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Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)

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Theoretical framework Critical discourse analysis Studying language use is an effective tool for revealing inequalities and stigmas of different (minority) groups. Even though the feminist media research has often ignored women’s magazines (Siivonen 2006: 227), studying how they write about the world is important because of the large audience they have. Cosmopolitan.com alone reaches over 20 million unique readers a month (Hearst Communications Inc. 2015), thus having a real impact on the young women and their views of the world. Magazines also reflect the worldviews and ideas of their authors, thus giving us an idea of the society and the culture they live in. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a sub-discipline of discourse analysis, a term used to refer to several approaches that are used to analyze the language use. CDA critically examines the relations between language use and the societies and cultures. One important name in the field of CDA is Teun A. Van Dijk. Van Dijk is interested in how different texts are shaped by the social power relations and ideologies (Väliverronen, E. 2003: 28-29). In other words, according to van Dijk, ideologies (the shared beliefs of a group) and the social power relations have an impact on the way language is used. For example, two people who think of …show more content…

Though singleness has interested writers for years, singleness has been gaining academic interest only recently. Until the 1970s most of the texts about singleness were not based on research but were rather information for the society about the single women. However, since the 60s studies of singleness, in which it has been recognized as a reasonable lifestyle option, have been emerging in the U.S. (Byrne, A. 2008: 760.) Since then studies about the media representations, the social perceptions, and the lived experiences of the single (women) have been made. (Byrne, A. 2008:

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Rhetoric 101 isn't just any ordinary class but one of the more unique class that many students take at their first year of college. Mr. Klein especially makes the class what everyone one calls rhetoric an awesome class. Mr. Klein is a well respected professor that takes learning to the next level with his unique way of teaching unlike many other college professors do. His way of teaching makes everyone interact with any topic we talk about in class and makes everything clear and simple. Many students online rate Mr. Klein an excellent professor according to ratemyprofessor.

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Kathryn Stockett, the author of The Help uses imagery to help the reader better comprehend the meaning of the passage. As the reader reads along in the passage reading about little Miss Skeeter, “Munching on peanuts, sorting through the pieces spread out on the table, a storm [raging] outside (Stockett 77). Through this imagery that the author provides the reader is instantly transformed into the world of little Miss Skeeter as she is sitting down by Constantine on a dark stormy night doing a puzzle. The reader can hear the crunch of the peanuts and smell the rain coming from outside as they read the passage. Stockett also uses diction to contribute to the imagery of the passage.

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A discourse community has yet to have a solid definition; though some have come close. One of the people who have attempted to define discourse community is John Swales. Swales, rather than use a standard definition, chose to create a set list of criteria. With the help of the criteria and my interview of Dane (a member of my chosen discourse community) I will discuss how my chosen group, Communications 101, is a discourse community. Communications 101 (Comm. 101) is a college credit class that helps the students in the class learn the “fundamental principles of verbal, nonverbal, written, and visual communication with an introduction to relational and organizational communication, public communication, and media studies.

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The Many Powers Of Rhetoric In this section of “The UNF Guide To Writing” different authors discuss the robust powers of rhetorical writing. Nathan Thornburgh discussed “overheated rhetoric” in his writing Violent Rhetoric and Arizona Politics (52). He discussed the shooting that took place in Arizona over a political issue of immigration in which Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was killed. Thornburgh said that the over-exaggeration n that was places on the “issues” that were going on in Arizona is the reason people got angry enough and why it drove Jared Loughner, the shooter, to act out in a violent way (53).

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Past leaders such as Andrew Jackson, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Marc Antony are evidence that society does not reward morality and good character in leadership. Society is drawn to leaders that have good rhetoric, propaganda, and charismatic personalities, and society supports them despite their immorality. Society is concerned about stability more than the morality of their leaders and will support immoral leaders in times of crisis to provide stability. In history there have been multiple leaders that have used rhetoric, propaganda and charismatic personalities to gain power, despite their morals.

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A Young Woman’s Voice in a Society That Devalues Femininity In the article “Young Women Shouldn’t Have to Talk Like Men to Be Taken Seriously,” Marybeth Seitz-Brown argues that women should not have to change their voices to be heard by a society that constantly devalues femininity. Seitz-Brown uses three effective rhetorical devices to effectively prove her argument: her awareness of the rhetorical situation, her stylistic choices, and the arrangement of her article. Seitz-Brown’s awareness of the rhetorical situation enhances her argument by tastefully adding to the feminist discourse at the time. Her target audience is all of American society because, at the end of the article, she urges that “we can do better than that” (Seitz-Brown).

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The Community Within the Gym What is a discourse community? Most will say that it is defined as a group of people with common interests who communicate through particular terms and genres. Reading the article, “The Concept of Discourse Community”, I have found that there is a more complex definition, which include six characteristics that make a group a discourse community, as linguist John Swales states. The characteristics that follow are:

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Julier, Livingston, and Goldblatt argue that service-learning has the potential to engage students with their community while developing rhetorical efficacy and critical thinking skills. This pedagogy embraces Dewey’s hands-on approach while connecting with Freire and bell books’ student-centered approach towards writing. Macrorie and Elbow connect the power of truth telling (own personal feelings) to “a sense of honesty and truth in the world they know,” which promotes “the desire to connect personal commitments to social and political realities (56). Julier defines community-pedagogy as “experimental learning grounded in the understanding of writing as a situated social act” and in this pedagogy “students work in relationship with a community

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Activity theory, as interpreted by Ph.D. candidates, Wardle and Kain, is a process that attempts to see all aspects of activity such as social interactions and use of writing and language to achieve goals. This theory is award winning. Activity theory states that for a system to be effective, the rules, community, subject, division of labor, and motives must be reasonable. These components are shown through the chosen tool of communication most often. When one area of the system is corrupted, the tool will no longer function correctly in order to communicate or achieve its goals.

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We communicate in many ways, either by email, telephone, text, face to face, social media or letters and the language we use allows us to get things done, nonetheless the language and communication method in which we chose to use can vary depending on the discourse community. Much like John Swales suggests a discourse community involves a group of people who share the same common public goals, such as shared interests, rules, structure, and vocabulary. When thinking about the several discourse communities I am evolved in, which include family, coaching football, college student, and a few friends. These discourse communities have influenced me, given me insight of where I come from and tell who I am as a person. I also believe much like Swales,

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When the topic of gender bias comes up, it’s usually within the context of women being the victims and that is going to be my main focus in this essay. Gender bias has a lot of implications on society which greatly affects the world as a whole and this is related to language because, language is the most common form of communication and it is a very powerful tool, which more often than not, is misused and misunderstood. The different media forms, as well as different media in countries, has an effect on our perception of gender. A new study conducted by The United Kingdom’s Economic and Social Research Council found out that

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