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RWS 1301 Discourse Community Map

Family
To Join: Must be born, married or
adopted into the family
Relationships: Mother, Father,
Twin brother
Language: Mostly informal,
casual but respectful, English is
spoken
Topics: Everyday life (School,
friends, etc)

Raves/ Concerts
To Join: Introduce yourself to the
music, locate events and times, buy
ticket(s)
Relationships: Friends and extremely
nice (and occasionally rude) stranger
Language: very informal, each artist
of DJ has their own saying or logo,
music and dance are a language as
well
Topics: Music, outfits, kandi

JAnais
Holland
School
To Join: Must have high school
diploma or GED, take a placement
exam, apply, and enroll
Relationships: Professors, TAs/AIs,
friends, other students
Language: Formal when it comes to
communicating with professors or
TAs and informal when otherwise
Topics: Vary on the classes being
taken

Friends
To Join: Meet people and earn
friendship by spending time and
sharing common interests
Relationships: Best Friends,
acquaintances
Language: Informal and Casual
Topics: Everyday life, gossip

RWS 1301 Discourse Community Response

JAnais Holland
RWS 1301
Discourse Community Response
In order to communicate with one another inside of a community, relationships, language,
how you become a part of the community, and different topics all play a part in exactly how you
communicate. For every community, there will be a different type of communication that is
utilized and there will be different relationships within that group as well. Relationships in a
community can range anywhere from your parents and siblings, to your boss, to your teachers,
and even to random strangers on the street or in the store. Adaptation can play a major role in
how well someone will be able to blend into a certain community and how easily they can form
new relationships within that community. With that comes the language, how you speak to
someone else and how they communicate back to you, whether that is formal or informal and
how that differs from other relationships that you hold elsewhere makes up yet another part of
the discourse. The topics that come along with language all differ depending on the type of group
you are currently addressing. All of these relations, and more, come together to make up what is
known as a discourse community and below is my lifes version of a few discourse communities.
As far as my family discourse community goes, the relationships within that contain my
mother, Michelle Holland, my father, Michael Holland, and my twin brother, Jarid Holland. But,
speaking for the general population, most people really do not have a choice when it comes to
the family portion of a community. They are either born, adopted, or married into a family. The
relationships within those differ as well as the language. For example, I talk to my parents in an
informal formal way. If I were to ask for permission to go somewhere, I would ask something

RWS 1301 Discourse Community Response

along the lines of Hey mom and dad, can I go over to Paolas house? To me, that would count
as informally formal because I am asking in person rather than text (which I often do) but I am
not using words such as mother and father or may when I am asking. Another example
would come from when I am speaking with my brother. If my parents were to have ordered take
out and I did not want my leftovers my brother would ask for my remains in a way such as Hey
JAnais you sure I can eat your Chinese? to which I would only respond with a simple Yeah
and move on. Leading off of my parental conversation example, the topics that are usually
discussed between them and myself pertain to either school, my friends, food related topics, and
how everyones day went. A family discourse community is not one that any one person really
has full control over, but with that being said, how you choose to communicate and interact with
them is what makes family, family.
The friend discourse community may differ quite a bit from the family discourse
community. But, it may also be quite similar if you treat your friends as family. That would be
different for every friend you have, but the ones that happen to be closer to you, such as your
best friends, may already feel as though they are already a part of your family. Unlike the family
portion of a community, everyone has a say in who they befriend. Becoming friends with
someone, especially best friends, would require sharing common interests and communicating
quite often. Of course, with someone like a best friend, the language would be more informal
than that of which you would use with your parents, but the tone would still be respectful and
light. Lets say that my best friend and I are catching up after not having talked for a week or so
and she is texting me about a new boy that she likes and a conversation that they have had.
Depending on what she tells me, I would be inclined to reply with an OMG. Or, if we were
having a conversation about, say a rave we were about to go to and we were asking what the

RWS 1301 Discourse Community Response

other was going to wear, we would probably reply with pictures and a few question marks like
this, ???, in order to ask if what we were wearing was okay for the night. That kind of
informality is really only shown when it comes to the friend discourse community. With that, the
topics in this community have a wide range from school and parents to parties and boys to jobs
and everyday life occasions. The friend discourse community can vary from the family in a few
respects but for the most part, I would say the friend discourse community, at least mine, would
be similar to the family discourse community.
Another discourse community that people have a choice in is school. When it comes to
joining college, placement exams such as the SAT, ACT or TSI are needed, applicants must have
a high school diploma or a GED, they must then apply to the school and once they are accepted,
they must enroll. The relationships within that community contain the professors, teaching
assistants (TAs), other students, and actual friends. The languages between the professors and
friends have a dramatic difference. When speaking to or writing to a professor and/or a TA, the
tone would absolutely remain formal. Yet, when speaking with your friends, the tone would more
than likely be informal. One example would be, if I were to be emailing one of my professors
about a question I had about an assignment I would structure the email with a greeting, tab down
to the body with a properly phrased question and punctuation, and then tab down to the closing
signature. This community includes different uses of language as well as different topics
depending on the classes that are being taken. The school discourse community is one that seems
to be more diverse in the type of interactions you have and that can allow someone to practice
different ways of communicating to different groups all in one place.
Last, but certainly not least, we have raves and/ or concerts as a community. Joining a
community such as a music community really does not hold any requirements. The only thing

RWS 1301 Discourse Community Response

that needs to be done is listening to the genre of music. The relationships at a rave or concert
remain very casual and informal. Besides attending with friends, there are lots of friendly
strangers that are willing to meet new people at every event. Something that is a bit different
with the language in this community is the fact that speaking is not the only form of
communication. Whether at a rave or at a concert, the music is a language all in itself. Along
with the language of music comes the language of dancing. Any of the topics discussed in this
community would include the music, the lyrics of the music, outfits, general conversations, and
kandi (a type of jewelry made from beads and string). This community is quite a diverse one and
it brings people from all over into one area and allows them to communicate in more ways than
one.
Overall, a discourse community is a community where you are able to communicate to
the people around you in various ways, using various languages, and discussing various topics.
Molding to an environment makes a community all the more unique and being able to
communicate to the other people around you makes the experience of a community that much
more rich.

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