Commonplaces are books and magazines that hold memories and define aspects of a persons life. Scrap books, Cook books and Magazines were very common forms of commonplaces. Today the internet holds many different kinds of commonplaces. An example of a commonplace is the blog: Beginning Singer
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Discourse Communities andCommenplaces
Discourse Communities are places were people gather and share information. The people that join these communities normally need help finding answers to questions about generic subjects such as Swimming. These other people will share advise and information about problems and concepts they understand or have had trouble understanding. The goal of the group is similar: learning about swimming. However, the people involved in the group will not have the same individualized goals such as swimming a 400 Butterfly. Discourse Communities goals are to collect and share knowledge between different people.
Commonplaces are books and magazines that hold memories and define aspects of a persons life. Scrap books, Cook books and Magazines were very common forms of commonplaces. Today the internet holds many different kinds of commonplaces. An example of a commonplace is the blog: Beginning Singer. This Commonplace belongs to discourse community wishing to learn about singing and how to become a better singer. The community can relate to the blog because they have been or are all Begging singers. The community has values rooted in to becoming more experienced singers and spreading the art of music to further generations. The goal of the commonplace "Beginning Singer" is to share information on learning to sing.
Commonplaces are books and magazines that hold memories and define aspects of a persons life. Scrap books, Cook books and Magazines were very common forms of commonplaces. Today the internet holds many different kinds of commonplaces. An example of a commonplace is the blog: Beginning Singer
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Hmmm I think I am confused about commonplaces because we have kind of different deffinitions ha! Hopefully Jen can explain it to me. You did a good job explaining things :)!
ReplyDeleteHeather-
ReplyDeleteYour focus on community and a common goal is spot on, but think about discourse communities more in terms of language. Those in a discourse community communicate in such a way (through a shared discourse) that they are united by their language and often can use shorthand. An example of a discourse community might be doctors. They have a common goal and values (to save people, to value human life, etc.) and are able to use certain terms (commonplaces) that mean specific things to them and their community. For example, a doctor might say "stat" and others would know exactly what needs to be done. Or they might speak medical jargon that those outside of the doctor discourse community might not understand, but as members the doctors all do.
Commonplaces then are not so much the places we keep these lists of terms and images and ideas that are important to our groups, but are instead the terms, ideas and images themselves. A commonplace then is an apple. An apple, in the medical discourse community, is shorthand for eating healthy and "keeping the doctor away."
Does that make sense? These are tricky concepts, but you are getting there.
Jen