Johns’ Discourse Communities
- Texts must be explicit
- Use language that is common to the community
- Audience matters
- Topic and argument should be presented in the introduction
- Should guide the reader along the reading, guideposts like subheadings
- Should be written in a way that allows the reader to see an objective paper
- When using ‘I’ only use it for experiences or anecdotal evidence, never for opinions
- Texts should not get emotional or personal, should stay factual
- Should avoid judgments unless it is in a personal story talking about how things felt
- Do not speak in absolutes (never, always, everyone, all the time…)
- Consider what other people value
- Consider how the audience views the world
- Meta Discourses – the discourse of discourse, talking about discourse in a discourse
Ben Coon 