Sarah's 

This paper further explores the idea of discourse communities and whether or not first year engineering students are active participants in their own unique form of discourse. The definition of a discourse community that is used throughout this paper is best explained by James Gee’s article. The different qualifications that a particular group of people must meet in order to be labeled a discourse community that are referenced throughout this paper are those that are defined by the John Swales’ article. Most would assume that with first year engineering students being such a narrowly defined and specific community of people that gather frequently and share the same or similar passions and life goals that naturally a discourse community would result. I will be sharing my first hand observations and interviews with first year engineering students in combination with academic articles in order to come to a conclusion on whether or not first year engineering students form their own discourse community or if they remain fairly disconnected.

 

Keywords: discourse community