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Discourse Community Response
Brandon T. Dawson
The University of Texas at El Paso
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Each and every individual throughout the world is typically involved in a variety
of discourse communities within his or her professional, private, and social lives.
Although these discourse communities can vary from person to person, writing is always
an essential way to convey valid points to the audiences within. This essay will examine
the specific discourse communities within four areas of my life: my personal discourse
community is my family, the military is my professional discourse community, UTEP is
the academic portion, and my day-to-day attendance at Planet Fitness is my civic
discourse community. I will take a look at the influences of writing within these
communities such us the genre, the purposes of writing, the specific audiences, the
writing topics, the specific conventions (guidelines/and or rules), the specialized language
used, and how one may become a member.
At the rank of Sergeant the audience members within the military can vary from
the soldiers that I am in charge of to the officials appointed over me. Often I find myself
training soldiers with written visual aids on either a dry erase board or a PowerPoint
presentation. I also would have to type up monthly and event oriented counseling in
regards to my soldiers but directed to my first-line chain of command. These different
genres of writing all have the purpose of training, teaching, and to keep an updated record
of each individual’s monthly performance. The military has a few ways that they use
specialized language, which really differentiates soldiers from civilians. Specialized
language that is used within this discourse community is the use of acronyms, military
time, and the phonetic alphabet. For an example, one topic of writing would be a
SALUTE report. A SALUTE report is an acronym (Size, Activity, Location, Uniform,
Time, and Equipment) this would be written using military time (1300 instead of
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1:00PM) and the phonetic alphabet by saying bravo, to replace the letter b. The military’s
most strict conventions are that you must show the proper form of respect to each rank
and always keep a professional manner.
The audience members within my civic discourse community, which is my
membership at Planet Fitness, are the staff members and the club members. The staff
members sign you up and sign you in daily, and the club members often workout near
each other and sometimes with each other. The purposes for writing within this discourse
community are the initial member agreements, which calls for a release of liability, and
the logging of your exercises in a notebook so you are able to track your individual
progress. The typical genres used by the members of the community are the paper form
agreement, a personalized notebook if you wish to log your accomplishments, and music
in your headphones, which at some point the artist had written in their own way. Topics
written about in this discourse community are the type of membership that you wish to
sign up for, and different types of exercises. Planet Fitness offers a VIP membership
which gives you access to all clubs and also a basic membership, which grants you access
to just the club you sign up at. Planet Fitness does have somewhat of a strict convention,
some of which has been controversial in the past. For an example, Planet Fitness is
famous for the, “judgment free zone”. This consists of no staring at others, no judging, no
slamming weights, and no grunting loudly. These rules are all underlined within the
member agreement but a lot of members fail to read the full agreement and are offended
when reprehended. Planet Fitness is notorious for its specialized language. They even
have their own made up words such as “lunk.” They define a lunk as a loud grunt, and
slamming of weights. One becomes a member of Planet Fitness by having the desire to
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get in shape. They then have to sign up at one of their local clubs, which consists of
signing the agreement and providing their direct deposit information for monthly billing.
Ever since my wife and I got married, then established our own home, my
personal discourse community has become more compact, yet more complex. The
audience in my family consists of my wife, our two cats, our dog, and myself. Within the
next month we will be adding an additional member to the audience, that being my soon
to be born daughter Kolbi. The only way you can become a member of my family is to be
born into it, or adopted. The two main genres that we use to write here is a chalkboard
where we write our appointment dates, and text messages shared between my wife and I.
When exchanging text messages we tend to use specialized language such as shortened
words in an unprofessional context. For an example, my wife often texts me something
along the lines of, “when r u goin to be home?” The topic was what time that I would be
home, with the purpose of starting dinner. The specific conventions in my home life is to
respect each other, always show love towards one and another, always be caring, and to
aid each other to reach our goals.
The fourth discourse community falls under the academic category, which is my
enrollment as a full time student at UTEP. Writing within this discourse community
usually serves an educational purpose. For an example, I am currently writing this essay
with the topic being my response in regards to my discourse communities. Genres can
vary from PowerPoint presentations, note taking, Microsoft Word documents, and
classroom materials like paper exams or textbooks. For this given assignment, my
audience members will be my professor who will grade it, the writing center who is
giving me tips, and a fellow student who is helping me edit and revise my paper. One of
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the specific conventions in college is a campus rule such as no smoking within the
campus. Also, I must always use good grammar, complete sentences, and good
punctuation. An example of specialized language that I so often see around campus is the
implementation of Greek letters within Sororities and Fraternities. During rush week,
everywhere you go on UTEP grounds you can hear people shouting things such as, “join
Alpha Phi”. The specific process to become a student at UTEP can vary from student to
student. In my case, I had to take a SAT, submit an online application, send in my Army
and Park University transcripts, and then go through the Veterans Affairs office in order
to get my tuition paid for.
In conclusion, discourse communities usually will vary from person to person but
something that they all have in common is the importance of writing. By using
underlined genres, topics, purposes, specialized language, and conventions an individual
can use writing to properly distribute their point effectively. One must always keep in
mind the audience that they’re addressing and stay true to their purpose while utilizing
the specialized language without going against the implemented conventions.
Professionally, in the military we must show respect and professionalism, we also use
very specific specialized language. Civically, Planet fitness has a select audience all with
a common purpose. Personally, my family speaks informally and will soon be adding an
additional member. Academically, there is a specific guideline for each person to become
an enrolled student. There are specific ways for one to become a member of these
discourse communities; you just have to follow the designated stepping-stones to get
across the barrier that may separate you and a desired discourse community.