Discourse Community Analysis

To look deeply and extensively at history it is essential to know what history is. History is the study of the past, but more importantly, it is the opportunity for historians to interpret the events of the past. The trouble with history, as noted by Dave Berry in the article “Learning to Think Historically” by Kathryn Spoehr, “is that, except for Harold Stassen, everybody that knows anything about it firsthand is dead. This means that our only source of historical information is historians, who are useless because they keep changing everything around.”  Taking a comprehensive look at history requires research into the participants, genres, writing situations, writing styles, research methods, and the documentation system.

The principle participants in the history discipline consist of historians and students. Both of these participants make historical assumptions when teaching or writing about historical events. These assumptions are things that are previously learned and not questioned. As historians and students of history, it is important to make assumptions. In addition, it is important to make correct inferences about those assumptions. This idea is known by the individuals who make up this discourse community as historical thinking. 

Historical thinking involves putting the historian in the correct genre, writing situation, and writing style. This does not mean strictly writing about the dates and facts. As stated in the article, “Learning to Think Historically”; “Thinking historically does not necessarily mean knowing more facts than anyone else. Focusing exclusively on facts is what makes history study so deadly dull for so many students in so many schools.”  When writing in the historical genre, it is necessary to go beyond just restating the facts in a chronological order. The writing situation calls for the writer to utilize the facts as a historical base and, as the article states, use “the relations that the facts bear to one another.” 

Moreover, applying these principles allows the historian and the student to use the writing style of thesis, body, and conclusion. The thesis is used for making an argument, the body is for making critical inferences in proving the thesis, and the conclusion is used to summarize and furnish the final proof that the argument is sound. When writing in this argumentative research style, students and historians must make value judgments about the writing.  Spoehr comments on the importance of this in the article. She states: “Having students confront such questions at a personal level requires them to make personal value judgments, to ponder large questions about human nature (just what are people like, anyway?) and progress (if things are getting better, or worse, is there anything we can do about it?), and to see themselves very much as products of the history they are talking about.”  In order for historians and students to make good assumptions, inferences, and arguments, they must employ solid research methods. In addition, they are required to document their findings using the correct documentation system.

Research methods and the appropriate documentation system are just as important to the historian as genre, writing situation, and writing style. Research methods include historical databases, archives, professional articles, primary source material, oral histories, and secondary source material. It is important to use a large number of these research methods to corroborate the inferences made in the writing. Additionally, it is important to document these findings in the Turabian format. Turabian is the documentation style preferred in the social sciences discourse community. This system allows students to use a style created by historians to document and cite their work in a manner that is consistent across the historical community.

Taking a comprehensive look at history requires research into the participants, genres, writing situations, writing styles, research methods, and the documentation system. Each of these areas demands the historian and student to embark on what most people would consider an abnormal process. This process is called historical thinking. This mode of thinking is unique to history and compels the historian and student to engage in a higher level of reading, writing, and research. Each of these areas has an effect on writing, and the main goal of historians is to communicate their knowledge through this manner.







Bibliography

Spoehr, Kathryn T., Luther W. Spoehr. “Learning to Think Historically.” Educational Psychologist 29, no. 2 (1994): 71-77.