that discourse community to grow. In the following paper, I will discuss three discourse communities and a genre that they typically use: people who read Nutritional Facts religiously, college students, and industrial organizational psychologists.

In her article “I Stand Here Writing”, Nancy Sommers examines the writing process and formulating ideas for writing in a more empirical manner. She states that before she found her creative zeal/ niche her writing was often undisciplined, unmethodical, and sloppy. Sommers reveals that in college she was less known for her writing and more for her long hair and misapplication of phrases. She found her true inspiration while writing her Senior Thesis on Emerson’s “Eloquence.” Throughout the entire essay, Sommers provides the reader with advice about writing. A key point that she mentions is, “If I could teach my students about writing it would be to see themselves as sources, as places from which ideas originate, to see themselves as Emerson’s transparent eyeball, all that they have read and experienced-the-dictionaries of their lives circulating through them.”

Every text is made up of tremendously important parts called literary devices or techniques. In those texts, those literary devices are a necessary part, that help develop the text in a large amount of ways. In “Response to executive order 9066” by Dwight Okita and “Mericans” by Sandra Cisneros both develop the common theme of American identity by using literary devices such as, simile, imagery, and personification.

I sit in this AP Language and Composition class trying to decipher the essence of the unending annotations and floods of random texts for the past quarter. Little did I know that I would be taking flight and soaring through the smallest details and threads of literary devices and techniques of analyzing language. Before this class, I looked at a book, aware that it was filled with potential symbolism and crucial themes that were definitely worth considering. Yet, I often paid far less attention to the way words are crafted in efforts to create a beautiful masterpiece. Who knew that the jargon used in Snow Falling on Cedars could significantly shape the overall tone of the book? From the years leading up to this class, the main goal I had

In ENGL 1301, these past two weeks have given me a better understanding of ethos, logos and pathos appeals. Being in a discourse community has made me put these appeals into perspective. Understanding that being in that community made me a stronger woman. This will give me a chance to show you, my professor and classmates that softball is indeed a sport. I will prove why I attended this discourse community in softball at a young age to now by explaining the mental state of understanding the rules, the physical mechanisms, and the emotional connection it has on my authority, team and myself.

In his article “The Concept of Discourse Community,” Professor John Swales defines what a discourse community is, following with a list of six different points that a group must align with in order to qualify as a discourse community. These parameters are as follows: “a broadly agreed set of common public goals,” “mechanisms of intercommunication among its members,” the use of “participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback”, use or possession of “one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims”, “some specific lexis”, and “a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise” (471-473).

On one hand, the author meant that “there’s no such thing as a wholly original work of literature,” because he described how authors are inspired by other pieces of writing as poems or even paintings to write their literary work. They shared similar themes, characters or even they can combine many of literary features into their own that is the reason why readers have to be attentive in asking themselves: “where have they seen that before?” (pg. 29) Is it true that in chapters 4, 5 and 6 Foster describes that literature is affected by intertextuality to a certain extent, for instance, when writers lay back by prominent figures as Shakespeare or the

In “Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities,” authors Amy Devitt, Anis Bawarshi, and Mary Reiff discuss genre in discourse communities. The article is pretty much broken into three different parts with each author writing about another genre. Amy Devitt discusses jury instruction which basically just means that she wrote about how jurors are not able to grasp the genre of jury instruction like lawyers are able to which means they are not able to make a good verdict for defendants. Anis Bawarshi discusses the medical field and the language there. He said that only people familiar with medicine relate and honestly understand what is going on when people talk about medicine. Then lastly, Mary Reiff talked about ethnography

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.

A discourse community is a group of people or communicators who share the same common goals or interests and use different forms of communication to achieve these goals. Some of these forms of communication may range from reading, writing, the use of technology such as blogging and emailing, and even visual art such as painting and drawing. As an English major focusing on the aspect of creative writing, the discourse community I so happened to be associated with is of the English subject. The discourse community of the English literature is made up of many people, genres of literature, and even terms. The discourse community of English literature can be traced back to as early as the year C.658 with the development of Anglo-Saxon literature. Some influential eras of English literature include : Romanticism, Victorian literature, Medieval Theater, Poetry, and the Elizabethan Period. Of course with every discourse community there are a vast number of people who help to make it up. In the discourse community of English some of these people include author and playwright William Shakespeare, author Mark Twain, author and poet Jane Austen , and a slew of famous African-American authors some including Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Lorraine Hansberry, and poet Maya Angelou.

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.

Bronwyn T. Williams addresses identity in all literary works in his article, ”Pay attention to the man behind the curtain: The importance of identity in academic writing.” The author begins by discussing what he believes is an issue; In the educational system, students are taught “There is personal writing. There is academic writing. The two forms exist on their own, separate and identifiable.” (710). His audience for the article is english and writing teachers and persuades the audience that identity is unavoidable in all writing and that an educator’s responsibility is “helping our [the teacher’s] students understand that an academic identity in writing is not a disappearing act but in a way of connecting passion, point of view, experience,

In his essays “From Work to Text” and “Theory of the Text” Barthes contrasts “the traditional author-based notion of The Work with The Text”, and state “that while a work can be held in the hand and seen on the shelves of libraries and bookshops, the text only exists when it is produced by the new reader”. To him “the Text is experienced only in an activity, in a production” (Barthes cited in Allen 83).