People with common interests in certain areas tend to come together as a whole to share

their desire for particular interests. What we may not realize when sharing common interests with
one another is that a discourse community is developed. Each discourse community is different
than one another but yet similar in its own way. Specialized vocabulary, topic of interest,
purpose, conventions, and an audience is what a discourse community is composed of. I, myself,
am part of discourse communities which are very special to me; family, friends, Pandora at Cielo
Vista, and UTEP.
Throughout my eighteen years of life, I have realized that my family discourse
community has been, and will always be, the most significant to me. To be a part of this
discourse community you must be born into the family, adopted, married in, or even very close
friends whom may consider it their second family. The main objective of my family is to love
one another unconditionally, always be there for each other, and pass on the family orientation to
the younger generations. English is the primary language in my family but at times Spanish is
also spoken. Sometimes, we even speak Spanglish to each other. Spanglish to us is a hybrid
language of improper Spanish sentences, where Span- comes from, with a mixture of English
words, where -glish comes from. Some examples of our Spanglish would be Vamos a las
movies! (Lets to go to the movies!) or Puedo a ir a el concert with my friends Friday? (Can I
go to the concert with my friends Friday?). We also use Spanish slang, informal words, in
which have particular meanings to us. An example of our Spanish slang would be trucha (be
careful and alert) which would typically be used when leaving the house or going somewhere.
Another example would be que onda (whats up) which is a way to great each other. To
communicate to one another, we normally have verbal conversations or we may use Facebook
and some may even text. We have a few traditions in which is expected to uphold and pass down.

One tradition is when saying goodbye we give each other a bendicion which is a brief blessing.
We do this by having our hand straight and in a vertical position then touching their head, middle
chest, left chest, and right chest. While doing these movements we say father, son, the holy
spirit, amen. As being a part of my family discourse community, my goal is to always show my
love and gratefulness to one another and to make my family proud by passing on what they have
brought upon us to my children and so on.
Friends is an understatement of the discourse community I have with my own. There is a
handful of girls, whom are all my best friends, which have literally been there with me through it
all since middle school. There are no regulations in who can or cannot join our group, anyone
can. Although, it may be difficult at first to be as comfortable as we are with each other
considering that we have all been best friends for years. In this group my job is to not only be a
good friend but more like a sister to them. We have made many inside jokes with each other
which are jokes that only we know of from past experiences with each other. For example, one
can simply tell me hey, member the haircut?! and Ill know right away theyre referring to
when I gave myself my own haircut, which was a disaster. We were always referred to other
people as The Girls, therefore, we made our own phrases out of it. Some examples of our
phrases would be Grl please! (which we would just abbreviate Girl to Grl) or we would
say FF in high school (which we would know meant fancy Friday). The types of genres that
we use to communicate besides verbal communication include Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, and
of course, texting each other. We all share the same interests but yet are so different in our own
way. My goal is to never let my friendship with each one of them drift apart no matter what may
come our way in the future.

Pandoras discourse community is quite large considering it is a worldwide company,

therefore, I am narrowing my discourse community down to the Pandora at Cielo Vista Mall. To
be a part of this discourse community you must go in to the store and ask for an application.
Once completed the application and turned in, you will then wait for a call for an interview. If the
interview goes well and you get the job, you are now a part of the discourse community. There
are 3 different positions in this group; managers, supervisors, and sales associates. It is the
managers job to manage the store, sales, and of course the employees. Since the manager may
not always be on the floor, due to being in the back managing sales, the supervisor on the shift
will manage the floor and assist with any help needed. The sales associates main job is to know
the products that are being sold and to help the customer find exactly what they are looking for.
We have our own terminology that only one who works with us would understand. For example,
Jenny is on the floor, doesnt literally mean that I am on the floor. It means that I am in the
front assisting customers or organizing the jewelry. Another example is when someone is going
to Starbucks on break and is offering if we would like anything all you have to say is Starbs
anyone? and we will understand what you just asked us. The genres used to communicate in this
group is verbally whether it be in person or through the phone. We also have our own Instagram
where those who follow us can see the pictures of items that we post. This community has
particular rules, such as, no phones on the floor, follow dress code, and respect all customers. As
soon as a customer walks in it is critical that we greet them within 10 seconds of walking in. As a
part of this discourse community, it is my goal to be a good representation to Pandora and to do
the best of my ability to find and help with the customer is looking for so that they always leave
the store with a smile on their face.

The University of Texas at El Paso, otherwise known as UTEP, is another discourse

community that I take part in. Those who are a part of this discourse community are striving to
earn a further education for their future careers. To be a part of this community you must have a
high school diploma and a completed application sent in. If accepted, you will then need to pay
your tuition cost. In this community, there is a lot of communicating going on whether it be with
a classmate or one of your professors. Therefore, the way you communicate will depend on who
it is that youre communicating with. For example, if you needed to ask one of your classmates
what is for homework you can simply send them a text message saying hey dude wut did we
have 4 homework? But, if it was a professor you were trying to ask you would send them an Email from your UTEP account saying Good evening professor, I was not able to attend class
today due to me being ill, therefore, I was wondering if youd be able to tell me what was
assigned for homework. Thank you. The genres we use to communicate include E-mail,
Blackboard, text message and possibly even web cam. We have our own abbreviations and
terminology of our own such as saying UGLC is abbreviated for the Undergraduate Learning
Center. We are also taught to put down our index finger, middle finger, and ring finger leaving
your pinky and thumb up to symbolize a pick and say Picks Up! to show school spirit. My
goal is to pass all of my classes and do well in them to get accepted into the nursing program to
graduate with my degree in nursing.
These are only some of the many discourse communities I take part in but which I feel
that are the most important ones. They have impacted me greatly making me who I am today. We
may not think that we take part in any discourse communities but we all share many common
interests, take part in particular events, etc. making us all part of discourse communities.