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Torey Stutts
Grant
UWRT 1101
11/17/14

Discourse Community of Chemistry

Discourse communities have always existed and are everywhere that we go
whether we realize it or not. A discourse community is defined as a group of people who
share a set of common interest and follow John Swales six characteristics of a
discourse community. After learning more about discourse communities I have come to
realize that I have been a part of multiple communities within the last few years. The
community I will talk about for the remainder of this paper is about pre-nursing,
specifically the Chemistry 1203 course. This ethnography should explain to you how my
chemistry class is a discourse community within my nursing community and will show
you evidence of this.
My major in college is nursing and I am currently classified as pre-nursing
because it is required to apply to the upper division program. All pre-nursing students
must complete a pre-requisite course load before applying. The first level of chemistry
that we all take is chemistry 1203 with the accompanying 1203 lab. Most students would
agree that chemistry is one of the harder courses that we take. This class is without a
doubt full of each and every one of Swales characteristics.
Having a common set of goals is one of Swales characteristics and the common
goal of the 1203 chemistry class is to pass the course with a grade of B or higher. This
common goal has really been set by the nursing department because if you make a C in

a pre-requisite class then you only have one chance to make that C into a B or A. After
that, you are just dismissed from being allowed to continue with the nursing major.
During an interview with chemistry classmate, Clair Shaw, she stated I just want to
pass the class and by pass I mean get a B because thats really what passing means
for pre-nursing students. I really hope this class gets easier [Claire Shaw]. Along with
Claire there are several others students who stress out over passing chemistry.
I learned from observations of the class that there are several ways of
intercommunication that happen such as talking face-to-face in class, texting each
other, emailing, and there is even a supplemental instruction group with tips on Moodle.
These methods are used to carry out the common goal of passing the class. I had
several artifacts that I have collected since the start of the class. Most of them I gained
from emails from our professor and others were through text messages from members
within the community. I have pictures of handwritten notes from texts and word
documents to study obtained from email. The supplemental instruction group on Moodle
is used to help lesson the confusion about material taught in previous classes as well as
provide other study tips and helpful guides. Different genres of communication include
email, texts, Twitter, and Facebook. These genres are used to communicate between
members as well as a way to share different information.
I am only a newbie when it comes to this chemistry community but I am on my
way to becoming a veteran. Veterans know several specific vocabulary words such as
mole, and not the mole that runs around gardens. Mole is a unit used in measurements
in chemistry. During observations and in artifacts that I collected I learned several new
vocabulary such as osmolarity, diffusion, and electrons. Veterans not only know the

chemistry vocabulary but they also sometimes have conflicts with other members within
the community. In Ann M. Johns article about communities of practice she speaks
about how there are conflicts within community as a result of diversity. That is exactly
what we have in the chemistry class. Most of the time when there is a problem it is
between veterans and newbies that have a disagreement because of new people
talking during the lecture and being disruptive. I encountered this almost every day of
my observations within this class. Newbies would be considered as the freshmen in the
class and for veterans, these can sometimes be freshmen but they are mostly
sophomores who are behind.
Whether someone in the community is a newbie or a veteran we all have a sense
of belonging, which was also one of Ann M. Johns characteristics. In this community
there is a sense of belonging when things are going right. Members are making decent
grades, understanding new lecture material, and getting along with others in the
community. For newbies or newcomers to learn this, it just takes a few weeks to get the
hang of the class and learn the different vocabulary and all of Swales characteristics.
Everyone who joins the communities goes through a phase of mushfaking where they
fake it until they make it and begin to flourish in the community. I personally went
through this phase when I would hang out with upperclassmen in class. Since I had no
prior knowledge about chemistry I would try to use vocabulary in the wrong context or
try to act happy when I got a low test grade. Claire encountered this throughout the first
few weeks of classes. She stated, I have no idea what is going on and I have no idea
what to do. I am beyond stressed and Im just gunna go with it [Claire Shaw].

This chemistry class has a huge level of diversity within it and it shows every way
of why it is a discourse community. This community represents the newbies of the
bigger discourse community which is nursing. Chemistry is just another discourse
community that lies within the nursing community. The 1203 chemistry class produces
better and smarter pre-nursing students and applicants for upper division. When goals
of high test grades and passing exams grades are met, better students are created and
the bigger community of nursing gets better as well. Chemistry is a wonderful discourse
community within nursing and these two will always be communities within each other.

Works Cited
Jones, Daniel. Various Items. Message to 1203 class. 11 November. 2014. EMail.
Souders, Emily. 308J Writing Blog. : Discourse Communities and
Communication of Practice BlogSpot, 31 Oct. 2011. Web. 15 Nov. 2014.
November 2014. Course Lecture.
Shaw, Claire. Personal Interview. 10 November 2014.
Shaw, Claire. Here are pictures of my notes from last week. 8 Nov. 2014, 5:03
p.m. Text.