Guzman 2

Jesus Guzman

Lizbett Tinoco

English 50

June 17, 2017

Discourse Communities
In my discourse community map, I set up my main discourse community categories to

teachers, classmates, friends, and coworkers. The first one, teachers, is a discourse community

where for the goal of the discourse community to be achieved you speak and write in a way that

is more formal and requires more intellect. For classmates the goals is almost as the teachers but

with a little more slack in a way that with classmates you do not feel the pressure you do with the

teacher because they are not the ones who grade you based on your talking and writing skills.

Coworkers are the midline between classmates and friends, because you dont have to speak the

way yuou would with a friend but you still share a common goal of getting something done in a

certain ampount of time. Friends are at the bottom of the intellectual talking and writing pyramid

for me. With friends the only goals I have is to be able to have fun, to joke around with and to

grow as a person not in an academic way, but as a person through morals. These four discourse

communities all shape the way I write in various ways.

My first discourse community is teachers, which by putting a sort of pressure on my

writing allow me to expand my writing techniques in a more educated approach. The members in

the audience of this discourse community are usually my teachers, the students who sit in my

group in class and I. The purpose for writing in this discourse community is to learn new things

in the writing subject, and/or to know how to write about other topics or issues. The genres and
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media used in this discourse community are mostly in person, face to face communication, or

emails that are on the phone or computer. The topics in this discourse community can range from

absolutely anything maybe about a book, a lab report, or even about a picture. There arent really

any rules to this discourse community except that pressure I talked about earlier that teachers

give you that make you write in a certain manner. Special language that is used while talking to

teachers is words or phrases you maybe would not use around your friends. Long words that

might be used in a science class with a science teacher that you wouldnt use with your friends is

deoxy ribo nucleic acid or maybe igneous rocks etc. The purpose of the usage of words like

this is because the goal of this DC is different than goals in others that maybe have nothing to do

with the subject. To become a member of this discourse community you simply enroll in classes

and have teachers.

A second discourse community I am in is with classmates when we are in a school

atmosphere. This discourse community shapes the way I write because kind of like the teachers,

classmates talk in a very professional way towards each other making one add more intellect to

conversations. The members of the discourse community include all classmates in the class I am

in while in a class atmosphere. The purpose in writing in this DC is is to communicate with each

other and to be able to write the papers the teacher assigns. The genres and media used in this

DC are very similar to those with my teachers. They are in person, face to face, email, and on the

phone. The topics in the discourse community are usually intelectual subjects that require

knowledge and thinking, depending on the class it can be about different books, lab reports,, or

information from a survey. The rules of this DC include conventional talking, and writing that

requires a lot of thinking. Special language that is used this DC also depends on the subject, but

since we are in an environment where we use a lot of respect we use words like please sorry and
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thank you a lot more often in this particular discourse community. To become a member of this

discourse community ylou take the class of your choice.

My third discourse community is my coworkers from Taco Bell. I feel like this discourse

community has an effect on my writing because it helps me communicate with everyone in a

more time efficient way while at the same time almost having the same goal of accomplishing

something that takes time like I would in a classroom with my classmates. The members of this

DC are the people who work with me at Taco Bell. The purpose for writing in this DC is to

communicate other workers orders that the customers have. Or to email or text my manager and

telling her I wont be able to make it today because maybe something pooped up on my school

schedule, and things like that. The genres and media in this DC are usually face to face, and on

the phone. The topics that are written about are orders from customers, messages for each other,

and memos from the managers to the workers. The conventions of this DC are usually just to

write in a way everyone can understand and to try to sound as educated as possible. Special

language or phrases that I use with my coworkers that I wouldnt use with anybody else include

things like can you make three more burritos or I need someone to help clean the restroom.

To become a member of this DC, you would firstly need to get a job.

My last, and probably most interesting discourse community are my friends. The way

that I write with them affects the way I write elsewhere so much. With them I do not follow

grammatical rules, but with them I also get a whole different side of me which allows me to

think in different ways instead of just thinking like a close minded person. The members of this

DC include all of my friends, which is quite a few, I would say maybe twenty to thirty close

friends. The point of writing in this DC is to send each other texts of where we are going to hang

out, or to send each other funny messages through facebook and maybe snapchat. The typical
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genres and media used in this are in person, through the phone, on snapchat, instagram,

facebook, and the list goes on and on. The topics in this DC are usually friend drama and other

subjects of interest like the lives of celebrities, and things that I wouldnt really talk about with

other people. There arent any guidelines or rules in this DC and you canvirtually speak and

write however you would like. Special language that we use is words like fam, lit, yas, slay,

boo that we wouldnt use in other discourse communities. To become a member of this

discourse community all you have to do is be my friend.

My writing is shaped through these Four discourse communities. Teachers add the

intellectual part of it, while classmates add the grammar of it. Coworkers and work related

writing allow me to wrap my thoughts up and put everything together quickly. The writing I do

with my friends allows me to write in a more me kind of way. Every discourse community

youre in allows you to expand on the skills you have in writing.