Stacy Reeves
Discourse Community Paper, English 1311, 01/31/10
To me a discourse community is a close knit group that shares the same interests and use
writing as a main concept for communication. With the leadership roles my family and peers
posses they have been able to guide me in the right direction by helping show me the ropes, so to
speak. Through my family, Army ROTC, and Pershing Rifles I have learned how to take my
information and get right to the point and the importance of not dragging things out.
My family has always played a huge role in teaching me the correct writing skills.
Between family letters, care packages, texts, e-mails, and even MySpace comments, my mother,
or grandmother always seem to make corrections and tell me about something that I have
misspelled or something that I might have repeated four times already. We constantly text each
other about our personal lives, health, work, hunting, even community gossip. When I’m
financially in a bad situation or something happens at school I tend to just text my mom as
opposed to calling since I get a lecture and it’s easier through text that way I don’t have to hear
the tone in her voice if I’ve delivered bad news. At this point I’ve learned that with bad news
comes lectures instead of a shoulder to cry upon or an ear to listen but with my mother and
grandmother I know I always do have great support and they are concerned. So for the most part
letters, cards, e-mail and text messages have become a huge part in my family life since I do live
so far away from home.
Most of the conversations however are very casual, filled with sarcasm and slang and at
times concern or sympathy depending on the topic being discussed. For example, if I’ve received
a random card in the mail from my Grandmother I know that the words she’s written inside the
card are ones of wisdom, kindness, and caring. At this point it makes me break down and want to
cry because she always has a way with her words that could make even the coldest of hearts
melt. If I’ve received a package from my mom it’s usually has a letter in it that’s serious and
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Stacy Reeves
Discourse Community Paper, English 1311, 01/31/10
deals with my financial situation and tends to almost be a lecture. Now between my mother and
Grandmother constantly lecturing me about this or that, or inspiring me to work better at school
it has taught me to get to the point and be precise and not procrastinate or drag things out, this
has helped me excel at school and in ARMY ROTC.
In the ARMY ROTC program at UTEP writing coincides with almost everything we do.
From OPT Orders and fraggo’s to PT and military D and C we’re always writing for something.
For PT, combat drills, class, military history, military terminology, and so on there’s almost
always something we have to write down, or with the OPT Order we have to use it to show what
we’re going to do, when we’re going to do it and what we’re going to use it to accomplish these
tasks. OPT Orders; for example, have to be short, sweet and to the point. All the information we
receive has to be shortened down and precise so we can pass it down the chain of command as
low as squad form. In the military you can’t have five pages of info to go through if you need to
make a split second decision.
It makes it convenient that the military does have lingo that might be one or two words
instead of two or three sentences to help give out information to individuals as well as some
information that is secret and the military does not want anyone listening in on the radio to know
what was being discussed. Also things are abbreviated or “smooshed” together to shorten it up.
Such as Operational Order (OPT Order), watch your six (watch behind you or watch your
backside), FRAGGO (some of the information is incorrect so here’s the corrected information),
package (usually used when discussing a prisoner), paint (referring to scanning an area with
infrared sonar to detect enemy forces), or pop smoke (used to signal enemy location or a secure
landing zone depending on the colors designated in an OPT Order) just to name a few.
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Stacy Reeves
Discourse Community Paper, English 1311, 01/31/10
Most of the time this is all very serious and not something that is taken lightly. OPT
Orders are very professional and serious. Although if we’re sending a text and sometimes emails it can be more laid back, sarcastic, or even humorous, depending on who’s sending the
information. Sometimes, however, some are complaints about hypocrites or complaints about an
individual/s who didn’t agree with a training exercise or the way something was run. Personally I
believe that the way things are run and the manner in which the cadets are trained help each of us
become a better officer and in turn this training has helped me pledge for Pershing Rifles.
Pershing Rifles is a national fraternity that was started by John Joseph Pershing in 1894
and just recently became re-instated at UTEP. The Pershing Rifle Fraternity was started for the
best of the best in ROTC’s across the nation and the tradition has carried on over the centuries.
At UTEP it is most serious and if a pledge becomes a member it will help him/her excel in the
military world. All the same lingo and communication is used for Pershing Rifles that the
ARMY ROTC uses. The Pershing Rifle society is to help make a soldier a better officer, a better
soldier, and I believe a better person. Some might not take it as seriously, barely skimming by,
not returning important answers to texts or e-mails, which is a major pet-peeve of mine, but
eventually you can obtain the information. As the military believes you hurry up to wait, which
has also taught me patience because waiting for the information to be written or corrected can be
time consuming.
So with the support of my family and the ROTC program as well as Pershing Rifles I
have learned to narrow down my ramblings from something that might possibly be a page long
to half a page or less when writing down information. This has forced me to look at the way I
write and make sure I get to the point instead of throwing useless information into a paper,
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Stacy Reeves
Discourse Community Paper, English 1311, 01/31/10
document, text, or e-mail that I might be writing. With the help from the different communities I
belong to it has shown me the importance of getting to the point.
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