ENC 1101 Paper 2

Blake Hines

From seventh to twelfth grade, I was a member of several robotics teams which relate to

the framework of a discourse community. Now, as an alumni, I am still involved in a different

way. My involvement began with an interest in STEM projects and led into a learning opportu-

nity that helped me discover my passion for engineering. Initially I lived in Maryland and in

high school was a member of FIRST Robotics Competition #4638, the Jagbots. After 10th

grade, when my family moved to Florida, I used resources within the community to find a new

team, FIRST Robotics Competition #3932, the Dirty Mechanics. With the new team came many

new friends and a new family. The FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) and FIRST (an organiza-

tion that challenges members to raise funds, develop teamwork skills, and build and program in-

dustrial-size robots to compete in a difficult field game against like-minded competitor\s) com-

munity is very unique which aims to get children and young adults into STEM fields by produc-

ing fun and engaging games every year. In this essay, I will be discussing 3 different artifacts

that are related to my experiences within the community: Discord conversations between mem-

bers, an Instagram post as I graduated high school and completed my time as a FIRST member

and finally a scholarship essay I wrote about the experience.

In "Understanding Discourse Communities" by Dan Melzer, a discourse community is

defined and explained how it fits into writing. A discourse community is a community that fits

into generally 6 guidelines: “1. A broadly agreed upon set of common public goals; 2. Mecha-

nisms of intercommunication among members; 3. Use of these communication mechanisms to

provide information and feedback; 4. One or more genres that help further the goals of the dis-

course community; 5. A specific lexis (specialized language); 6. A threshold level of expert

members” (Melzer). In order for something to be a discourse community, said community has to

have most if not all of these criteria.

Melzer’s example was the group that he met with to practice guitar. Melzer then relates

this story to writing, saying "You can write in a journal alone in your room, just like you can

play guitar just for yourself alone in your room. But most writers, like most musicians, learn

their craft from studying experts and becoming part of a community" (Melzer). He explained that

like musicians, writers grow by being around other writers and bouncing ideas off of each other

and learning from each other. My experience with FIRST was more or less the exact same.

The FRC community fits the criteria for a discourse community exactly. The community

fits the first criteria because after Kickoff, teams from all over the world are attempting to engi-

neer a robot that will complete the goals of that year’s game. There are many different ways that

members are communicating with each other, and those on other teams as well, which fits the

second criteria. These include Discord, Slack, GitHub (for discussing and sharing code) and

GrabCAD (for discussing and sharing designs). These also complete the third criteria as they are

all used not only as a communication base, but as a way to provide feedback. A genre that helps

people get further into the event are the competitions, for me it was fun, but what solidified me

wanting to stay was the competitions. For criteria 5, the FRC has almost created their own lan-

guage, using engineering terms and names of game pieces. Each team has “mentors” who are

adults of many different backgrounds (some that I know personally are business owners, some

are engineers, some are teachers just to name a few different occupations) but all love to help

kids get into the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields.
 Below is a YouTube clip of one of our matches during the World Championship in Hous-

ton. During this match, my team (team #3932) was in the red alliance and ended up winning this

match.

Qualification 110 - 2022 FIRST Championship - Turing Division

Our team used the Discord app to communicate about many different details of the com-

petition. First we had discussions about how to build the robot, then conversations shifted to as-

signment of roles to complete tasks, finally the chats became about travel plans to competitions

and team spirit wear. It was very important for all team members to participate in the many dif-

ferent conversations. I also engaged in Discord servers to learn about different ideas. One of

these instances is when we were talking about some designs for our turret, we were discussing

how and where the turret should be mounted to the frame. I recommended that we mount the tur-

ret directly to the wooden magazine using custom L-brackets that we produce, which is what we

ended up doing. As Enrico Gandolfi said in ”Playing across the social zone”, his daughter, who

was playing Animal Crossing, went through various means to widen her knowledge. Gandolfi

wrote that “since the beginning of the study, Sofia explored online environments (Reddit.com,

Discord, Twitch.tv) about AC, mainly looking for strategies and insights. At the beginning, there

was an initial sense of wonder and a critical acceptance of the content observed online about the

game (e.g., strategies, tips)” (Gandolfi). I did the same thing that Gandolfi’s daughter did by us-

ing Discord to gather ideas and once discussed with my team, I became the lead for the turret

mechanism. Being the lead, I was expected to be an expert of that system. I would take it apart

and put it together so many times that by the end of the build season, I could probably tear it

apart and build it back up with my eyes closed. I would consult my team members and mentors
and even people from other teams about the design for help and insight, as this was my and the

team’s first experience with a turret.

CAD (computer aided design) image of the turret.

After graduation, I mentioned this community in an essay as an extracurricular activity

for a scholarship. I wrote about how the community has changed me as a whole and for the bet-

ter. I wrote about how I held many leadership positions on both teams, in Maryland and Florida.

During my Freshman year of High School, I was mainly learning the ropes of the team and con-

tributed but not in a leadership position. My Sophomore year, however, I held the positions of

CAD (computer aided design) Captain during the designing phase of build season, the Build

Captain for the rest of the build season and would have been the Pit Captain during the Competi-

tion season, if the COVID-19 pandemic had not canceled the competitions. After I moved down

to Florida and found a new team, I quickly acquired new titles and jobs from the team. My senior
year, my team members and mentors gave me the nickname “Turret”. This was because during

my senior year, my main responsibility was the shooting turret that we mounted to our robot,

lovingly named Sebastian (Hines). The name Sebastian in reference to the crab in The Little

Mermaid because the climber arms as seen below, kind of look like crab arms.

Sebastian, my team’s robot for the 2022 FRC season.

 Lastly, I wrote a memorial post about robotics on my Instagram. In this post, I wanted to

share my deep appreciation for the experience and the impact it made on my life. Robotics gave

me a purpose and a social activity with like-minded peers. I also mentioned that robotics taught

me to always be a continuous learner and be engaged in activities that you love to do. I also in-

cluded many pictures of my teams, the robots that we made and the awards that we had won.
 My Instagram post from 6/11/2022

In conclusion, my experience on my robotics team was an incredible experience and fits

the criteria of a discourse community. Even now, as an Alumni member, I continue to partici-

pate in Discord channel conversations and review ideas. Being a part of this discourse commu-

nity gave me a purpose and provided insight into the career of an engineer. I enjoyed making

friends and learning the building process. It was also a blast meeting people from other teams at

competitions and collecting things from around the world at the World Championships.
 Works Cited

Writing Spaces. “Understanding Discourse Communities.” Writing Spaces, writ-

ingspaces.org/past-volumes/grammar-rhetoric-and-style. Accessed 6 Nov. 2022.

Enrico, Gandolfi, and Gandolfi Sofia. “Playing across the Social Zone - Animal Crossing,

Gaming Communities and Connectedness in a Time of Crisis.” Academicus International

Scientific Journal, vol. 23, no. 23, Jan. 2021, pp. 41–51, 10.7336/academicus.2021.23.03.

Hines, Blake “scholarship essay”, West Boca High School,

Hines, Blake, Instagram Post