February 22nd Homework

Johns Summary
In her article, Discourse Communities and Communities of Practice, Ann Johns argues that communities of practice are closely related to John Swales' discourse communities. She then describes what it is like to be in academic communities and professional communities. Johns talks a lot about the language and text within a discourse community and she describes the conflicts that occur within these different communities.

1. There are several complications that Johns points out regarding joining a discourse community. The first one is the cost of affiliation, which means everything costs money and some people might not join because they don't have any. The next problem is the authority of the community. People will disagree who should be in charge causing arguments within the group. Another complication is change because when new people come into the group they might break rules or change other things regarding the community. Dialogue and critique are also factors that cause problems within a group because disagreements arise.
2. Change in a discourse community often occur as members grow older, they meet new people that have different views, and when they read new information. Their views change because they learn new things, causing their thoughts and opinions to change. A historical example of this is when  Martin Luther King Jr. became the civil rights leader and began to slowly change people's views.
3. I do not think that learning to read and write in different discourse communities have altered my sense of self, values, or beliefs. I stick strong to my beliefs and values that I have always had and I feel like I have been exempt from this conflict because I have never been in a discourse community that tried to change my personal views.
4. I think that Johns' views on learning how to read and write do not change your identity because although you do learn new things, you are still the same person, just maybe a little wiser. When I learn new information, my opinions rarely change I just realize why other people might think differently than I do.
5. The authority I have had over the types of texts I write in college has been a little greater than in high school because I am allowed to express my own thoughts more freely. There is still an assignment sheet that I have to follow, but it is not near as strict as it has been in the past.
6. I think it is considered a minefield because you never know how long you can break the rules without getting punished severely. I have been punished a few times for not following the criteria perfectly, but the teachers just made me correct so I wouldn't get a failing grade.  

MM
Understanding what Johns wrote about in this article will help me decide if I want to become part of a  new discourse community because I will know the pros and cons of it. The positive things I learned from her writing that will help me out is whether I can financially afford the group and I will know to examine the community before joining and see if I would actually fit in. A negative thing I learned is that some discourse communities might try to persuade me to believe in certain thing that the rest of the group does.

Reflection
I think this article was interesting and it expanding on John Swales' article that we had previously read. Although I didn't completely agree with everything Ann Johns' said, I think this article will help me later in life when I attempt to join new discourse communities.