Original:

Research done by James Gee presented in the article,  Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction, states that Discourse is the “saying (writing)- doing- being- valuing- believing combinations. (Gee 6)”. Gee is saying that a Discourse is a broader term than what we define as language. He sees Discourse as the entire spectrum of human social interaction. He claims there are many Discourses and that each is unique. He goes on to say that when it comes to each Discourse, there are seven building tasks that make up each Discourse. These tasks are Significance (what is relevant in the Discourse), Practices (common tasks carried out in the Discourse), Identities (who one is within the Discourse), Relationships (interactions between the relationships in the Discourse), Politics (values within the Discourse), Connections (how things relate to each other within the Discourse), and Sign Systems and Knowledge (jargon within the Discourse). These building tasks all are important and are the fabric of Discourse. But each has its own importance and I believe three are the most important; Significance and Practices. These two are very related and play a huge role within a Discourse.

What Christina Haas elaborates more into detail in her paper is the scientific writing Discourse. She has a similar ideology to James Gee that to be part of the Scientific Discourse, one must have scientific literacy. She defines scientific literacy as, “the mastery of scientific facts and concepts (Haas 45)”. What Haas is saying is that to achieve scientific literacy, one must be able to recognize scientific concepts and data and be able to show that understanding. This relates to Gee’s ideas of Discourse as Haas’s idea of scientific literacy goes hand in hand with being part of the Scientific Discourse. If you have scientific literacy, you are following  a practice of the Discourse. You are doing what others in the Discourse are doing, being literate in your field. This is a major reason why practices of a Discourse are so important to follow when entering the Scientific Writing Discourse.

 

Revised:

Research done by James Gee presented in the article,  Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction, states that Discourse is the “saying (writing)- doing- being- valuing- believing combinations” (6). Gee is saying that a Discourse is a broader term than what we define as language and viewing language as all human social interactions. He claims there are many Discourses and that each is unique. He goes on to say that when it comes to each Discourse, there are seven building tasks that make up each Discourse. These tasks are Significance, Practices , Identities , Relationships, Politics , Connections, and Sign Systems and Knowledge. These building tasks all are important and are the fabric of Discourse. But each has its own importance and I believe three are the most important; Significance (what is relevant in the Discourse) and Practices (common tasks carried out in the Discourse). What Christina Haas elaborates  in her paper is the Scientific Writing Discourse. She has a similar ideology to James Gee that to be part of the Scientific Discourse, one must have scientific literacy. She defines scientific literacy as, “not only the mastery of scientific facts and concepts, but understanding of “the evolving contributions of individual scientists and groups of scientists, … the social communities and historical settings in which scientists work”(45). What Haas is saying is that to achieve scientific literacy, one must be able to recognize scientific concepts and be able to display that understanding to other scientists. Similar to the building tasks that Gee states in his paper, scientific literacy is both significant in the Scientific Discourse and is a practice within the Discourse. Understanding scientific literacy is a major key to being part of the Scientific Discourse, because it is a common practice and is significant. 

 

 

Eng110-J