Discourse communities

Erick Garcia
RWS 1301
02/09/15

It happens all the time to every single person, day in day out, at one point or another one
has the need to share information with another person. There are many ways to do this, either
orally, in writing, or with images. However, there is no arguing that the best of these ways is
writing. Writing is the most versatile of the three. Depending on the circumstances one can
accomplish different things by varying the things that they write. The way one writes depends
solely on the community that it is being used in.
The first community one ever takes part on is family, this is done by being born into that
family or in later years being married into it. The only people that would ever experience the
kind of writing done in this community are relatives of an individual. The writing done usually
includes private things that usually dont get shared with other such as talking about personal
issues or talking about others not in the family and those outside of it too. Furthermore, Families
also discuss much more mundane subjects such daily routines or inquiring when an individual
will do something he said he would do. The genres for this type of community usually include
things such as written notes or text messaging. This is usually done in order to get information
across faster since the purpose for writing in this community is usually get information to
another member of the community, usually reminders and questions regarding basic subjects
such as the time for an event or the location of an artifact. Writing in this community usually
requires one to be respectful and not saying anything that would be considered inappropriate to
another member of the community. This doesnt not mean that the writing in this community is
formal, in fact it is probably the most informal kind of writing an individual will probably ever
take part in. Things such as, wen u comin home or mom said 2 take out the trash are things
that one might encounter in this community. Nicknames are also very common in a family with

them being usually exclusive to that community. Being the first community one is introduced to
it usually makes the easiest to communicate in.
Since most individuals attend some sort of academic institution, it can be said that the
second community people are exposed to be an academic community. Joining this community is
not as easy as a personal community, it requires one to have had graduated high school with a
decent GPA and have applied to an institution such as, The university of Texas el Paso
(UTEP). Furthermore, once one is accepted to a university most of the writing is usually only
viewed by a professor who assigned the student the witting in the first place. These kind of
writing are usually submitted in either digital or physical form, this is usually all up to the
professors preference. An essay, research paper, personal narrative, book report, or a biography
are all different kinds of writing one would expect to see in an academic community. They ae
usually done in order to synthesize a piece of text or to inform the audience on a subject, all of
which is simply done in order to fulfill an assignment assigned by a professor. Writing for this
kind of community usually requires a higher level of thinking, meaning that using simply
sentences and diction will just not be acceptable. A person has to be clear, using texting lingo to
write in this community is about the worst thing one could do. In this community there is special
words that one would use in their writing. However, there are various terms not used in the
writing per say, Terms such as, APA, ethos, pathos, and logos are terms that would very
seldom be used outside of the community. When in come to actual writing, as long as one stays
on topic and is not writing anything unnecessarily offensive then there should be no problem
with the writing.
While attending the academic community one might find the opportunity to join other
communities such as one found on many institutions. This community consist of a group of

fellow students gathering to play musical instruments, also known as Band. To join a school
band one must simply sign up for the class and it is preferable if one has previous knowledge of
musical theory. Although it may seem surprising, writing is also an extremely important part of
this community. One needs to write certain things that will make being part of this community
much easier. Writing in this community is usually done for oneself and seldom for others for
example in a sheet of music a member might make annotation regarding a specific instruction
when playing the sheet at that time. This does not mean one might not make a memo to another
member regarding certain events such as an upcoming concert or regarding a rehearsal. The
latter two being done usually in digital texting form and the self-annotation being done on a
physical copy of a sheet of paper. The kind of language used in this community is unlike any
other community, one will not find it anywhere else. It includes terms such as, half-note,
vibrato, treble, or triplet note are all terms that one has to get used to hearing in this community,
but not outside of it since most of the terms used in this community are never used outside of the
community. Since most of the writing will done either to one-self or a fellow peer, it is almost
unnecessary to be formal when writing in this community. Although formality is thrown out the
window in this community one must be careful not to be offensive or disrespectful to another
member of the community since these are both things that are really frowned upon. This
community although different from most it still makes sure that writing makes up an important
part of it.
Although all the previous three communities are pretty different from each other, they do
share one thing. From all those three communities one can join a fourth community, this can be
done by simply befriending certain people on any community. Eventually all those friendships
become their own community outside of the previous three. And although informal, writing still

makes its way into the community. People reading an individual writing would usually include
that individuals close friends and acquaintances. This is often done in digital form, whether it be
texting, a social network, or instant messenger, and very rarely in physical form. The passing of
information in this community usually consists of reminding a person of an event time and date,
to ask someone for help on something, or simply to have a normal conversation. Whatever is
being discussed in this community it is almost always done in order to maintain that bond
between members which usually fades if there is a lack of communication. This also means that
when writing one has to make sure he is neither disrespectful nor offensive to another person in
the community. Although some joking takes place and would be considered offensive if taken
out of context one must make sure that the person is not getting offended even if one is simply
playing around with insults. This community contain some of the more informal and sometimes
vulgar kind of writing in any community. Since most of the writing in this community is done in
digital form texting lingo is usually used, lol, omg, wer r u?, idk are all examples of such
language. The most important thing to remember for this community is that it is here that an
individual gets to unwind when it comes to writing, since proper grammar is absolutely
overlooked by all the members.
It cannot be emphasized enough just how important writing is for all sorts of
communities. Transferring information among people is the absolute most important thing that
one can do to in order to be successful in the real world. If one does not write properly than all
sort of problems arise, some of which are being expelled from any said community. Another
very important reason to keep writing and improving your writing is that having nice and
sharpening your writing skills will always get you into better places and communities.