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English homework help.

Discourse Community Exercise

 

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Part 1. Discourse Community and Style Wars

To start, we’re going to watch a documentary called “Style Wars.”

[link: https://youtu.be/r4jniA9QsNI ] It’s about an hour long.

We could spend days talking about theoretical discourse communities, but I feel like this is a great introduction to the concept. After reading the requirements for the project as well as the theory of discourse communities, watching “Style Wars” is a helpful way of seeing how people talk/categorize/recognize discourse communities.

 

This documentary came out in 1984 and was one of (if not the first) to discuss graffiti as an art rather than just a form of vandalism. It’s had an incredibly long history/influence as it introduced many to the community.

 

Now, I love this documentary, but I understand that it is old. It’s now at the point of being kind of cool vintage, but not everything has aged nicely. Please be patient.

 

There are three types of questions. Ongoing questions should be built from information gathered throughout the documentary. Questions marked with “+” are referring to specific points in the documentary—at times I provide timecodes to make it easier. Finally, the questions at the end are reflective.

 

All these questions are open-ended and require a level of depth in your analysis. While you don’t need to write drastic answers for each, please dive in for the majority of the answers. Simple sentences will likely not receive full credit.

 

[link: https://youtu.be/r4jniA9QsNI ]

 

Questions

 

  1. (Ongoing) Style Wars – The documentary focuses on breakdancing, hip-hop, and graffiti. Where do these genres overlap within communities? Are there different communities within one another? What are some of the linking features, goals, practices? Where do they differ?

 

  1. (Ongoing) Keep an ongoing list of terms or slang that are used. Translate it to words you might use. Why would they use their own jargon? What’s the value?

 

  1. (Ongoing) Who is graffiti for? How does it invite some people and reject others? How? Why?

 

  1. (Ongoing) Documentary notes that with graffiti, information is shared from one generation to the next. What’s some information that might be shared?

 

  1. +Describe Detective Jacobs and the discourse communities he might be within. Why does he feel antagonistic of graffiti?

 

  1. (Ongoing) SKEME is interviewed with his mother throughout. This creates an overlapping of discourse communities and conflicting interests. Talk about where their interests agree and/or disagree.

 

  1. +“It’s for us.” SKEME mentions the role of graffiti for a select group of people. Why does it matter to them? Why don’t they care about what other people think?

 

  1. +The break-dancers are seen negotiating terms and the names of their moves. Why is this discussion important for discourse communities?

 

  1. +At 12 minutes, the mayor describes how graffiti is part of a larger problem that destroys “our” lifestyle and quality of life. Is this quality of life universal? How could a separation here lead to different goals in different discourse communities?

 

  1. +How does history influence the beliefs and genre?

 

  1. +At 24 minutes, there is a conversation on arrows. Describe these arrows using the terms literacy, genre, and discourse community.

 

  1. +“Make Your Mark In Society, Not On Society” is an attempt for one discourse community to communicate with another. Will it work or not? Why?

 

  1. CAP and Discord in the Discourse Community. It’s common to view groups (especially groups we aren’t a part of) as enormous unified groups. Describe CAP

 

  1. Graffiti Gallery. Write a paragraph that explores this evolution. Is the inclusion of graffiti into art galleries legit? Does it capture the movement? What are the differences between different discourse communities? What influence does this have on the genre?

 

  1. Negotiating between city and artists. What are some of the positive aspects of this failed discussion? What are some negatives?

 

  1. Is there a way for graffiti to exist without being antagonistic of “mainstream” daily life? Or is its existence reliant on antagonistic

 

  1. Think about the documentary as a whole. It’s a genre aimed at one audience to discuss a genre aimed at another audience. What moves does it take to make “documentary people” better understand “graffiti people”?

 

  1. So are these depictions of a discourse community? In the Swales text in section 2.3, he lists six characteristics of discourse communities. Please go through each one and describe if graffiti artists meet these thresholds.

 

 

 

 

Part 2. Building Your Own

This section is to help you build towards your analysis of a discourse community that you have chosen. Some of these answers can be directly applied to your outline/final essay.

 

  1. What are some discourse communities in which you are a member?
  2. Which of these have regulated “borders” that control who is in and who is out? Which have “soft” borders? How does this influence the groups?
  3. What are some differences between the bigger groups and the smaller groups?
  4. Which groups are you active in? Which are you largely inactive? Does this matter?
  5. Are there any discourse communities that you might want to write about that you are not a part of?

Going forward, these questions will be about the discourse community that you want to analyze. If you haven’t figured it out yet, give it some thought.

  1. What is this discourse community?
  2. What are some common traits? Practices? Beliefs? Genres?
  3. Where does this group exist?
  4. Are there any limitations that separate members from non-members?
  5. Where can you witness this group in action?
  6. What literacies are expected within the group? What communications? What genres?
  7. What sort of evidence do you want to find to prove your observations?
  8. Will the audience already know all of this information?
  9. Who could you interview or where would you find someone to talk with?
  10. On a scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high), how do you feel about this project?

 

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