Gilbert T. Telles
English 1311
Discourse Community Response
A discourse community is a group of people that share similar goals and interest.
Everyday life includes multiple discourse communities which can have more within each other.
Within theses discourse communities writing is used to communicate between employees,
friends, families, professors, and other people that may be encountered during the day. When
writing in these different situations the style of writing may change. Depending on the audience
the genre, convention, medium, voice, and tone may change to appeal to the reader.
In a professional discourse community the expectations of the employee are to be formal
at all times. In this discourse community attention to voice and tone are very crucial. The
difference between being polite or rude in writing can be the difference between being promoted
or fired. There are multiple responsibilities from being an employee from CUTCO Vector
Marketing. The higher position that a person holds the more responsibility he or she has. In
order to join the person has to go through a interview that includes a one on one interview as
well as a group interview. From there the employee starts off as a representative we he or she is
to sell kitchenware to consumers through meeting request. The employee is to courteous to the
consumer when at the meeting. After the presentation of the kitchenware the employee is to help
fill out an order form with the consumer making sure that everything is written so that it is
legible. Once a week the employee is to report back to his or her CUTCO location to submit the
forms. As the employee moves up to manager he or she now needs to handle the forms as well
as look for new employees. Communication between the employees usually include a medium
of emails, letters, and texts. All of which are expected to be formal.
Joining a university can be difficult. When someone wants to join a university they must
apply for admission and submit their high school diploma along with SAT/ACT scores and their
placement exams. In an academic discourse community the conventions that are expected will
constantly be changing throughout the day. When dealing with other student it’s ok to be
informal. Other students will not have high expectations when carrying on a conversation.
When the writing is intended for a professor or faculty, the writing must be formal, have proper
grammar and punctuation. The student is expected to have a professional look in their writing.
When contacting a professor or faculty the medium of the student should be an email. When an
essay or report is needed to be submitted the conventions will change depending on the
professor. All essays and reports will have constraints, this means the type of font used, the size
of the font, spacing between lines, the length of the essay or report, and finally the report or
essay may be requested to be in MLA or APA format.
In the civic discourse community of competitive swimming there is a combination of
formal and informal between the swimmers and the coach. In order to join a swimmer must try
out and prove to the coach that they are capable of not only swimming the strokes but improving
themselves to become better. As for the coach, he or she must apply for the job. The majority of
the writing will be done by the coach themselves, with the occasional help from a swimmer that
is well informed of the sport and knows how the other swimmers swim. All writings are done in
lists and tables to help organize the information on the swimmers. The objective of gathering the
information will be used to help the coach train the swimmers as well as help find the strengths
of the swimmers so that they can use it during a meet. The last of the writing is done at a meet
where the scores are tallied to get the final result of who won the competition.
Family and friends is a discourse community that plays a large role in a persons life.
Being in this discourse community means that the person was either born or married into a
family or earned the friendship of another person. In this discourse community people are
informal with each other. The medium used by family and friends can be anything from a letter
to a text message to any type of social media. In this discourse community what’s expected in a
professional or academic discourse community does not apply here. People are relaxed in this
community and don’t require specific conventions. Even though the expectations are not formal
people tend to be more formal for older families members or friends just out of respect for them.
Communication between family and friends are mainly to keep in contact with the other. The
topics that can come up in conversation can range from current events in the world to current
events in a person’s life. Conversations this community are not meant to be formal and business
only, they are supposed to be informal and comforting.
Family and friends may overlap into all the other discourse communities, but knowing
when they should be separate is crucial. Knowing how to adjust the voice, tone, medium,
conventions, and genre in any writing will not only make it appropriate for the reader, but will
also for better writing.