Read at least pages 499-505 (top) of the Johns chapter (feel free to read the whole chapter now if you want).
Considering the defining characteristics of a discourse community that Johns lists on page 500 and the examples she gives on pp. 501-504, make a list of some of the discourse communities you’re a member of.
Choose two or three of those discourse communities to discuss in more detail.
What makes these groups "discourse communities?" (Make sure they fit the characteristics as you understand them.)
What does it mean to you to be a "member" of these communities? (In other words, how do you identify yourself in relation to these communities? Are they integral to your sense of identify or are you a more casual member?) How do you participate in the discourse of these discourse communities? Are there some in which you take a leadership role? Some in which you just "lurk" (as they say about members of online discussion groups who don’t participate in the discussions)?
Later on in the chapter, Johns will discuss "the cost[s] of affiliation" with a particular discourse community. Has being a member of your various discourse communities required any sacrifices or "trade-offs" from you? Have there been tensions between your sense of your identity and your membership in a particular discourse community, or between your membership in one discourse community and another? If you, how have you worked through those tensions?
