English 1311-Fall 2010
Discourse Communities Response
As a returning college student at a university I have discovered a wide variety of
discourse communities that I belong to on a day to day basis. A “discourse community” is a
group of individuals united by a common interest who communicate through similar vocabulary,
goals, and genres. If someone would have asked me twenty years ago to define which groups I
belong to I would of responded with names such as rocker, prep, the in-group, nerd or my all
time favorite honor roll student. As times have changed we have many discourse communities
one could belong to such as myspacers, facebookers, twitters, tattooist, nail tech communities
and the list goes on and on.
The four discourse communities that are most relevant to me at this time are the
telecommunication community, Christian community, college student community and the
motherhood community. Typically, we all have different vocabulary and goals but we do
communicate very similar through emails, websites, facebook, television, text messaging, and
the telephone which maps us together.
Ironically, I work for one of the largest communication corporations in the world which
uses unique vocabulary that only an employee would understand. For example, I would send an
email to a bkfl mgr with a cipsos form to expedite a manual qual for an irate customer who no
longer wants landline service. Our form of communication is very short-handed and abbreviated
but clearly understood by the receiver to achieve the same goal, “Satisfying the Customer”.
In my motherhood role, I have found it almost impossible to understand teenagers jargon
but can still communicate thru text messages, cell phones, and the oldie but goodie Post-its. I
use the traditional forms of writing and telecommunication to express my love and thoughts to
my family so that there is no misunderstanding.
Motherhood is not just communicating to your family but also having the same goals
within your home. We send out birthday emails to unite for dinner and have family time. We sit
down for family meetings to discuss chores, responsibilities, and expectations. Our vocabulary is
different from any other because we use nicknames or affectionate terms like honey, baby, turtle,
big boy, Mantha and terms we should not repeat.
The Christian and student community work hand in hand for me because of the similar
goals, and genres that are used. The top goal is to become a respectable, educated, human being
through hard work and dedication. Christians and students communicate thru websites, online
chats, posters, commercials and of course text messaging. Our vocabulary may differ at
times, students using more slang-(Hey Dude) and Christians using more biblical terms- (Praise
God), but we both use books to read, teachers to teach, and faith to guide us to our place in life.
Discourse communities are all around us with different goals, vocabulary and genres and in some
fashion all linked together through different types of communication.
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