Jessica Gonzalez English 1311- Fall 2011
Discourse Communities
On any given day, people use communities as a way to interact with others whether it is for professional or personal use. We come upon families, friends, and peers in forms of communication we wouldn’t use with co-workers and our bosses. A discourse community is what people use to differ their way of communicating between each of their social groups. Specialized language, different genres and goals are what set each of these communities apart. Day by day you are involved in a diverse selection of communities whether you may know it or not.
One of the most important discourse communities you can be involved in is family. Each family has their own way of communication whether it is through special nicknames or any slang only you understand between each other. Being a part of a Hispanic family is a wonderful joy. I live in a household of four and have on older brother who lives off on his own with his wife and his two little girls. My father has come up with the most abnormal slang you can think of. One of the most frequently used words is “troniquis” which particularly means darn and is used when we make a mistake. Our goals range from spending proper time together by having weekly cookouts, to supporting and being there for each other through rough times. The type of genres we use are probably the most basic; phone calls, face to face conversations and text messaging.
Another fairly popular community is being a part of the social networking. Teens as well as young adults use this 90%of the time to either communicate with new friends or even with distant family members. One of my personal favorites is twitter. This is used as a way to let others know what you’re doing. The different genres that are used for this category as a form of communication are tweets, re-tweets, favorites and direct messages. My favorite is the re-tweets. Re-tweets are a way of showing that another’s tweet interested you. My friends and I use specialized vocabulary by using acronyms. Some of these acronyms include LOL-Laughing out Loud, BRB-Be Right Back, ROFL-rolling on the floor laughing and so on.
Being in a work place is also a popular community. As odd as it may sound, I work at a tire shop where they sell tires, wheels, car accessories, suspensions etc. Genres used in this particular place are invoices, phone calls, and communicating through the intercom. Specialized languages include things like invoices and work orders.A work order is usually like a check at a restaurant. What it does, is it lets the mechanic know what work needs to be done and the order in which the vehicles arrive. Just like every other job, we all have our special work slang. For example, one of the most regularly used is “punch me in” which means to clock one of the employees in.
For those with an education, school may be one of the largest discourse communities you may be involved in. This includes elementary, middle school, high school and either a university or a community college. The types of genres you would use in this particular community are for example “blackboard”. This is something used so you can either communicate with your teachers, turn in assignments, and communicate with other students involved in that class and so on. Goals one usually has as a student are passing your classes with a B or even better, to make new friends, to be more responsible and the list can go on forever. Specialized vocabulary in a school would include things such as the assignments we receive from each of our teachers.
In conclusion, we have now realized that many different discourse communities surround us. The way we communicate within each of those communities is what sets them apart from each other. These include groups like in a church, social network, athletics, and so on.
