January 2021

Ann Johns was a linguist who focused on the conflicts of academic discourse communities. John Swales, another linguist who pioneered the definitions of discourse communities, defines a discourse community as the following…

• Has broadly agreed set of common public goals
• Mechanisms of intercommunication among members (newsletters/journals)
• Utilizes one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of goals
• Uses participatory mechanisms to provide information and feedback
• Has specific lexis (language)

Johns explained that students who have on-campus experience realize that communities on campus are all different from each other. There are new sets of language to learn and items that take on new meanings. Working in a particular community makes you understand particular parts, what it takes to join, the culture involved, and not just meaningless information. Johns states that unlike the culture and family environment you are born into, which in its own right is a community, your academic communities are voluntary.

We are all a part of many discourse communities, sometimes without even realizing it. I am a part of many myself. My hometown could be considered a discourse community. We get newspapers as community communication, and there are words and places that I could say or reference to any random person, and no one but those who live in my hometown community would understand. Now, I am a part of the University of Mississippi discourse community. I receive campus-wide emails with information about events and there are places and phrases that are condensed in this community. I am a part of my church community. There are terms and practices and history that we have that to anyone else would be confusing. Among many others, I am also a choir singer and have been for years, and there are terms and unified goals that span across pretty much all singers. Finally, I am a part of my family discourse community. We have goals and communicate often with each other, and have names and information that we know, but not just anyone would know those things.

I have decided to do Exercise One, which is about Freewriting.

I don’t know what to write really. I’m super tired. I feel like there’s so much work I need to do. I mean, there is a lot I need to do, I just really don’t want to do it. I feel like I have so much more work to do compared to last semester, regardless of how many hours I took. It’s the same amount, just more work. I’ve been watching the Handmaid’s Tale, so that’s fun. I really am excited for it to be April so I can go home. I don’t like waking up at eight, but I certainly need to. If I don’t I won’t be able to do anything I need to do. I like Kroger a lot, I went today. They have oat milk which is great I can’t drink regular milk every day, I’m allergic to it. I really like the cereal I bought too. I sweat so much when I walk around in there for some reason, it’s just how many people are in there I guess. The mask makes my breath go back on my face so it really heats me up. I wish I had something interesting to say. These people in this show are so mean. I hope we never go to this way of living. I hate people who make women into things we shouldn’t be. That doesn’t even make sense, but I’m just supposed to be writing for ten minutes so that’s what I’m doing. I bought some lemonade juice boxes today too, they taste ok but could be better. I ate pizza for dinner today that was probably a mistake. I really need to be eating better. I walk enough I hope I can get fit just from that. I wonder how to go about making an appointment at the south campus rec center. I walked on the trail over there last semester, but it’s way too cold for that now probably. I need some more exercise so I should probably get on a treadmill soon. My apple watch says there are a couple minutes left so that’s fun. I also got a COVID test today that sucked. This one felt more like getting a feather stuck up my nose than a plastic q tip. Is Q Tip the name for those or is that just a brand? Like Band-Aid? I don’t know. I need to get the results card from my car I forgot about it. My best friend is texting me. I guess she doesn’t know if she’s a peppermint or a spearmint gum enjoyer. Personally, I’m a spearmint kind of person. It’s sweeter than peppermint. There goes my timer.

Last semester, I learned a lot about how to vet sources, and what are really good sources, and what should be avoided. While I feel that I learned how to apply all this to research, I still feel like I’m not completely well versed in how to really put it into action. My research still feels inadequate, and I never feel like my research papers are completely “done” even when it is done and ready to turn in. However, I do feel like I can get my research to be just good enough to turn in, which is good. Anyway, I hope this semester I can get better at my research and make better papers that are more put together and have clearer points.

Bridge Project WRIT 102