Blog #6

           From what we all did in class yesterday, I think that the class is a discourse community. From the looks of the class notes presented by the class in their blogs, it looks like we are a discourse community. We are focused on what we set out to accomplish and that was taking notes on the behaviors of the class. We were looking all around us to see the patterns in other people and not just ourselves.
             In this class in particular, we use the word discourse a lot. I have never used that word in any other class. This is actually my first time using this word and exploring the idea of the word. This term is defiantly an "insider" term used in this class. The patterns for talking are way that we figure it out. Especially in Ethnographically studies. We as the discourse community are looking for patters about how people talk (their mannerisms) and what happens when an outsider comes into a room where people are already comfortable with each other. What our class will count as writing compared to other classes is doing our own research. In other classes I would look up research in a book or journal (cite it of course  and put down reasons why it is part of our research. I this class I have to conduct my own research and formulate it into my research topic. We have to write what we think will contribute to our research goals.
           I think our class is part of a larger Discourse community for "writing studies", "being a student" or just "writing majors at Kean". We are conducting our own research that could help change society. Our own research will help others to find truth in what is between the lines in other research that was already conducted on a bigger level. For example, my topic is about bullying. I will be interviewing people my age about how they were bullied as a child. I will then look into how I was bullied as a child and how it has shaped my life today. This research has not been done before (or that I have ever heard of). My topic will affect everyone who has been bullied or know someone who has been bullied. This can help people look into their past to see if being bullied affected them today not just at Kean University, but anyone who has been affected by this.