Hawthorne1

Monica Hawthorne Megan Keaton Eng. 111-08 9 July 2013 Discourse Community Comparison Mary is a member of several discourse communities. Her favorite two are Facebook and English 111. Both communities have lots of similarities in their writing style, however, there are many differences in the writing amongst these communities. Although both are effective, Facebook indulge on improper writing while English 111 feast off the proper way of writing. Facebook is an internet social media that allows people throughout the world to connect, whether its for personal or business reasons. Many people use Facebook to connect to family members, network, for entertainment ( such as playing all the games it offers), and to keep up with the happenings in the world. Anyone can join this community as long as they have an email address and is at least 13 years old. A password is also needed to login to Facebook. Once this is done, a personal page is assigned. This page is for personal thoughts, inspirational views, pictures, videos, birthdays, employment and whatever the member is willing to share. This is called posting, or writing. Postings can catch the eye of many people in the Facebook community; especially if it is considered a great post like the ones that make people laugh or smile. There is no specific way to write a post. In fact, most people use abbreviations ( such as lol for laugh out loud or rotfl for rolling on the floor laughing), and lots of slang. Punctuation is used but not required. Most members write their opinions or whatever is on their mind. Sometimes members write angry post and sometimes they write sad post. Good and bad comments are written about the post by other members. A member can limit their audience by

Hawthorne2

adjusting their privacy settings to suit their needs, thus limiting who can write or post on their page. Many people are members of the Facebook community. It has been reported that over a billon people use Facebook. Other than the United States, there are approximately 47 other countries in the Facebook community. The members are from different cultures and co-cultures. Men, women, and teens are all participants. Many are students and others have professions that range from teaching to exotic dancing. News, magazines, talk and radio shows, frequent Facebook. Churches, schools, support groups, fitness clubs, auto clubs, department stores, and restaurants also have a membership in the Facebook community. These members usually post some form of advertisement to get more business or to inform other members of community affairs. Mary is also a member of the English 111 community. Other than Mary and her teacher, this community consists of students both male and female of different ethnicities and a variety of ages. Most of them are from the United States but the others are from different countries. In this community, Mary has to write her papers according to whatever her teacher instructs her to write. She has to use proper academic writing in all her papers. A writing process is appropriate and needed in order to form her paper. Although her papers may contain her opinions and thoughts like in the Facebook community, they are more organized through the writing process. In the English 111 community, groups are formed in class to allow the students to workshop and discuss the papers they have written. Each member interacts with each other to edit other member papers so that a revised paper can be properly written. A thesis is more likely to be used in the English 111 community than in the Facebook community. Writing exercises and reading material are used to help the members write a good paper. The students take notes in class as well and keep a writing journal called a daybook. In the daybook, each member write an

Hawthorne3

entry based off an assigned topic by the teacher. At other times, the members are instructed by the teacher to write posts on their blogs. An example of this is a reflection of the week post from each member daybook. This is done weekly and gives the student a chance to write about their favorite daybook entry. Being a member of both the Facebook community and the English 111 community has taught Mary several things about writing. The most important thing she has learned is to analyze her audience. This way, her writing will be effective and appreciated. Whether it is recreational or academic, the audience is the inspiration for any form of writing.