Discourse community essay

Your Discourse community:- Church
Discourse Community Analysis
– Your claim: you are a member of your DC
– Examining your own experiences in your chosen DC through
ethos, pathos, and logos
– Purpose: to persuade/convince your audience that your
claim is True
– Rhetorical Situation:
o Audience – the class and instructor
o Speaker – you
o The text – an essay on your experiences in your chosen
DC
– Using the Rhetorical Appeals (ethos, pathos, and logos)
– Your proof will consist of real-life examples/experiences
o Then provide analysis of how that works
– You may write about a past experience
– Body paragraphs: ethos, pathos, logos, naysayer
– 4 to 5 pages
– MLA style
– No external research
– No citations
– A rough draft is NOT the first draft
– A first draft MUST be complete, polished, gradable (think of
it as a final draft)

As you prepare a draft that you’ll share with readers, begin
with an introduction (which need not be limited to a single
paragraph) that accomplishes three goals:
• Acknowledges what “they say” (see Ch. 1)
• Provides an “I say” (see Ch. 4)
• Answers the “so what?” and “who cares?” questions (see Ch. 7)
For this paper, the “they say” is not a view you’re agreeing with
or disagreeing with. Rather, it’s simply the conversation we’ve
been having about rhetoric and discourse communities. Begin
by summarizing some of what we’ve been discussing.
Your “I say” will be your thesis statement, in which you claim
that you successfully joined your discourse community because
you mastered its ethos, pathos, and logos appeals.
The answer to the “who cares?” question is you, your classmates,
and I. To answer the “so what?” question, explain to us why we
should keep reading, why the experiences you’ll share with us tell
us something interesting about rhetoric and discourse communities.
Once you have an introduction in place, it’s up to you to decide
how to shape and organize the content you’ve drafted. Just
make sure you have discrete sections for ethos, pathos, logos,
and your response to the naysayer.
choosing an appropriate style
Your style should be informal yet clear, retaining your own voice
but making accommodations for the rest of us (see Ch. 9).
Paper 1: Discourse Community Analysis
I do insist that you use paragraphs, simply because they make
things easier on readers. A strong paragraph usually includes a
clear topic sentence that is supported by sentences that cluster
around it without going off on tangents.
You don’t need to adhere strictly to Standard English, but
don’t be sloppy. Proofread carefully to ensure that your paper
reads the way you want it to and that you’ve corrected unintentional errors.

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