1. Discourses, with a capital D, are the parts of life that define a person, including how they speak and act, the values and the beliefs that they hold, their attitude, and their social identity.  In Cuddy’s Ted Talk, “Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are”, she says: “But the other thing I noticed is that it also seemed to be related to the extent to which the students were participating, and how well they were participating.  And this is really important in the MBA classroom, because participation counts for half the grade.”  In this case, the Discourse is that of an MBA (business) student.  A student that is not participating, or not participating well, is not showing that they have mastered the MBA student Discourse.  Students that participate often and well show that they have mastered this Discourse.
2. A primary Discourse is one that is not taught or instructed, but one that is acquired by being part of a social group, such as a family.  A secondary Discourse is one that is acquired from interactions with public institutions.  In my simple terms, I call a primary Discourse a “Home Discourse” and a secondary Discourse a “Public Discourse”.  Gee’s distinction of dominant and non-dominant Discourses is important because it shows that Discourses can exist for different reasons and can be broken down even further into different categories.  Dominant Discourses are ones that bring “the (potential) acquisition of social “goods”” (8).  Non-dominant Discourses are ones that bring “solidarity with a particular social network” (8).  A dominant would be something like a job; a dominant Discourse for me would be that I am a Market Basket employee.  By being in this Discourse, I acquire a social “good”- a paycheck/money.  A non-dominant would be something like a membership in a club or organization that provides no social “goods”; a non-dominant Discourse for me would be that I was a member of my high school’s German club.  I got no social “goods” from being in this club, but instead made friends and got closer to my German teacher and my fellow peers.
3. (Skipped)
4. Nonverbal behavior, also known as body language, is important to those who would be in the Discourse of business because “we make sweeping judgments and inferences from body language…those judgments  can predict really meaningful life outcomes like who we hire or promote” (Cuddy).  A person’s nonverbal behavior affects how others see them and make judgments on them, so it is important that if they are in business, they use the correct nonverbal behavior in order to make the right impression.  If you are trying to get hired for a business position, and you come into the interview acting completely ridiculous and silly, chances are you won’t be hired.  If you come into the interview and act sophisticated but still relaxed, your chances of being hired are higher.

In this annotation, I am attempting to create the conversation.  In this passage, Gee says, “We have argued above that some degree of conflict and tension…will almost always be present.”  I point that out by putting a star next to it, making a note that that is his “I Say”.  I couldn’t see any explicit mention of a “They Say”, so I made up two possible options for “They Say”.  One of them is that They say that Discourses cannot clash or that they rarely do; the other is that They have never spoken about Discourses and how they clash.

 

In this annotation, I am taking what Gee said as his definition of “primary Discourse” and putting it into my own words so that I can better understand and remember what it means.  I also include an example of my own primary Discourse so that I can relate it to myself, which will also help me remember it.

 

In this annotation, I am making a text-to-self connection in order to better understand what Cuddy is saying.  My comment is supporting what she says about “high power poses” and “low power poses” and how they can change a person.

 

In this annotation, I am making a text-to-text connection between Cuddy and Gee.  It translates what Cuddy says, “Fake it till you become it” into terms that perhaps Gee would use- “Fake it till it becomes a Discourse”.  I did this so that I could see the connection between these two texts.

 

 

( collreadwrit1b )