What is a Discourse Community?

There are an infinite number of discourse communities available for people to join to
make a difference in the world, based on something they truly believe in. If you belong
to a group or organization, and share the same beliefs as the other individuals who are
a part of the group, then you‘re already a part of a discourse community. A discourse
community is a group of people who stand for the same issues and pose the same
morals that connect with one another to make a difference. Every member of that group
believes the same thing, bestow the same goals and support each other’s’ thoughts,
providing that they are all in cohesion. It is essential that members of discourse
communities communicate amongst other members. In order for a discourse community
to remain constructive, they need to have set goals and tasks they want to accomplish.
Once these tasks are achieved they then compile their information with other members
of the group and pass that valuable information on to their audiences.

There are an astonishing number of issues in the world that most people maintain a
solid opinion of. For example, if an individual is building a campaign and they strongly
support equal marriage rights among all people, they would find other members to
associate with the campaign that also feel strongly in favor of equal marriage rights. If
that same campaigning individual does not support equal marriage rights, that person
would not want people who support the matter in that it would be contradictory to the
campaigning individuals beliefs. According to James Paul Gee(Literacy book pg. 526)
says that “discourses are ways of being in the world; they are forms of life which
integrate words, acts, values, beliefs, attitudes and social identities as well as gestures,
glances, body positions and clothes.” Gee explains that people are born into certain
discourse communities and explains that it is practically impossible to move from one
discourse community to another. To a certain extent that’s true, however, over the
course of an individuals’ growing, as they develop how they feel over important issues
and establish their own opinions, it’s inevitably possible for one to move from one
discourse community to another. There are a number of examples to support that claim,
for example, kids who grow up in a strict household where it is mandatory that all rules
are abided by. These households may involve chores, spending a certain amount of
time together each week, attending events together such as religious ceremonies.
Children who grow up in such households then grow and discover that they don’t
necessarily agree with the way they were raised and then conform to a different
lifestyle. If you force someone to think or act a certain way and to follow specific rules
then eventually they will refuse. This makes it is very easy for young children, especially
in this generation and generations to come, to pick the discourse community they feel
comfortable with and can switch at any time if deemed necessary.

After reading the article written by James Paul Gee, another article, by Lisa Delpits,
explores the other side of the spectrum when it comes to discourse communities. In this
article, Delpits portrays her ideas on discourse communities and she believes people
are capable of moving to other discourse communities and are not just stuck in the
same one for eternity. She states that conforming to a specific discourse community can
all stem from being in school, given that there is a teacher that is willing to work hard
enough to get the students involved and interested. Delpits explains that kids in school
become uninterested because the teachers don’t give enough effort and aren’t affected
if that child isn’t attending school on a regular basis. A teacher that is going to make a
difference in a student’s life is on who is going to grasp that child’s attention, especially
at a young age, and give them reason to enjoy school. The teacher, who makes class
enjoyable for their students, is going to be the teacher that is remembered throughout
the rest of the child’s life. School should be a place where children feel comfortable
expressing their own opinions and be able to discover what they like and what they
support.

Joining a discourse community is, in a sense, a coming of age journey. Gee makes
unbelievably valid arguments in that all individuals are born into discourse communities.
Remaining in the same discourse community as one gets older is indefinitely the easy
way to go. It’s simple to learn the morals of parents, family members, and friends and
simply agreeing with them. Where the difficulty comes into play is when an individual
vows non-conformity. When they tell themselves that they are going to form their own
thoughts and ideas over certain matters and they’re going to stick to them, no matter
how many others disagree. In the very beginning of an individual’s life, they first learn
the morals of others who play a major role in their life. Then when they get into early
childhood they learn how their peers, teachers, and family feel and act in certain
situations. It is essential that an individual gain wisdom and experience in order to fully
understand how many issues the world is faced with every day. As a child becomes a
young adult, they begin to understand that they’re allowed to have an opinion in this
world that we live in and that they’re opinion can absolutely make a difference.

A person’s morals begin to become apparent when they start having to make decisions
for themselves. When they realize that they’re not always going to have someone else’s
thoughts to fall back on. It is after this stage of life the one is entirely capable of
choosing what discourse communities to belong to that are going to have a positive
impact on their life. Some grow to become a part of more than one discourse
community. Finding a niche with a group of people is one of the most satisfying
experiences throughout life, being able to communicate with others freely, without
having to worry about judgment or bias. These discourse communities create a
comfortable environment for a person to feel like they can be themselves inside and out
and can build lifelong relationships.
There is one thing that every human in the world has in common, an obstacle that every
person has to face at some point one way or another, and that is finding your place in
life. Figuring out who you are and what you stand for, and what kind of people you’re
going to associate with. Some people learn quickly while others the journey can seem
never-ending, however, once you realize who you are, you begin to feel content in life
and you appreciate the things around you and the people who influence you. Discourse
communities help speed up the process by introducing you to a group of people that
you can relate to. The journey may seem like a struggle but it is forever rewarding. For
citizens struggling in life, whether they need love, support, an ear to listen, or a shoulder
to cry on, discourse communities are where people go to feel like they have a place
somewhere and that there are others who think the same way they do. Sometimes,
that’s all a person needs.