Campone 1 Rosemarie Campone Mrs.

Fuentes ENGL 1101 3 December 2013 Wattpad Community People who share a common language and methods of communication, and use them to complete a common goal are considered to be a discourse community, as defined by Warlde and Downs (723). If the community shares the same language and communicates with one another, but does not work towards the same goal, the community is considered to be a community of practice (Wardle and Downs 721). Wattpad is a website where people upload stories for others to read and find publishers to print their works (Wattpad). The Wattpad is more of a community of practice, but it can become a discourse community if one looks at a specific area in the community. Writers of the werewolf genre would be a discourse community. The werewolf community focuses on stories that have werewolves in them. This creates a specific language within this community. People who write in the werewolf genre are apart of a discourse community; they share the lexis, methods of communication, and levels of people with authority. The most important characteristic of a discourse community is the specific language and vocabulary that it uses. Writers have their own language that they use, mostly for readers to easily understand what a story is about, this makes it easier for the reader to choose the stories that they want to read. When a writers had long titles, writers usually will use acronyms, by using the first letter in each word of the title, to tell readers that they have updated that particular story (KanyeInterruptedMe). In the title writers usually put the status of the story, like hiatus or hold, these two terms let readers know that there will not be uploads for this story for some time

Campone 2 (On hold-clover3sam). Also in the title is what type of relationship that the story involves. An example of this is bxb, this shows that the story will involve a homosexual male couple (Phoenix (Libra4Life20102)). Holds, bxb, and acronyms are used by all writers, but werewolf writers use their own universal language, which allows readers to better understand each different story. Werewolves are like wolfs so the stories usually involve wolf terms, including words like Luna (the moon goddess or queen of a pack), pack (group of werewolf), and lycan (another term for werewolf). Another important element is pack ranking, who is the most powerful to the weakest in the pack, it goes from alpha, beta, to omega (Maria). The language of writers in the werewolf genre allows for them to write the story without having to explain it each time it shows up in a story. By using the same general standards of language for a given community, like the writer or the werewolf community's, it allows readers to better understand what the story is about and allows the writer to not waste time in explaining each term every time, because of the universal language that everyone in the community understands. Writer's stories not only have the same language but also share the same themes, especially in the werewolf community. One of most used themes is rejection, mostly by males, because a female is not attractive, is geeky, or weak. Rejection is usually followed by the girl running away, running away is another major theme that writers use, and coming back stronger to make the male lead regret his decision. Another common theme is when a human is the soul-mate to a werewolf and when they found out about werewolves they easily accept the werewolf lifestyle. Due to the fact that werewolves are animals and have the same animal instinct, male domination and female submission is very prominent in werewolf stories (EnviousMusai). These themes are very important to the discourse community because they show which writers are mushfaking. Mushfaking is when a person has just entered the

Campone 3 community and has gained some knowledge of the language, or themes, and is trying to pass themselves off as a part of the community (Wardle and Downs 728). Readers have noticed that writers, who use the same themes as other stories, are not skilled with writing their own original ideas and story plots. Not only do clichs tell if a writer is mushfaking, but also incorrect grammar, spelling, and most importantly capitalization (EnviousMusai). Wattpad is all about originality, so having stories that have the same theme is not being original, this is against the standards of the community (Terms of Service). When writers use the same themes, like rejection and human soul-mates, or do not follow the grammar rules it lets the reader know that the writer is mushfaking. Another key element to understanding discourse communities is to understand the people who have authority in the community. People, who are considered to have authority in the community, have extensive knowledge about the language, ways of communication, and are well respected in the community (Wardle and Downs 720). Most new users to the website, especially people who have never been on a reading website, do not notice the different language that writers use to let the reader know about a story (Rose). It is people who have been on the site for some time and who use the language know more about the specific language of the writer. One experienced writers noticed that writers use acronyms not only for titles but also for shorting point of view to POV (Unknowndemons). Unlike other communities, Wattpad has many different categories for people to be an authority in. Some of these categories are book covers, trailers, readers, writers, and editors (Wattpad Clubs). Wattpad has certain factors that let others know if a person is an authority in that community. This includes how many comments/messages, votes, or follows that they have. If someone is to be an expert at reading, this user would have an extensive library of books, followers, and comments (MatureContent).

