Purpose: To summarize main ideas from the article “Editor’s Choice: An Open Memo to Community College Faculty and Administrators” by Christine Kelly-Kleese.
Thesis: A discourse community is a rich field where professionals can continue enriching themselves, growing as such and where to share goals with colleagues.
Audience: Professionals interested in learning about or taking part in a Discourse Community.
I. Community college = Discourse Community
I. I. Discourse Community
a. Definition:
- group of people who share certain language-using practices
- can be seen as conventionalized by
1. social interaction within the group
2. in its dealings with outsiders. (Bizzell 1992, p. 222)
b. Purposes:
i. Conceptualizing the nature of the community in general,
ii. Increasing perceptions of community college communicative competence,
iii. Moving its professionals into position of legitimate power within the larger higher education discourse community.
c. Members:
i. Develop a common discourse that involves shared knowledge,
ii. Common purposes,
iii. Common relationships,
iv. Similar attitudes and values,
v. Shared understandings about how to communicate their knowledge and archive their shared purposes,
vi. A flow of discourse that has a particular structure and style. (Kutz, 1997, p. 200).
d. Tools:
i. Language
1. Enhance the college’s reputation,
2. Bring prestige to the campus and its faculty,
3. Reshape the image of the institution.
