Post 12

In Elizabeth Wardle’s “Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces,” she states that there are three related modes of belonging.  They are engagement, imagination, and alignment.  These are each used in order for newcomers of new organizations to “find their own unique identities.”  Engagement is when new comers and older members pursue “interpersonal relationships and “a sense of interacting trajectories that shape identities in relation to one another.”  Defining a common enterprise does this.  An example of this is when someone starts a class on the first day of school and is trying to talk about the class in order to make a relationship with other peers.  Imagination is “ a process by expanding self by transcending time and space and creating new images of the world and self.”  This means that newcomers need to find their engagement in a broader system.  An example of this may be if I student is thinking about how they will get an A in a class, but may in turn not work as hard assuming they will do well no matter what, making them perform poorly.  Alignment requires “negotiating perspectives, finding common ground defining broad visions and aspirations and walking boundaries reconciling diverging perspectives.”  In laymen’s terms, I would define this as people forming common views and agreeing on ideas, but this can cause someone to lose their sense of self.  An example of this may be a group of jurors may decide it is most important to have a unanimous decision causing some people to lose their sense of voice.  This can cause beliefs to change to fit the others.

            The discourse community I plan on writing about is my professional organization, Student Alumni Board.  These three modes of belonging definitely apply to this organization.  An example of engagement is how new members must apply and interview to be on the board then most try to build relationships in order to fit in.  An example of imagination is some people may feel they are really attending a lot of event s for the board, but in reality may not be participating in them to their full potential.  An example of alignment is we must agree on changes for the constitution.  People may just agree in order to get it done, but may lose their voice in the organization since they didn’t say any concerns when it happened.