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Emily Davis

ENC 1102

Professor Madruga

8 September 2019

Reading Response One and Two:

When it comes to writing, there are two ways to do it, formally and informally. For

informal assignments in ENC 1102, they are called low-stakes assignments. I feel like the most

important low-stake assignment to me, will be the reflections and the research log. I feel like it

would be helpful because reflecting on a part of text or on an article will help with analyzing it. I

also feel like I will benefit from class discussions because I do well with feedback from my peers

and my instructor. Hearing other opinions from my peers I feel will help develop my writing

more. In the Easy Writer I feel like previewing is a really important task to complete before

actually reading the text. (Easy Writer, 42) Putting together all of the information you can before

reading I feel will help me better understand the text while I’m reading it. Considering the

context, information you can collect and in what format the text is presented I feel will really

help in being able to analyze the text while reading. Before taking this class, I knew and also

learned more about the fact that my past experiences really have a big impact on my writing.

(Writing About Writing, 8) Using past experiences can be a lot more helpful in getting a point

across or informing someone of something. Being able to pull from prior knowledge on certain

topics will help more people understand. Something I’ve already taken from this class and the

readings I’ve read so far is that it all comes back to context. When writing or speaking to people,
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taking the situation into consideration really helps with ideas and writing in a way that fits that

situation perfectly. For example, in Klass’ reading, “Learning the Language” she explains that in

a medical setting, there is a certain kind of language to use when speaking doctor to doctor or

when a doctor is speaking with a patient. (Klass, 344)

When reading John’s text “Discourse Communities and Communities of Practice” she

outlined many important complications that could surface when joining a discourse community.

One of the issues that could rise is language barriers. For example, John’s explains how when

students in China learn English, they learn the exact meanings of words when in English, the

same word can have multiple different meanings. (Johns, 335) This then makes it difficult for

any of those students to participate in a discourse community that speaks English. Another

possible difficulty one can face when attempting to join a discourse community is lack of

information. For example, in Perri Klass’ text “Learning the Language”, she explains how in the

medical field people who are in med school or are not doctors, find it hard to completely

understand what doctors are talking about. There are many abbreviations and sayings doctors use

to speak to each other so that patients do not understand. (Klass, 344) A lack of information

makes it hard for anyone outside of the medical field to participate in a discourse community.

When asked if I have ever felt like participating in a writing or speaking discourse has

conflicted with my beliefs or myself, my answer is yes. My first semester of my freshman year in

college, I was required to take a communications class that revolved around religion. Growing up

in a religious family, I was exposed to it, however, I was not expecting to have to analyze and

write about it. I managed to succeed while using past experience to help make my writing on this

topic easier, but it was very challenging to try and get myself to think a different way than I’m

used to.
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Word Count: 627