12 Dan Melzer’s “Understanding Discourse Communities”
Writing Spaces Volume 3
When you complete a writing assignment, deciphering the goals and expectations of that assignment is one the most important and difficult steps in that writing process. One way to better understand what an assignment, a class, or even a job is asking from is to examine the assignment in the context of its “discourse community.” In this chapter, Dan Melzer not only describes what a discourse community is but also how understanding that concept can aid us as writers and beyond.
“You can write in a journal alone in your room, just like you can play guitar for yourself along in your room. But most writers, like musicians, learn their craft from studying experts and becoming part of a community. And most writers, like most musicians, want to be a part of community and communicate with other people who share their goals and interests.”
MLA Citation Examples
Works Cited
Melzer, Dan. “Understanding Discourse Communities.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing Volume 3, edited by Dana Driscoll, Mary Stewart, and Matthew Vetter, Parlor Press, 2020, pp. 100-115.
In-text citation
“You can write in a journal alone in your room, just like you can play guitar just for yourself alone in your room. But most writers, like most musicians, learn their craft from studying experts and becoming part of a community. And most writers, like most musicians, want to be a part of community and communicate with other people who share their goals and interests” (102).
APA Citation Examples
References
Melzer, D. (2020). Understanding discourse communities. In Dana Driscoll, Mary Stewart, and Matthew Vetter (Eds.), Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, vol. 3 (pp. 100-115). New York: Parlor Press.
In-text citation
“You can write in a journal alone in your room, just like you can play guitar just for yourself alone in your room. But most writers, like most musicians, learn their craft from studying experts and becoming part of a community. And most writers, like most musicians, want to be a part of community and communicate with other people who share their goals and interests” (p. 102).
Chicago Citation Examples
Bibliography
Melzer, Dan. “Understanding Discourse Communities,” in Writing Spaces: Reading on Writing Volume 3, ed. Dana Driscoll, Mary Stewart, and Matthew Vetter, (New York: Parlor Press, 2020), 100-115.
In-text citation
“You can write in a journal alone in your room, just like you can play guitar just for yourself alone in your room. But most writers, like most musicians, learn their craft from studying experts and becoming part of a community. And most writers, like most musicians, want to be a part of community and communicate with other people who share their goals and interests” (Melzer, 2020, 102).
About the author
name: Writing Spaces Volume 3
institution: Parlor Press and WAC Clearinghouse
website: https://writingspaces.org/
Released in 2020, the third issue of Writing Spaces was edited by Dana Driscoll, Mary Stewart, and Matthew Vetter. In addition to the Writing Spaces Website, volume 3 can be accessed through WAC Clearinghouse, as well as Parlor Press.
From Parlor Press
Volume 3 continues the tradition of previous volumes with topics such as voice and style in writing, rhetorical appeals, discourse communities, multimodal composing, visual rhetoric, credibility, exigency, working with personal experience in academic writing, globalized writing and rhetoric, constructing scholarly ethos, imitation and style, and rhetorical punctuation.
From WAC Clearinghouse
Dana Driscoll is Professor of English at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where she teaches in the Composition and Applied Linguistics graduate program and directs the Jones White Writing Center. Her scholarly interests include composition pedagogy, writing centers, writing transfer and writerly development, research methodologies, writing across the curriculum, and assessment.
Mary Stewart is Assistant Professor and the Assessment Coordinator for the English Department at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Her research, which is primarily qualitative, focuses on collaborative and interactive learning, blended and online writing instruction, composition pedagogy, and teaching with technology.
Matthew Vetter is Assistant Professor of English at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and affiliate faculty in the Composition and Applied Linguistics Doctoral Program. A scholar in writing, rhetoric, and digital humanities, his research explores how technologies shape writing and writing pedagogy.
