Colgate Discourse Community

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As I researched the discourse community of Colgate and the numerous small discourse communities found in it, I have learned that the term recognizes a group of people who share common goals, language norms, characteristics, patterns, or practices as an outcome of their ongoing communication and interaction with each other. In respect to writing, the term is used to point out that different academic communities write in characteristic purposes and genres. Genres being an important factor to the discourse community because they are the “types of texts that are recognizable to the readers and writers and that meet the needs of the rhetorical situations in which they function” (Wardle and Downs 798). In general, discourse communities are vital…show more content…
A particular Colgate discourse community that I can associate with is the Office of Undergraduate Studies (OUS), which I feel has been an advantage because I have had the ability to connect to other students even before the fall semester started, and a gift in helping me transition easier from a high school student to a college student. Our sources or genres for communication are in the category of technology. We use the infamous application, Groupme, and emails. Based on the individual or group we are contacting, the speech or style of our writing is different. This does not only apply to OUS as the discourse community but also Colgate in general. Emails are more formal and professionally written and the contacting is mostly done by professors to students or vice versa. Furthermore, this is an easier way for the Colgate administration to connect with the students or clubs and organizations that would like to spread information. The Groupme messages are more informal because they are used mostly by student, in which it can be academically related or simply to…show more content…
There is not a common structure or format for writing such as it was in high school. In a high school, a paper is generally written in five paragraph format. Steven (Hongyi) Huang, current Colgate Junior, mentioned that “it really depends on different professors and different classes. I usually open with a major argument followed by sub-argument, backed with evidence. Then with a closing statement.” He proves that the writing style depends very much on the subject and professors’ preferences. Most of the papers written for international relation here in Colgate may be more in the political spectrum because of the high number of professors at Colgate being identified as Political Science professors that teach International relations. “We write both research and analytical papers… essays consisting of Political science, international relations, economy, etc.” The broad spectrum of classes that fall under the heading of International Studies means that there is not a narrow set of guidelines for writing in the field, as there are in other majors. Rather, students follow a generalized set of principles that hold true across the discipline and adjust their writing as necessary based on the preferences and expectations of various professors and the assignment at hand. On the whole, papers must be strongly written, in which they are argumentative. As typical of the humanities and social sciences,

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