Assignment:
Business scholars compose books and articles within a specialized discourse community whose members communicate to achieve a broadly agreed upon set of common goals. Select an article published in a scholarly business journal and critically analyze its rhetorical strategies. Consider the following questions:
How does the article introduce its main topic and argument? What kinds of specialized language does the author use, and what does that language suggest about his/her intended audience?
How does the article situate itself in relation to other research?
Is the author “present” in the text, or does he/she use specific grammar and lexis to cultivate a neutral tone? Your essay must include an original thesis that introduces the discourse community your article is situated within and the rhetorical strategies used to appeal to members of that community.
Your body paragraphs should support that claim by analyzing how those rhetorical strategies contribute to its intended effect. In addition, you MUST integrate claims from “The Concept of Discourse Communities” by John Swales, “What is a Discourse Community?” by Patricia Bizzell, and Ann M. Johns’s “Discourse Communities and Communities of Practice” to bolster your analysis. Think of these essays as providing the theoretical foundations for your claims. Thus, if you were analyzing the specialized vocabulary your article employs to appeal to its scholarly audience, you might first reference Swales’s claim that discourse communities acquire some specific lexis.
