Reading Response 15

Gee – “Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction”

Summary

In his article, “Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction,” Gee attempts to define his concept of “Discourse” and to show it is separate from “discourse.” He argues that you learn a primary Discourse, and then all of your secondary Discourses that you learn throughout life are only imitations; you aren’t truly a member of that secondary Discourse.

Synthesis

This piece is similar to Swales’ piece, because they are talking about the same topic, albeit they each make their own definitions that are basically the same. The difference is that they are on different sides of the issue. Gee doesn’t feel that you can full master one Discourse, let alone more than one, and thus because of this different parts of different Discourses transfer back and forth. Swales has his little formula you plug into, and by it you can be in infinitely many discourse communities.

Pre-reading

Two or three activities that I participate in are college, reading Star Wars books, and socializing with friends. College influences how I participate in the other two things, because I always try and get my class work done first, so that will influence who I can socialize with and when I can read. There aren’t totally separate, but not inseparable either.

QD

1. Gee means that there are situational obstacles when communicating, as well as cultural ones to take into account. In English class they try to get rid of all of this when they teach grammar, but sometimes improper grammar has an extra meaning that isn’t in the “textbook.”

Thoughts

This piece was a lot more interesting than I thought it was going to be – I thought it was going to be a repeat of Swales. Instead, it was a thoughtful piece that was almost a key to Swales, and allowed me to understand not only his points, but the differences between the two.