Identifying discourse communities you’ll encounter in college - Understanding expectations: APA and discourse communities - Conforming to standards: APA and the academic environment

APA style and citations for dummies - Joe Giampalmi 2021

Identifying discourse communities you’ll encounter in college
Understanding expectations: APA and discourse communities
Conforming to standards: APA and the academic environment

Many college campuses include quiet buildings planted among open spaces. Within those buildings, voices speak discourse, the language of academia. Two cool-sounding words you’ll hear your first few days on campus are pedagogy and discourse:

· Pedagogy: You’ll find it in every classroom. Pedagogy is the bubble that surrounds your classroom life, strategies identifying how you’re taught, such as the following:

· Reading-centered instruction

· Team-oriented projects

· Lecture-style delivery

· Writing-centered assignments

· Discussion-centered instruction

Pedagogies, or teaching strategies, include learning theories such as Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget’s (1896—1980) Theory of Cognitive Development and American educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom’s (1913—1999) Domains of Learning.

· Discourse: You’ll find it inside and outside the pedagogical bubble. Discourse is the language of scholarship and of academic communities.

When you entered college, you became part of a discourse community, a member of an academic group of people who share discourse such as the following:

· Goals and purposes

· Beliefs, assumptions, values, and debatable issues

· Specific language used for speaking and writing

Discourse vocabulary, referred to by linguists as lexis, identifies words and phrases shared by the community.

· Organized platforms for communicating, such as text, email, and podcasts

Discourse is used as a noun and a verb. As a noun, discourse signifies a collection or exchange of ideas: “The Writing Arts Department exchanges regular discourse with the Communication Studies Department.” As a verb, discourse means to talk or converse: “The two departments continued to discourse throughout the semester.” The plural of discourse (noun) is also discourse and occasionally discourses.

Use the words pedagogy and discourse with your family and friends. Tell them you learned that each discourse community has its unique pedagogical approaches. They’ll think you’re learning new concepts in college.

Each new discourse community adds to your academic experience — from your first-year orientation, through your college courses and APA application, and finally your college graduation.

College communities

As a member of the college community, you share the value of a college education, the commitment required to achieve it, the importance of earning good grades fairly and honestly, and the ability of your university to offer viable educational opportunities. You have learned the vernacular of campus life, vocabulary such as bursar, registration, core courses, drop-add period, syllabus, and prerequisites.

College is an intricate collection of discourse communities, various-sized groups of intellectuals who share common academic interests. For example, a discourse community of writing professors communicate with language such as rhetoric, composition, engagement, tone, audience, voice, and conventions. Issues debated by the discourse community include the following:

· Is the quality of college writing declining?

· Is gender bias decreasing in college writing?

· Are new technologies affecting writing?

The writing discourse community believes in assumptions such as effective writing results from the following practices:

· Recurring use of feedback and revising

· Development of multiple drafts

· Language shaped from audience and purpose

· References from required readings

As you navigate your first few semesters, you’ll become aware of dozens of discourse communities such as the following:

· Athletics

· Emergency services

· New student orientation

· Performing arts

· Radio and television

· Student life

· Wellness

When you began research and referred to this book, you became part of the academic research community. And when you enter the workplace, you’ll become part of another discourse community.

The language of discourse frequently exceeds the meaning of generic vocabulary. For example, the common understanding of audience is as a group of people who attend a public event such as a movie or play. But as vocabulary within the context of a discourse community and writing classroom, audience assumes the meaning of readers addressed by the writer who have specific needs for information that provides context for understanding the writing. The discourse meaning distinguishes itself from the meaning of the audience who attend a public event.

Each time you begin a new course, take notes using vocabulary that is common to the discipline. For example, language common to chemistry includes absolute zero, critical mass, delocalization, and mass.

Table 3-2 shows some discourse communities that are common to college campuses, and examples of their specific language.

TABLE 3-2 College discourses and relevant language

Discourse Community

Specific Language

College admissions

coalition application, articulation agreement, and early action

Academic advising

developmental advising, student-centric tools, and developmental academic advisor

Health and fitness

suppressed energies, circuit, cross training, and dynamic warm-up

A number of discourse communities are included under the umbrella of education. They include the following:

· Pre-K education

· Elementary school education

· Middle school education

· Special education

· Physical education

· Driver education

· Career education

· Technical education

Discourse communities beyond education include the workplace, mass media transportation, public health, government, finance, communication, and supply chains.

