Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Mohamed Emlemdi
Professor Beckelhimer
Advanced Composition
20 October 2017
There are many genres involved in the campus sexual assault discourse community. From
court hearings and first-person accounts to news articles and statistical figures, many groups and
genres are involved in discussions of this topic. The genre I chose to discuss is personal accounts
and first-person stories. I feel that this genre will give an adequate representation of the
discussions taking place in this discourse because these are the people who are most closely
affected by sexual assault and it is important that their voices are being heard in the discussion.
rhetoric, opinionated statements, and biased information specific to the individual. I feel that
first-person accounts are many times the most accurate because you are hearing the information
from the source. That being said, you must watch out for the bias because theres no way to
really fact check what someone is saying. An example of a charged statement from an
anonymous female student from Southern Illinois is, I was under the influence with people I
thought I could trust. This quote to me holds a lot of weight because it implies that people
whom she trusted were the ones who either committed the heinous act or were the ones who
allowed for it to happen. Another charged quote from a female student from Texarkana College:
I didnt report him. To me, I grew up in a conservative family so it was like, you fight your own
battles (Germain). This gives insight into how hard it could be for a victim of sexual assault to
come forward and talk about it. No other genre in this discourse community can give the exact
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reason as to why somebody may not want to report something like this; but this quote from the
student gives a reason that only she could completely understand. Therefore, its important that
The conversation personal accounts add to this discourse community can be both civil
and uncivil. There are times when victims are able to compose themselves and speak rationally
about the situation but there are also other times when emotions can get the best of a person and
their contribution to the discussion can be uncivil. Much of the discussion Ive been able to find
has been civil as the people have been in a rational and stable enough state to report what has
happened. However, there are times still when the victims can be flustered and confused about
what happened like when a student from the University of Pittsburgh said, I woke up the next
morning without any recollection. These students cannot recollect much, if not any, of what
happened so whatever discussion they add to the discourse may not always be accurate or civil.
Even so, thats no reason to not have their voices heard in the conversation.
community that articles, videos, court hearings and websites cannot. The voices heard from these
first-person perspectives come with real experiences that are important to be heard and
understood in the discussion. I feel that personal accounts can be the most blunt and truthful
genre in the discourse community. However, there are can be times when the personal accounts
arent always the best source of information due to a lack of recollection or knowledge from the
source. There can also be bias from first-person accounts that detract from the discourse
accounts, both civil and uncivil, are important and must be heard in the discourse community
because it comes straight from the source of people most closely affected by these situations.