Nature Of Power In Discourse

In his text James Paul Gee attempts to paint a big picture of discourse to the audience. He starts with giving the definition of the word discourse and following that with how it fits into the English language as well as examples. In the continuing section he shows that discourse has more than one meaning and goes on to explain what it could also mean. An important part of this text was what he explained speakers/writers and listeners/readers do. This is an idea that both the orator and the audience is doing a job and what is said or understood has to do with each other as well as multiple other factors. Gee emphasizes the fact that both the orator and the audience are designers who like artist and or musicians design our language to say and

Living in a country that provides access to great health care, one would expect the United States to have a sufficient supply of medical professionals such as doctors. After all, the country has a booming population and is home to many respected institutions with driven and compassionate medical students. However, in the March 3, 2015 edition of The Washington Post, Lenny Bernstein addresses a relatively new problem in healthcare. In the article, “U.S. Faces 90,000 Doctor Shortage by 2025, Medical School Association Warns”, Bernstein successfully creates a real sense of this crisis through his use of logos and diction to address the expected shortage of medical doctors.

Nevertheless, discourse plays a crucial role in the rhetorical analysis process, as Grant Davie explains, the process goes from establishing the subject to identifying where discourse comes from and finally evaluating its importance and point. Moreover, the chamber of commerce is trying to get primarily affluent individuals to move down to Winter Park, Florida. Moreover, to persuade them that living in Winter Park is everyone’s stereotypical American

Often time power can be understood as control of material resources and wealth, control of politics and the institutions that make up society (Hutchison,2015). It is important to recognize and identify the core concepts of power or lack of power with individuals in society. The conflict theory allows examination within the text of those who hold power and lack power. The end result of power to hold dominance over another person, group, or society. As a result of the control and power is causes those who lack power to be devalued or alienated from a setting or even society (Hutchinson, 2015).

What is a discourse community? According to John Swales, a respected written communication analyst, a discourse community is described as a group of people that have the same goals or purposes, and use communication to achieve these goals. In addition, “A discourse operates within conventions defined by communities, be they academic disciplines or social groups” (Swales, 119). This is not be confused with a speech community, “a community sharing knowledge of rules for the conduct and interpretation of speech” (Swales 121). In determining whether or not a group is a discourse community, there are several certain rules, rather a list of criteria, in which

As members of modern society, individuals have come together to form a unique community. In a quote by Rollo May, he states, “Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy, and mutual valuing.” A discourse community consists of a group of people involving in and as well as communication about particular topics. Each group may vary in different categories but they all share the same goals. The importance of sharing the same goals and values is great because it leads to the true concept of a discourse community.

Swales’ second defining characteristic of a discourse group stresses the significance of communication; simply put, “A

Never was there ever a more ambiguous term than Power. To single out any one definition of power would limit the words potential, however, the ability to do or act; capability of doing or accomplishing something, is succinct in entertaining its polysemic nature. Power is subjective to its holder, wether it be the individual, the people or the position. Through the quote, “I am not interested in Power for Powers sake. I am interested in power that is moral, that is right, that is good”, Martin Luther King Jr presents an ethical, just view of power, contrary to those explored in the texts Othello and 1984. Shakespeare and Orwell use specific literary devices to successfully portray the Power of the Individual, Power of Position and Power of

How would one define power? A better question would be, what factors come into play when defining power? For Mayella Ewell, a poor white female living in 1930’s Alabama, these factors are class, race, and gender. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Mayella made claims that Tom Robinson, an innocent black man, raped her in a desperate attempt to get away from her abusive father. Although these claims were false, the jury convicted Tom because Mayella has power over him. Mayella has power sourced from class, race, and gender.

In this week’s reading of the “Rhetorical Approaches to College Writing”, the foundations for rhetoric were introduced. The book describes rhetoric as a word with many definitions that all have a commonality. From the reading rhetoric seems to have a way of calling people to action in some distort manner similar to enticement. From the reading three definitions of rhetoric were given by different sources. The first source being from a ancient Greek philosopher who defined rhetoric as, “the faculty of discovering in any particular case all of the available means of persuasion”(RACW pg.3). I learned that for Aristotle the Greek philosopher rhetoric was a means of political engagement in civic life (RACW pg.4). The second source was from another

When Discourse is broken up, it has various different elements to it. Some of those are dominant Discourses, non dominant Discourses, mushfaking, and apprenticeship. “Dominant Discourses are secondary discourses the mastery of which, at a particular place and time, brings with it the acquisition of social “goods” (money, prestige,

Discourses are the “social and cultural practices through which individuals and groups use language to establish their identities…they provide ways of being, thinking, acting and using language so that people can identify themselves in social and cultural networks” Discourses affect peoples views on all things, for example, two different

This article focus on the definition of power what is power, examining the phenomenon of powerful and the powerless. This will help my essay in explaining that power is not owned, one can’t simply own power but it is rather given.

Firstly, I shall compare the similarities the two idea shares. Both Scott and Foucault think power is more than being a form of coercion, that power is found in symbolic dimensions. Scott stated power and resistance can be spotted and take forms in language and discourse, that is conversation, statement, narratives made by the dominant and subordinates, in terms of what he purposes ‘public transcript’ and ‘hidden transcript’ accordingly. Similarly, Foucault see power as coextensive with language and discourse.

This article, written by Bourdieu focuses on language and symbolic power. In the beginning Bourdieu talks about a concept he calls linguistic exchange, this refers to a transfer of language between two people, one who holds capital or assets and another who consumes the capital (knowledge) given by the speaker. For Bourdieu language is extremely symbolic and to go along with this symbolism are certain rules that people naturally understand and follow. It comes from the belief that language can be a form of power, those with power (capital) in a given situation are perceived as an authority over another because of the capital they hold. The article goes on to discuss what Bourdieu calls symbolic capital, that is the acknowledgment placed upon the speaker that grants them a recognized form of power over others.