Introduction

[Lucia Pawlowski]

Hello, fellow DISCOURS list subscribers.  I am a first-year Masters
student in Rhetoric and Composition at the University of MIssouri-Columbia
and my research includes the interface between post-structuralism and
gender studies.  I am also interested in folklore.  Just starting out, I
encountered the term "discourse" in composition pedagogy as a useful
alternative to the other ways of teaching composition I have
studied--including "process" and "product"--theoretically, I am intriguied
by how language assigns us to a specific social group. Next semester I
will be teaching freshman composition, so I am vitally interested in how
language functions in establishing discourse communities (and how I can
facilitate one in my classroom!)

It sounds like we have some really interesting subscribers from
fascinating backgrounds and research interests.  Because I am new to the
field, I am brimming with questions and concerns, and look forward to the
discussion.

Lucia Pawlowski
c749504 at showme.missouri.edu