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| Discourse Community Map |
Megan Bracken
English 1311- Fall 2010
Discourse Communities
Joseph Sommerville once said “We take communication for granted because we do it so frequently, but it’s actually a complex process”. I couldn’t agree with this more especially because of the society we live in today. New technologies are constantly arising and thus means of communicating are also expanding. It can be hard to keep up with technology and to use it effectively to communicate. For example parents tend to have a harder time communicating through text than teens. However complex communication is it will always be an important skill in life. Without communication it would be difficult to do many things. I myself use communication in most areas of my life. Writing is an essential part of communicating, especially the communities I participate in.
The first discourse community I partake in is the working community. Working is not a major part of my life but it is indeed important due to the fact that it teaches me many valuable skills like communicating and organizing information. I am currently a part time receptionist at Jenny Craig. This job requires me to do a number of administrative tasks such as scheduling appointments, filing, processing payment transactions, and promoting the business itself. In order to maintain my position I must follow several regulations which can be thought of as the conventions of my job. I always need to be professional when dealing with clients. This means I must speak in a formal, respectful tone and be patient with the client no matter what. Also I need to stay organized in order to ensure mistakes are not made when scheduling appointments or accepting payments. Another aspect of my job is communication. There are several genres I use to communicate with clients and coworkers including email, texts, memos, phone messages, and appointment calendars. My goals in this discourse community are to be efficient at my work and learn valuable communication skills that I can use throughout by life.
Along with my part time job I also have a full time job as a student. This discourse community is important because it gives me the opportunity to get the education I need in order to pursue my career. I learn through oral, visual, and written forms of communication. Oral communications occur when a teacher is giving a lecture and when I am giving presentations in front of my peers or participating in discussions. I learn visually when I am doing things such as reading textbooks or viewing visual examples. I can communicate what I learn through writing. There are many genres of writing in school such as blackboard, tests, essays, emails, and written homework assignments. Since I am a freshman at UTEP blackboard is a new concept for me. I am able to do a variety of things on blackboard. One of my favorite things about blackboard is the fact that I can communicate through written discussions online with my classmates. This is a great tool because it allows me to socialize outside of class. In order to be a good college student I have to be responsible. I believe that the conventions of being a student include turning in work on time, attending class, and paying attention to the teacher.
The majority of my time is taken up by work and school but in my free time I take pleasure in playing my viola. I consider this my personal discourse community because I mainly play for my own enjoyment. Due to the fact that I took a class to learn the viola I know some things about music. For example I know that common time means four beats per measure. I also know that to play andante means to play moderately slowly, crescendo means to slowly increase in loudness and dolce means to play softly or sweetly. All of these words are examples of musical jargon. In order to play music you often need to learn this specialized language. There are different genres to music. When I say genres I am not talking about classification such as rock, pop, or country. I am talking about the communication genres including sheet music, songs, concerts, and radio. Something important to consider when playing music is the audience you’re playing for. For example if I am playing for my family or friends I can play freely without worrying about messing up. However if I am playing for a concert I need to stay professional so I don’t ruin the songs I am playing with the orchestra.
When I had more free time I use to volunteer at my church once a week as an assistant Sunday school teacher. This is the civic community that I use to be a part of. I very much enjoyed participating in this community because it allowed me to interact with children. In order to communicate with the children and other teacher I used genres such as lesson plans, worksheets, the bible, and simple stories the children could understand. The purpose of me being a teacher was to help children who wished to strengthen their beliefs by teaching them about God and the bible. I was able to teach them by telling them stories that were broken down so they could better understand them. The reason why we had to break down the stories was because a child that was in kindergarten would not understand what I meant when I said “One of the Ten Commandments is to obey your mother and father”. I would have to explain that commandments are rules you need to follow and that obey means to listen to your mom or dad when they tell you to pick up your toys or do something else. This is an example of why it is important to consider the audience you are talking to. In a way I was using special language in this community because I had to use simple words that the children could understand, words that I would not use in conversations with older people. Writing also plays a part in this community because the children would have to fill out worksheets in order to show their understanding of the lesson.
The discourse communities that I am a member of define me. I based my discourse community map off of this fact. My discourse communities are actually similar in some ways. My communities require me to have good communication skills and although technology may change over time my need of communication skills will not diminish. Writing is an essential means of communicating in all of my discourse communities. I use written genres such as emails and notes in all of my communities.
