Critical Discourse Analysis ( Cda )

SWA#3 Audience: Rhetorical refers to language used to persuade, inform, or entertain. The rhetorical situation is the circumstances, or medium used to persuade, inform, or entertain. The rhetorical situation of this paper is an explanatory easy, used to inform my audience of my contribution, interaction, language usage, and how my role influences my discourse community. Based on the rhetorical situation of this paper, the audience would most likely consist of people that are interested in my discourse community, or uninformed about the discourse community.

In order to be accepted into a discourse community, a person must learn typical ways people in that community communicate and argue. In this paper I will prove that I entered the discourse community of my high school soccer team by acquiring knowledge, establishing my credibility, and learning the game I love. In other words, I will be using the ethos, logos, and pathos appeals. I love to play soccer and watch the professionals who play on TV. I have played since I was ten years old and always played in a city league team. The requirements of being part of the team were simple but at the same time very hard. I was recently part of my high school soccer team, the Crowley Eagles. People might

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).

A discourse community is a group of people involved in and communicating about a particular topic, issue, or in a particular field. According to the criteria conveyed in “The Concept of Discourse Community” by John Swales, Christianity can be considered as a discourse community because of its common goals, medium of communication, participatory mechanisms, specific genres, and its threshold level of members.

A discourse community is said to be resistant to internal criticism and self-scrutiny because all ideas that severely contrast the values and beliefs within the community are defined as being on the outside, as demonstrated in the texts. “The Discourse itself defines what counts as acceptable criticism” (Gee 162). All of the articles use similar rhetorical strategies by describing a problem in shared thinking; the common conception that the

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.

As an incoming freshman at the University of Texas at Arlington I can say I have been in several organizations that have challenged my social skills. However, they were nothing compared to the discourse community I was a member of. It will be proven time and time again that I indeed was not only a member but also a valuable asset to this community. Let us ponder for a moment on what a discourse community actually is. It consists of many components involving but not limited to ethos, pathos, and logos. All three of which I possess and have mastered in my arts. You must realize what the set boundaries are for it to be included as such. Must sports be included even though it is more physical than conversely active? What about Student Government? Yes, we had conversations and planned events at meetings but our relationship with each other was only to a certain extent. Although my participation in sports and student government contributed to my When I think of a discourse community, automatically I associate it with the experience in my high school band. Our close knit community very well made me the person I am today.

When one has authority in a discourse community they need to know how to use it appropriately. In Wardle’s reading she gives an example of this about a guy named Alan joining a discourse community within his workplace. As we know, Alan was a computer support specialist in the humanities department, who was young and just out of college. Alan left his first job because he thought that he was not granted any responsibility (291). He then found another job within the university working on computers. Right off the start Alan was making decisions as being the only computer specialist within the start of his new position. As Wardle states, Alan did not have to necessarily prove his knowledge like most people who start a job (292). The first mistake

1. What is the discourse community you are studying? The discourse community that I chose was bearded dragons and other animals of similar characteristics. a. What academic majors, departments, and disciplines is it related to?

My time in ENC1101 has been beneficial in many ways. Since the beginning of high school I dreaded writing all types of essay in English. So coming into this class I was not too fond of idea writing six thousand words within four short months. My inability to put my thoughts into creative and well worded sentence is the biggest obstacle I face when it comes to writing. I came into this class hoping it would improve my writing skills, which it did. Shortly after attending this class for a few days, the professor introduced the concept of a portfolio draft. My initial reaction was “wow, this is going to be a lot of work,” however, I realized that this would only benefit my grade due to the multiple edits my paper would go through. The portfolio reveals the amount of progress I have made throughout the semester with my writing. This portfolio really highlights on my ability to take criticism of others into account when it comes to editing my professional and portfolio draft.

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.

All great minds think alike, a common cliche we have all heard at some point or another, but is this true? Well yes, some minds do think alike and, when they organize, we may call them a discourse community. A discourse community is a specific collective that compares and converses. It is a thought-provoking group that promotes common ideas and benefits its members. Any true discourse community can be identified by six necessary characteristics, as described by Swales. First, “a discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals.” Second, “a discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members.” Third, “a discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback.” Fourth, “a discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims.” Fifth, “a discourse community has acquired some specific lexis.” And finally, “a discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise.”

In issue three of writing identities, we have learned that tone shifts or changes in different rhetorical situations. A rhetorical situation is basically an event that consists of at least one person trying to change the perspective of another person. Looking at the definition, is it true that the tone changes in different rhetorical situations, depending on what is happening and what is being discussed in that period of time.

Imagine discovering the cure for cancer, and then tossing the revolutionary discovery into a blaze of fire. This obliteration has happened to rhetoric, a tool of language that donates life to argument and creates a thriving system of communication for the world. Rhetoric used to be an important aspect of education that could assist students with the teachings of argument and human interaction. Today, rhetoric has become a topic of minimal discussion among ideas that have long since been outdated, and considered archaic to the educational system. In reality, rhetoric exemplifies the human genius and must be taught in schools to further the evolution of human expression.

According to Fairclough (1989, 1995), Critical Discourse Analysis is used to analyze communicative events by analyzing the relationship between three dimensions, including the micro dimension, the meso dimension, and the macro dimension.