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Zenait Lopez
RWS 1301
Jarrett Williams
September 6, 2015
What is a Discourse Community?
It is known that people are part of different groups who set goals and values and use
communication to achieve those specific objectives. That is what a discourse community is and
that human being are part of without noticing it. A discourse community is not a group that need
to be recognized by famous or intellectual people, it can be any group of people who is gathered
and want to achieve a goal. For example, I am part of different groups such as having a family,
my friends, being an engineer, and at church.
The most important discourse community that I am part of is my family. My family,
believe it or not, count as a discourse community. In order to have the privilege to be part of my
family the most important thing is to be born into it. Second, if I want to keep being part of my
family, I need to put on real life what they have taught me and do not commit any kind of crime.
In my family, we interact and communicate about what worries me, affects me, as well as
memories or even homework. Our communication is oral most of the time but also there is a
writing part when they help me with my homework, or even the list of the groceries. All this can
be done by the interaction that exist between me and my parents and brother as well as to focus
on the goal that as family we have: to keep being united regardless anything and prepare myself
to be a good citizen.
My second group are my friends. My friends form part of a discourse community because
just like any other group it follows a structure between me and them. I needed to speak Spanish,

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have humor sense, do not do drugs, and have values to be able to interact with them. They are
people who I want to keep them in my life but I need to keep on touch once in a while, I have to
be able to hang out, and to be ready to laugh. Also, there are many topics to discuss such as:
relationships, school, music, daily activities, Mexican jokes or experiences. Oral and visual
are the types of communication because friends usually talk for hours but it is also
visual because they use body language to show details while they are sharing their
experiences. Being with friends there is no written part unless you are explaining
homework, texting them or share contact information. In this group, t he main goal is

to relax with people we feel comfortable with.

The third group is being an engineer. Engineers meet certain criteria which is like math
and science, being problem solver, and have creativity. There are other aspects
that lets keep membership on it such as understanding and good grades on math
and science and understand Engineering language. The topics will depend on each
engineering. For example, in Electrical Engineering it is known that the topics will be
related into circuits, signals, and electricity. In addition, exist an interaction between
teachers, tutors, and peers that leads to have the three forms of communication:
oral, writing, and visual. A written part will be essays, designs, and presentations.
Oral when you have to explain your project or prototype, express your opinions as
groups, and giving your proposal, and visual when there is the prototype itself and
presentations. The purpose is to prepare people to apply all the skills that are
needed to create a new design or prototype of an object that will help the society.
Last but not least is Catholic Church. In order to be in a church I have to
believe in one God and have the goal to know him. Also, I have to go to church not
only on Sundays but whenever other activities take place. Moreover, I have to follow

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a criteria of have been baptized, have first communion, and confirmations to keep
being part of a church. In addition there is a relation between the coordinator,
priest, and community that helps the church and this makes us to have the three
types of communication: visual, oral, and written. It is visual when we see the
images of the saints, seeing the expression of the priest whenever he is giving a
sermon, and presentations that church make such as Semana Santa. It is oral when
we hear the sermon, when we confess with the priest, and when we have to
communicate with other people who is also part of the church community. Lastly, is
written because of the Bible. The topics are mostly related to God, his son, Jesus,
and things that humans are doing nowadays but that are not correct. The goal of
this is to hear the messages that God sent us, knowing him and love him just the
way he loves us.
In other words, everyone is part of a discourse community that do not
necessary need to be recognize as an important group, it just need people who
need to accomplish a goal and it can be the less group you can think of such as
family, and friends. There are more that follows a criteria more complicated such as
being an engineer or being part of Catholic Church. But, does not matter which
group you are in while you can feel comfortable and be able to accomplish a goal is
what matters.

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