Kikerpill 1 Jonny Kikerpill Mr.

Peterson ENGL 1101 27 October 2013 My Hall: A Discourse Community Lynch hall is what I recorded as a discourse community I am a part of. I chose to observe it because I can get a lot of data and it is something I can relate to. We have certain lexis, genres, and goals like any other discourse community, but my hall relates more to my college experience and myself. Our overall goals, (or what we want to accomplish) are friendship, fun, and studying. I am grouped with people in my major because I am in a learning community. This makes it easier to study because we take most of the same classes. We usually meet in the study rooms down the hall. They have become our main study spot for tests and for the making of huge projects. What sets the study room apart from our actual rooms is that we do not have the distraction of other people or the T.V. When we are in the study room, it is a whole different setting and genre. Most of our lexis changes in different settings. We are aware of each others goals in the future whether it be getting a good job or making a lot of money. This is a motivation within our dorm that drives us to study and overall succeed. Our dorm is also a place where we can get away from school. We can have fun outside of our dorm but we are usually only out to go to class or go eat. Most of our friends are in our hall so we do not need to go to separate buildings to accomplish our goals. Everything changes when we set foot in Lynch hall. Our lexis, goals, and genres

Kikerpill 2 are all different than if we were in class. When I need a break from class or need to hangout with my friends I will walk around the hall. There are a lot of my friends on my floor and I use their rooms as a safe haven. My roomates always have their hometown friends come over and meet everyone. Sometimes after hard days of work we relax in each others dorm. We do this by playing games, watching T.V. and listening to music. Studying is important but we all realize there is time for that and time to unwind and collect our thoughts. Having fun is a goal that helps us reach another goal: friendship. Our hall is where friendship is defined because all our friends are here. Even people from other dorms have become our friend by coming to our hall. It is a comfortable setting to meet new people. We are always in our hall hanging out and we look at it as a type of bonding. Sometimes we will have around twenty friends in our dorm and get disturbance calls from other dorms. We also like to hide from the cops if we are ever messing around, even if we have nothing to hide. Lynch hall is our place to accomplish our goals. It is a place that brings us all together. Genres are a way of communication. There are many different ways but in our hall it is mostly talking, texting, calling, or writing on each others doors. Talking is the obvious genre because we are always together. We will also use phones for communicating with each other. When we are in separate rooms or by ourselves we usually call each other. Texting is used to help accomplish the goal of studying. If we need help on homework we will text each other. We tend to fit the stereotype in our generation by always using our phones. We also play games on our phone that bring us together. We communicate on them and use certain lexis when playing such as Fun Run. If by text or call, phones are usually the way of communication in this discourse

Kikerpill 3 community. Most of the people on our floor have whiteboards. They are there for anyone to write on and leave notes. If someone is gone we will usually write a joke for the person to read when they get back. There are expectations between my friends and I that we have to abide by. Going to the gym, going to eat, or going to flag football practice are examples of expectations. These have an impact on the way we communicate with each other. We have an assumptive genre with these expectations because we talk to each other assuming we will show up to practice or whatever the case may be. We dont always go due to class conflictions or sleep but we let each other know. If the expectations are not met we dont get offended but understand and communicate in a different genre. The main way we communicate with each other is in a joking manner. It may sound offensive or immature but we will say your mom jokes and other things expected by teenage boys. Some things will change our genre. If there is tension in the room or hall we might not joke anymore but become very serious. For us guys, it is hard to stay mad, so we usually only switch to that serious mode when we are really mad. Some of the things we say are only known by us because we have a specific lexis. We used words or phrases such as: Strike gang, copy, or seat back. These are the terms we say a lot around or dorm. Copy is used as a game on twitter. If someone says it to a funny comment, that person has to put it on twitter. Strike gang started when our dorm went bowling but we use it now as a reference to a dis or something amazing happened. We have a flag football team and that added expanded our vocabulary with plays and calls. We say Miller when it is a blitz and Newton when we play man. We will also say things like 3-4, Ace Double and Canadian. Most of the time we will

Kikerpill 4 talk about football and sports. Seat back is used when getting up from your seat. If you say it, no one can steal your seat. Everyone has a love-hate relationship with one of our friends in the hall. He can either be really cool or get on all our nerves. Sometimes we will say things that only refer to him and he even understands it. If you hear someone yell something random in the dorm it is usually him. His lexis has become prevalent between everyone in the hall. These are universal terms that set rules within our discourse community and overall set us apart as a community.