Joseph Harris (748-758)

The Idea of Community in the Study of Writing (748-758)

Joseph Harris

Harris identifies a common concern with how we teach writing as a community, and how we have various communities within our lives.  When we look at the academic community, Harris describes this need, sometimes, to assimilate students toward one community of writing and language.  Harris proves that we should think about students adding another discourse community or writing in the academia instead of trying to replace the students “common” discourse with a “privileged” one (752).  A key factor to consider is that “We write not as isolated individuals but as members of communities whose beliefs, concerns, and practices both instigate and constrain, at least in part, the sorts of things we can say” (749).  Even how we teach, as individuals within a community, we are influenced by our own experiences and communities of discourse from previous schools, professors, work environments, etc.  What we bring as instructors to the classroom varies from our own experiences, whereas, what the student brings to the class depends on his or her own experiences in the academic atmosphere.  I think this concept is harder to accept as a teacher when we have many expectations and rules to follow (more so in the secondary settings than the college setting) or standards to meet.  Can we intermix what we are required to teach and students’ own discourses from various communities?  I think this is a common struggle for most teachers, and the students feel disempowered when their own writing does not fall as accepted into the “academic community.”

Harris does bring up the point that even if we look at an “academic” discourse versus a “common” one, students are learning those aspects of the “common” discourse while in school (for some part) that we must realize that these languages or discourses are already “academic” (755).  We must consider in all discourses and communities, that we are still a community of teachers, students, learners, etc.  Before teaching study of writing, we must understand that we are not simply writing as individuals or communities, but “Rather, one is always simultaneously a part of several discourses, several communities, is always already committed to a number of conflicting beliefs and practices” (755).  To conclude Harris’ thoughts about communities in discourses, we can think about how we do not need consensus.  He states that “Matters of accident, necessity, and convenience hold groups together as well” and that changes or struggles are common activities in discourses (756).  Therefore, we need to work together to allow additions to discourse communities, and not the replacement of an individual’s beliefs.