Campone 4 While a writer with authority would have a lot of comments, reads, votes on their stories, many followers, and have Wattpad recognition (Violet). Wattpad recognition could be that their story

is ranked in the top ten in their genre or the story is in the Watty Awards, a contest for writers to enter complete stories in a given genre (Rewarding the best in Digital Storytelling). The biggest factor that determines authority is being social; blogging, commenting, and updating statuses. These determine how involved a user is in the community and the user will gain respect and followers in the community (Wattpad). The Wattpad has many categories for people to be an authority in, but authority is determined by how social the user is votes, comments, and recognition given to a particular user. Mentioned in the last section were some of the ways that users in the Wattpad community communicate with one another. The ways of communication can be divided into two categories, mechanism of communication and genres. Mechanisms of communication purpose are to provide information and feedback to accomplish a goal (Wardle and Downs 472). There are two types of interviews that are popular on Wattpad, author and character interviews. Author interviews provide information about the author, like motivation and story ideas, to followers to promote their work (MatureContent). Character interviews give readers more information about the thoughts of the characters outside of the story (Nicole (conelyswifey)). Both of these allow a writer to promote his or her stories and gain more readers, thereby accomplishing a goal of becoming more popular. Readers on the other hand use mechanisms of communication to provide feedback to the writers about his or her stories. Readers can motivate a writer to write his or her stories quicker, to keep writing, or make suggestion about how to improve the story (MatureContent). While genre is the development of specialized text that is recognized by the community, it is also tries to test the new members of the group by using the common language

Campone 5 of the community (Wardle and Downs 472). The most important genre is the vote button on all stories on the site, this allows readers to let the writer know that the story was good without wasting time to type a comment (Wattpad). New members are going to try test their newly acquired language in the chat rooms and the blogs. The Cafe club is very popular for new users to get to know others and test some ideas and language of the community (Wattpad Club). The mechanisms and genres of communication on Wattpad are very unique to the site and helps writers and readers achieve their goals with quick methods. There are a lot of different writing websites on the internet, but due to the ways of communication and the general formatting, Wattpad attracts writers and readers to the website. If a user follows a particular person, they will receive emails when stories are updated or when they send a message to the readers. This allows users to read updated stories without constantly tracking them (Jaythan posted a story). In an interview with an experienced user on Wattpad and with blogs, they said I like the idea of having a social media where it's reading and writing stories and also interacting with others with the same interests. The social aspect of Wattpad is deemed to be very important to many of the users on Wattpad (Unknowndemons). On the site it is easy to find stories that readers are interested in with tags, these are one-word descriptions about what is in the story, because they show other stories that share the same tag, or topic (Marie). Wattpad takes advantage of users searches and stories that the user usually reads and creates list of suggested readings from the readers preferences (Wattpad). Wattpad also makes suggestions for people to follow based on how many followers the two users have in common (Wattpad). By doing these two things they connect users to more people, and allow for continued communication between people in the community. The success of Wattpad can be contributed to the mechanisms of communication between users and the ease of find stories and people with

Campone 6 similar interest. Writers of Wattpad, especially in the werewolf genre, have their own special language, people of authority, and mechanisms of communication that are unique to the Wattpad community. Through research of this community, with interviews of users and searching through the website, one discovers a more in depth understanding of the website and the users. The community is more than just posting stories and reading. Wattpad is more than a website for people to write and read stories; it is a way of connecting with people of similar interest. It forms bounds with people who would otherwise never have met or gotten along with each other. The users of Wattpad take pride in the fact that they have their own community to share ideas with and gain friends with similar interests.

Campone 7 Works Cited EnviousMusai. Clichs in the Werewolf genre. Who can name the most? Wattpad. WP Technology Inc, 2013. Web. 9 Nov. 2013. Marie, Alyssia. Marked. Wattpad. WP Technology Inc, 2013. Web. 9 Nov. 2013. MatureConent. Wattpad. WP Technology Inc., 2013. Web. 9 Nov. 2013. Nicole (conelyswifey). Wattpad. WP Technology Inc, 2013. Web. 9 Nov. 2013. On Hold-clover3sam. Wattpad. WP Technology Inc, 2013. Web. 9 Nov. 2013. Phoenix (Libra4Life20102). Wattpad. WP Technology Inc, 2013. Web. 9 Nov. 2013. Rewarding the best in Digital Storytelling. Wattpad. WP Technology Inc., 2013. Web. 9 Nov. 2013. Rose (Artistic_Dreamer_). Personal interview. 1 Nov. 2013. Terms of Service. Wattpad. WP Technology Inc, 2013. Web. 9 Nov. 2013. Unknowndemons. Personal interview. 1 Nov. 2013. Violet (balletlove). Unique, Different, Found. Wattpad. WP Technology Inc., 2013. Web. 9 Nov. 2013. Wardle, Elizabeth, and Downs, Doug. Writing About Writing. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011. Print. Wattpad. WP Technology Inc., 2013. Web. 9 Nov. 2013. Wattpad Clubs. Wattpad. WP Technology Inc., 2013. Web. 9 Nov. 2013. Wattpad Team. Jaythan posted a story. Message to all follows. 4Nov. 2013. Email. Wattpad Team. KanyeInterruptedMe Sent a message to all followers. Message to all follows. 4 Nov. 2013. Email.