Wardle

WAW: Wardle (520-537)

SUMMARY: 

In her article “Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces” Elizabeth Wardle mainly talks about her beliefs on discourse communities. She is researching a guy named Alan and he is struggling to enculturate in a new discourse community. In her article she describes a new employee, fresh out of college trying to communicate with a new workplace community and failing miserably. He had a hard time adjusting to the new conditions and communicating with other member. He ended up leaving the company.

CONVERSATION: When I was reading this Wardle article I made a connection with Gee’s discourse article. Wardle went into detail about how the workplace is a whole different discourse community, and how one must get adjusted to the new environment and conditions. Gee talked about more of the sociological aspect of discourse and how to connect your mind to Discourse concept. Both of these authors went on about how discourse should be connected to apprenticeship and the functioning of language and the importance of communication within. Gee and Wardle both stress how important it is to get familiar with whatever discourse there is in your life, and to gain the knowledge to be prepared for the discourse communities.

BEFORE YOU READ:

Since I’ve come to college I have started using new phrases and have created my own discourse communities. I live on South Green, the farthest you can be from everything. Everyone along with myself calls it the “dirty south”. That was not a phrase I used before I came to college. When I came to college I didn’t know any sorority or fraternity names. Now I am in a sorority and have become familiar with all of the others. I would associate the sorority I’m in with a new discourse community. I learn things and go to things that only people in that sorority know about. 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

3.I think that Allan was not as cooperative as he could have been. I think he needed to try harder to communicate with the people at his work, and spend more time getting to become familiar with their discourse community. I think he could have handled this better by being more patient and understanding and it could’ve resulted in a more positive way.

5. I agree more with Wardle because I think it is easier for someone to become adjusted to another environment. Then there are always those stubborn people that will not change their ways of thinking and will not adapt to the new conditions. His Discourse might have been a little different from the start, but I think it is always possible to have less resistance in order to start something new.

OPINIONS:

I personally think that this reading wasn’t that bad. To me it seemed more simple to read, it wasn’t as hard to follow as some of the readings are. The whole story about Allan was a nice read. The language that was used in this article seemed easier to understand compared to some of the other readings on discourse communities.