The article “What’s That Supposed To Mean? Using Feedback In Your Writing” by Jillian Grauman discusses the importance of students incorporating clarity in writing. Grauman makes it known throughout the essay that if students fail to complete this, it leads to miscommunication. There is also an emphasis on the need for writers to be precise and intentional with their word choices to ensure their message is understood. Throughout the essay she provides tips on how to avoid common mistakes such as: using jargon, vague terms, or overly complex sentences. The overall goal is to enhance the reader’s comprehension and engagement by making the writing clear and straightforward. An example from the essay is, “Clarity in writing is not just about avoiding confusion; it’s about ensuring that your message is received exactly as you intended.” Based on this evidence, I can conclude how being clear is vital to making any writing a “good piece” of writing. I also believe that Grauman makes feedback sound very positive. Growing up, feedback was always put in such a negative way, for those who had “too many mistakes” or for those whose papers “weren’t enough.” I can appreciate the light that Grauman puts on receiving feedback because I do agree that any sort of feedback is important because it is someone else reading your paper with a different pair of eyes with a different set of opinions. Not only, but with feedback the little grammatical mistakes can be caught, ones the author may have missed.
Furthermore, in the article, “The Concept of Discourse Community” by John Swales he expands on the idea that a Discourse community is any group of people(s) who share common goals, values, and ways of communicating. Examples of such are: neighborhood communities, school communities, churches, and many more. Discourse communities follow us in every relationship that we form in our lives, whether that be in our friendships or kin relationships. The reason as to why these communities follow us is because it defines their views, morals, and their overall beliefs. Not everyone has the same view on life, so Swales describes the idea that a Discourse community is people who do share similar beliefs. In the text he is able to identify six defining characteristics of a Discourse community: an agreed set of common public goals, mechanisms of intercommunication among its members, participatory mechanisms (in order to provide information and feedback), utilizing and possessing one or more genres to further communicative skills, the addition to owning genres, and lastly all levels of members with a degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise. I found all six characteristics to be very well thought out because it seems as though Swales has a higher standard to an ideal Discourse community. Also, he emphasizes that Discourse communities are dynamic and can evolve over time as new members join and old members leave. I do agree with this statement because people change; change is inevitable. This concept helps in understanding how professional and academic groups function and communicate effectively.
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