Course communities

Each course you’re enrolled in represents a distinct discourse community with its own unique beliefs and language. Your classroom success depends on understanding the discourses (assumptions, values, issues, and language) of each academic discipline. For example, the discourse of your math class may include the following:

· Presenting problems and explaining the process

· Using math terminology such as variable, coefficient, and constant

· Verbalizing steps while solving problems

APA community

APA plays a double role as a style and citation standard and is representative in the discourse community. APA as a discourse community believes in the value of writing in an academic style, recognizing authors of referenced materials, and documenting sources in a standardized format. APA believes its standards promote the highest level of scholarship for professionals in the field, college undergraduates, and high school students.

APA’s manual endorses assumptions such as the following:

· Formatting requirements differ for professional scholars and undergraduates.

· Language conventions have unique applications for citations and references.

· APA’s publication manual requires revision at appropriate intervals.

· Bias-free language represents the highest priority of APA.

Vocabulary common to the APA discourse community includes contract cheating, creative commons, Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs), deficit-based language, eLocator, self-plagiarism, and the singular they.

Graduation community

A college-graduation discourse community interests college students like you by addressing graduation issues such as choice of program speaker, weather contingencies, and accommodations for accessibility. It also addresses topics such as credit requirements, institutional obstacles, three-year programs, and dual-degree programs.

Values shared by a graduation discourse community include the following:

· College degrees require equal accessibility for all populations.

· Graduate support programs increase graduation rates.

· Institutional obstacles contribute to extending degree time frames.

· A college degree improves financial stability of graduates, their families, and their communities.

Shared vocabulary of the graduation community includes the following:

· Graduand: Student about to graduate

· Macebearer: Faculty member who leads the academic procession, usually the longest-tenured faculty member

· Regalia: Elaborate dress worn by commencement participants

· Hood: A piece of clothing worn over the head and on the back of a robe, in a color symbolic of one’s field of study (music, pink; business, beige; political science, dark blue; communication and journalism, crimson; education, pale blue; history, white; engineering, orange; sciences, yellow; and psychology, gold)

· Robe or gown: Dating to the 12th century, when professors were members of clergy and wore similar garb, with sleeve shapes symbolic of degrees (bachelor’s sleeves pointed, master’s oblong, and doctor’s bell-shaped)

· Mortarboard: Traditional graduation cap symbolic of a mason’s mixing board and frequently decorated with a student message

· Biretta: Worn in the 15th century and symbolic of superiority and intelligence; a faculty alternative to the mortarboard

· Tassel: Representative of student academic experience, with the turning symbolic of new educational status

· Commencement: Graduation ceremony symbolic of a new beginning

· “Pomp and Circumstance”: Traditional graduation march written by Edward Elgar and first performed for the coronation of Edward VII

Motivate yourself with your anticipated graduation date by carrying a copy of the date with you, posting it in your study area, writing it on the inside cover of your book, and writing it in your class notes. Use the date as a reminder of your short-term goal and as a reason why you study. You can also remind younger siblings and younger family members of their anticipated graduation dates. About 13 percent of adults with bachelor’s degrees earn a master’s degree. But don’t get ahead of yourself.

Visualize your college graduation ceremony

The first day of my college freshmen classes every September, I end class early and walk my students on a “field trip” to the location of their college graduation ceremony. I describe the setting as I witnessed it as a faculty member on stage the previous May. I describe the crowd of thousands of family members and friends surrounding the campus green and encircling almost three thousand graduates seated in endless rows of brown chairs. I identify graduates’ seating locations by hoods signifying colors of their degrees.

The approximate 60-minute ceremony begins with “Pomp and Circumstance,” and then the graduation procession, which is led by the macebearer followed by the administration, faculty, and staff dressed in full academic regalia and wearing colors representative of their universities and degrees.

When participants are seated on stage, the ceremony begins with the university president awarding honorary degrees. Following a few brief speeches, the president awards degrees with language such as, “By the power vested in me by the state, I hereby proclaim that the candidates in front of me have fulfilled the requirements for degrees in their field and declare them graduates.” The class president then leads the traditional tassel turning from right to left.

The serenity of the ceremony represents the effort behind the degrees that were earned with years of study, sweat, sacrifice, and sometimes tears.

The brief ceremony is followed by the exit procession and a final playing of “Pomp and Circumstance.” Your family and friends await you for warm hugs and congratulations. Hugs include more intensity if you’re a first-generation college graduate. You have opportunities for photos of you wearing your cap and gown on campus. Be sure to include photos with younger siblings and younger family members. You’re a role model for them to also earn their college degrees.

Because of the increasing size of many universities today, they also conduct a brief afternoon ceremony where you walk on stage when your name is called, receive your actual degree, and have a photo taken. You’ll hear your family cheer for you when your name is called. Your graduation day represents one of the most memorable days in your life.