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DISCOURSE COMMUNITY ASSIGNMENT

Discourse Community: Written Response
Luis Meza
The University Of Texas at El Paso

In the actuality, writing is a fundamental part in our life styles, it represents our language
in a form of technology through the inscription of words, signs and symbols, and it relies in
many of the same structures of speech or spoken language such as vocabulary and grammar.
Writing is used to communicate, educate, explain, entertain, inform, persuade and many others
forms that we can apply the use of writing. All these types of applying writing and the structures
of it, contribute to be successful in the personal, academic, civic and professional discourse
communities.
In my personal discourse community the environment is more relaxed and private. The
audience members are my family such as, my mother, my father, my brother and my cousins.
The purpose of writing in my personal discourse community is to share feelings, to inform, to
express ideas, to communicate at distance and to show affection to your family members. The
typical genres used in my personal discourse community for communication are e-mails, letters,
postcards and text messages and the media used is electronically and physically but most of the
time is electronically. Some of the topics that we usually write about are sports, vacations, news,
birthday celebrations, school, and everyday life events. There are some conventions and
guidelines that we must follow to keep the community working such as, being friendly and
respectful with your community members. The guidelines are not so strict, but are important to
keep the environment relaxed and peaceful. In this community the specialized language is
informal because it is not a professional or academic institution in which you have to write in a
certain type of format or with a special structure someone assigned to you, here in this
community I can write with no limitations, of course, the use of inappropriate language has to be
moderated. For example if I want to write Oh my God in text messages I would say it like this
OMG or if I want to text my brother Whats up I would say it like this sup. Becoming a

member for this community it is necessary to be born or married within the discourse community
or having a friendly relationship with the family members.
In my opinion, my academic discourse community which is The University of Texas at El
Paso, is the tougher one because of its high expectancy of effort one must do, in order to succeed
in this community. In order to join and become a member of this community one must have
achieved a high school diploma and have completed and passed a series of tests to be placed in
college level courses. The specialized language used in this community is formal language, it can
be English or Spanish but the most common one is English. The language has to be formal
because it is an academic institution that requires college level language to be successful. An
example of this formal language are the use of citations, it could be in MLA or APA format,
some professors expect a certain length and structure of your papers or even the way you have to
turn them in to achieve a passing grade. These guidelines are fundamental in this community in
order to be a person of success. The audience members of this community are professors,
students and faculty members of the University. Some of the genres in this community are email, homework papers, poster boards, class assignments, or websites. Some examples of these
genres are blackboard which is used to turn in homework electronically or a teachers website.
The communication and media in this discourse community is not only electronically but also
physically. In this discourse community we write about so many topics such as current events,
bibliographies, art, sports, politics, science, etc. The purposes of writing in this discourse
community are to learn and improve their abilities to further their education, to learn the proper
way of writing and be prepared for the future.
My civic discourse community was the Coronado High School art club, in which I spent
my last two years of high school in the art club. The audience members of my civic discourse

community are the instructors, judges, and students (members of the same discourse
community). The purposes of writing are to show the people or other audiences the history of art,
the importance it has and to inform them about the paintings our discourse community paint. The
typical genres used in this discourse community are e-mail, papers, and letters. The media used
most of the time is physically and sometimes is electronically but just for unexpected news or
changes in schedule. Some of the topics we wrote about are the different styles of painting such
as paint, pigment, color, shadows, perspective, composition, abstraction, etc. The conventions
and guidelines for this discourse community are to be friendly, respectful, attend to the meetings
and to events in different locations. The specialized language for this discourse community is
formal language we have to be specific and asserted on what the professor pointed out such as
putting the information right, to quote the authors name of each painting we do, the background
information of a painting has to be detailed and finally the paint must be painted in the way the
professor described it. An example could be: Starry Night by Vincent Van Goh To become a
member of the art club it is necessary to have knowledge of the different styles of painting, have
free space available in your agenda and being enrolled in any type of art course.
In my professional discourse community I work at Applebees as a waiter. The audience
members of the professional discourse community are my boss, clients, partners and the chefs.
The purposes for writing in this community is to keep the clients happy, take their orders and
bring it to them. The typical genres in this community are e-mail, text messages, and notes. The
media vary depending on the occasion, if I am working, I just used the notes to take the orders of
the clients, the email and text messages are just for changes in schedule or specific instructions.
The topic written in this community is food, everything that is on the menu we write it, it
depends on what the client orders. The conventions and guidelines of my professional discourse

community are being friendly with job partners and clients and always be on time. The
specialized language has to be formal in the spoken way but when we write the orders it can be
informal for example: Client: BBQ sandwich instead of writing that, we can write BBQSW.
To become a member of this community, you have to go to an Applebees location and ask for a
work application, you have to filled it out and return it to the same location and if they
considered you, they will call you and make an appointment for an interview. Once being
accepted, they will hired you and you will start working at Applebees.
Writing is essential in every discourse community we are involved. Each discourse
community has its different and unique aspects such as, audience members, purposes, genres,
media, topics, guidelines and specialized language that makes each discourse community unique.
Learning how to communicate in each discourse community will make us a better human beings
and will bring us knowledge and experience for a brighter future.