Devitt et al.

Devitt ROW p. 98

Before you Read

Types of communication I use on a daily basis:

-Texting

-Phone (Calling people)

-Writing

-Facetime

-Twitter

-Facebook

-Instagram

Summary

In Amy J. Devitt's article in Readings on Writings, "Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities", she talks about her take about Discourse communities and communities in general.  In the article she also has two other authors that are involved in her writing that give their take on Discourses.  All of the authors talk about the importance of specialized vocabulary in a discourse and the different genres. 

Sythesis

 In this article by Amy J. Devitt, I think it closely relates to many authors that we have previously read about.  It can relate to Porter because of discourse community.  It can also relate to discourse through Wardle.  Devitt is also related to Swales through Genres. 

Responses	Quotes
In other discourse communities, people might have a hard time understanding what people in other discourses are saying because all discourses have their own vocabulary and genre.	“While their purposes seem to be inclusive, to give nonmembers access to the community’s knowledge, genre analysis strongly suggests that the specialist and nonspecialist users have different beliefs, interests, and purposes as well as levels of knowledge.” (99)
This quote goes to show that you need to be in a certain discourse to understand vocabulary from a certain discourse.  If you are not in that specific discourse you will most likely not understand that discourses jargon.	“Tax forms are designed by the IRS, but they are supposedly meant to be used by people who may know little of tax regulations.  The fact that so many people hire specialists to complete their tax forms merely confirms the difficulty of the task of translating specialists’ knowledge into laypersons’ actions.” (99)
This quote is a little confusing to me.  I think this is supposed to explain what a genre is.	“Genres are not just forms.  Genres are forms of life, ways of being.” (104)
This quote is stating just how important ethnographic methodology is in understanding discourse communities.	“If ethnographies are understood as studies of communities and their social actions, and genres taken to be rhetorical manifestations or maps of community's actions, then genre analysis is an especially helpful path in ethnographic methodology.” (107)
I like this quote because it is explaining that when we research about a certain discourse it is saying that by observing that discourse we kind of become a part of that community.	"When students carry out ethnographies, they become researchers who are also active social figures participating in and observing how people integrate their language genres with their wider collective purposes." (109)

 MM

I think the best way to learn about a discourse community is through research.  Research is not easy to gain quickly, it will take time to learn about the discourse completely.

Thoughts

For this article, I thought that is really helped me explain genre and what discourse are about.  It explained conflicting genres and the difference between specialized and non specialized.  I liked that it explained ethnography, because that will help me to better complete project 3.