Music and Discourse

In the assignment, I ask students to reflect on and write in response to the following questions after they've listened to the music, read the lyrics, and watched the videos.

1. How is God referred to in these text?
2. Are these quotes from the Bible?
3. Do the lyrics address God directly, or refer to him?
4. What’s the tone of the language about God?
5. What words cause you to say that about the tone?
6. Based on these observations, what do you think the writers believe about God?

Keep this activity in mind when you begin your research on academic discourse communities. Are discourse communities really something that can be said to exist? How do we identify them? What’s the value of identifying them?

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