Wardle Synthesis

Wardle immediately starts out with a discussion about discourses involving the workforce.  In this case, the discourse she initially talks about is similar to Gee's "dominant Discourse," or a Discourse that is used to gain social goods like money. According to Wardle, it seems that there are conflicts between the identity and the discourses that adults join; however, Gee would argue that the identity is the primary Discourse. The identity that Wardle talks about can also be part of the speech community in Swales's argument as they are both initial make-ups for people's characteristics. While Gee and Porter focused on what discourses or discourse communities were, Wardles focused on what was going on after the neophyte, or novice, entered the workplace discourses. Besides identity, Wardle states that people have to negotiate their authority when one enters the discourse community as well. The authority is the accepted pronouncements that are granted by the institution but must then be maintained by the individual's speech and actions. Wardle states that in order to be a full participant of the discourse community, one would have to know when and how to talk or be silent in the same fluency as veteran participants. This kind of agreement is somewhat similar to Gee's argument of when the individual becomes fully part of the discourse community. An interesting question that Wardle brings up is what happens if the identity conflicts with the discourse institution so much that they are degraded to a tool of the institution instead of a participant? Wardle uses Alan as an example who was new to his community. His enculturation was a failure. His resistance was too high and as a result, he was not a part of the community. This example amplifies both Gee's and Wardle's point. It shows that people are either fully assimilated into the community or not and it demonstrates that people must negotiate their identity and authority in order to be a participant.