Sabina Appelzoller

Professor B. Gallardo
RWS 1301, MW
September 6, 2015
The Teacher Guide to Understanding My Discourse Communities Map, 1st Edition
Everyone is in some way involved in a discourse community. There is no possible way to
avoid one because there is something in every person to connect them to one another. It can be
within your family or on a bigger scale that involves a variety people that are unknown to you.
After analyzing some discourse communities I am a part of, it is reasonable to say that they are
meant to be unique, but they all share the same goal and interest to communicate.
The only discourse community I did not have a choice to be a part of is my family. Being
a member of my family all my life I have grown to love them. These are the people that I am
surrounded by

the majority of the time. The way I interact with family is different than

when interacting with others. It is normal to be more informal with them. We grow accustomed
to each others ways, have a certain endurance level for each other, and of course nicknames.
When my older sister was born she looked super pink. Her nickname within the family became
Pinky. I was born just one year later. We were so close in age we did everything together and
were even dressed alike all the time. When the family referred to us two sisters we were known
as The Pinkys. We have a male family dog named Bingo and his nickname is El Nio. As I
mentioned in my map we tend to speak Spanglish in my household, which is a combination of
English and Spanish in the same sentence. A specific example is when my mom asks if we have
fed our dog she says, Have you fed El Nio? These things are communication in my family
that would only be understood by our discourse community.

School can be a discourse community which is most common for little kids to young
adults. My school discourse community specifically involves UTEP. Only the students who
attend it would know abbreviations for buildings such as the Undergraduate Learning Center is
UGLC. Also the students would know school terms such as Miners, our mascot Pay Dirt Pete,
the school fight song, or Picks Up as our saying at football games along with hand symbol of
the pickaxe. Academic wise the professors at UTEP use emails as a major form of
communication with the students. School assignments are also communicated through websites
like Blackboard or Web Assign.
Every sport is different form one another and they can be a discourse community of its
own. Another discourse community I am apart of is Softball. Just like any other sport there are
certain things you have to know about it to understand it. It is generally played by females. Some
terms of actions in softball include double header which is two games played back to back. A
strike is a pitch thrown to the batter that tallies against the number of chances they get to
swing. A players count is the number of strikes and balls they have on their turn batting. A
line drive is a hit by a batter that sends that ball flying at straight fast angle. When a player is
on deck it means they are next to bat and are practicing outside the dugout. My favorite term
grand slam is when a home run is hit with all three bases filled. Usually when batting the
coaches give a series of hand gestures which only the team knows and it communicates to the
batter what to do while at the plate. This is a major way Softball is a discourse community
because it involves a communication that is only known for that specific team.
Social media is continuously being shaped but its sole reason is to communicate. Through
social media websites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat the common objective
is to post which is to put things online for others to see them. The term like is used to refer

when people like what you post and click a button to give you a thumbs up or a red heart under a
picture depending on which site. On Twitter people will retweet something they find enjoyable
or agree with. The Twitter website is known for creating the use of the hashtag. A hashtag is used
to add an additional comment to your post, for example #SundayFunday #NoFilter. Instagram is
the website solely used for positing pictures and adding filters to alter the appearance of a
photo and get more likes. Social Media gives an advantage in communicating with others
because it is a lot easier to express yourself however you choose.
It is inevitable to not connect with each and live properly. Communication is a necessity
for everyone to move along in life. Discourse communities will continuously be a form of
participating with your mutual goals and interests in communication.