Schwab 1 Leona Schwab Megan Keaton English 111 8 July 2013 Writing within a Community There are many

types of communities. Some communities are tied together by location like neighborhoods. Sometimes, communities are defined by common interests and activities. Football players, small business owners, and families are each part of their own community. A discourse community is a group of people that have come together with a common interest that uses some type of writing for communication amongst themselves with a vocabulary that is specific to their group. There are several different types of discourse communities. Two specific examples of discourse communities are the Amateur Pool Association and Ms. McColls American Literature classroom. The Amateur Pool Association (APA) is made up of individuals with a shared desire to play pool recreationally and competitively. They are all adults ranging from young to old but are at least 18 years of age. They come from all walks of life representing different backgrounds, ethnicities, and social status. They also range in skill level from beginner to more advanced players. However, every member of the APA shares in the enjoyment of playing pool whether they are there for more serious reasons like training to become a professional pool player or simply just to have fun. All the members of the APA are players, but there are other roles that one can take on. There is a local organizer or host. He/she is normally a local business owner and is responsible for providing a location for the players to meet and tables for them to play on. They also serve as

Schwab 2 an organizer, scheduling the dates and times certain teams will meet to compete against each other. In the APA, there are several different districts that consist of several different teams. For each team, there is an individual that serves as the team Captain. Their role is simple: to serve as the leader of their particularly team. It is part of their job to strategize using the handicap and ranking system and decide which five players will play during a match against which players of the opposing team. They also hold the responsibility to ensure that all dues are paid by the individual players and that all requirements are met to remain a valid member. During each game, there is also a member of each team that is allowed to serve as a coach. As coach, when the player that is playing calls for a time out to consult their next move, it is their role to address any questions that the player may have. The vocabulary used in playing pool is vast, and it is an easy way to distinguish people who are players from people who just play the game for fun. There are terms to describe the physical aspects of the game. A pool stick is referred to as a cue. The object ball is the ball that is targeted to be hit first with the cue ball, (the white ball, and only ball, to be hit directly with the cue) and is not necessarily the ball that is being meant to make it into a pocket (the holes on the side of the pool table that a player is trying to make their respective balls into). The rack (different in 9-ball than 8-ball) is the organization of the balls into a tight cluster on one end of the pool table. To begin a game, one player racks the balls, and the other player breaks the balls apart by hitting the cue ball into them from the opposite side of the table and hopefully gaining a decent spread of balls. Then there are terms that are used to describe moves in the game. There are defensive maneuvers called safeties and many different ways to employ them. To kick is to use the rail of the pool table to bank the cue ball around opposing players balls to achieve a good hit on the object ball and is the most common way to deal with a safety. There

Schwab 3 is a break and run, one of the most accredited ways to achieve recognition as a skillful player, in which a player has won the lag, (the way players determine who will get to break first by hitting balls down the length of the pool table and back where whoevers ball is closest to the rail in which they started breaks) makes a ball on the break, and continues to make all of the other balls on the table in one turn to win the game. The primary form of writing used by the APA would be flyers. The flyers are equipped with a headline and an easy to read format and are normally in color. These communications are short and simple employing the common vocabulary used in the language between players. The purpose of these communications is to keep every member up to date on rule changes, adjustments to their rankings, important scheduled events, as well as other miscellaneous announcements that may be pertinent to the players. Sometimes, as in announcements of special events, the flyers are written by the organizer. Other times, the flyer is simply written by another member of the APA including special announcements and recognitions, or an event they have helped organize. In the case of rule changes, special corrections to rankings, or announcing the teams that placed in the finals, the flyers will be written by the National Board of the APA and then distributed locally. The flyers are usually handed out with the score sheets each team uses to keep track of points during the games but sometimes can be seen posted up on a wall. Since the APA is not an academic group, there is no required degree of literacy. Therefore, the communications are kept brief with a simple construction and easy to read language to ensure that the information is received by every player. The APAs main goal is to have fun while developing skills. These communications compete for members attention during lively conversation, intense concentration on the game, and the many other social distractions that are present when a group

Schwab 4 of adults get together at a pool hall, so the flyers grab the players attention with color and descriptive headlines. Like the APA, Ms. McColls American Literature class is a discourse community comprised of a group of very different individuals. Although they are representative of different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, they are all students at Central Piedmont College enrolled in the English 231 class engaging in the study of American literature. The students come together every Tuesday and Thursday from 10:30 in the morning to anywhere from 12:30 to 1:20 in the afternoon. Ms. McColl is a vivacious woman who sets the tone of the class as a social one, often spending time talking about her daughters recent victory or loss on her soccer team, her recent trepidations she met with in her daily bike ride commute to the campus, and examples of themes discussed in the class from personal experiences. The class is conducted as an open forum where the student members of this discourse community are actively involved in lively discussion and debate about a variety of subjects covered in the literature they read. There are no activities to be engaged in except communication and discussion. They not only serve as initiators, setting the tone of discussion and igniting much controversy, but also as mediators for each other. They all share in the common goal of exploration and examination of American writers. The primary form of writing for students in this class are posts to a discussion board on the internet. After they read the selected excerpts from the works of American authors of a specific time in American history, they are required to post three different compositions on the internet: an initial response to the readings, a response to another students writing, and a well thought out answer to one of Ms. McColls essay questions. Similar to blogs, these discussion board posts include a headline detailing the content of the writing and are all done on the

Schwab 5 computer. Although there is no specific format to follow, they all require complete sentences with the proper use of the English language and correct grammar and punctuation, as is the case when writing for an English class. Although the specific subject is left intentionally open for students to come up with their own original ideas, they all address some type of literary aspect of the reading like word choice, imagery, and the relation of the time period to the writing. The discussion board posts are shaped by the students strong convictions, full of adamantly stated opinions about the subjects addressed by the American authors and often times the authors themselves. This relationship shared by the students centered in intelligent debate is exemplified in the many posts they compose. The posts tend to be full of strong language, and although it is only required that students respond one time to another students post, there are often threads that contain several back and forth communications between students engaged in active persuasion and defensive justification. The social setting established in this community invites the students to openly discuss their personal experiences and opinions, and as they draw on these, their writings are shaped into biting commentaries. As there are no real restrictions set on their posts, some students write very minimally with only a couple sentences, while other students pour out a full page or two. It is not often that one takes the time to distinguish between the different discourse communities they are involved in. When forced to think about it, people may realize that there are many discourse communities that they belong to. Not only can these groups be fun, but whether in a purely social setting or a more formal one, being an active participating member in a discourse community can help a person expand their horizons.