Clara Martinez

Discourse Community

9/10/13

Another way of communication besides verbal is trough writing. When you write you have to take into consideration who the audience is and the message you are trying to deliver. A discourse community is a group where people or the members use writing to share their common goals, values, specialized vocabulary and genres. My family, friends and work are some of the discourse communities I belong to , they have showed me details in writing that make me enjoy it, from having fun, being random and free to being cautious and aware with what I write , but not to forget to transmit emotion. Because of them I will show you trough examples, of how they each are unique and different and how they use writing. The most important community for me is my family. They have showed me how family will always be there for when I need them, they show me how much they care and love me, by their language and actions. My family, or the members consists of my mom (Juanis), dad (Jesse), brother (Jesus), and my aunt (Mary), we all live under the same roof. We do almost everything together like going to the movies or to the mall, even for a doctors appointment they still want to come with me, it is embarrassing. I have a crazy and loud family I might be adopted! The leaders, my mom and dad, pretty much everything they do is for us, and they always put us before themselves. My parents dont really tell us any of the rules we pretty much know them and follow the social norm. I respect my parents a lot, to the point that I really dont even remember how they act/look when weve done something bad, they get more disappointed than angry. Oh, and one thing that is not permitted at all is cursing; if they dont use it we dont use it either. They have my respect in my heart but we really dont have a very formal way of communicating with each other. Even if it is very informal, sarcastic but yet loving, at the end of the day even if I disappointed them; theyll still be there for me when I need them.

Clara Martinez

Discourse Community

9/10/13

One of the reasons we write is to express how much we care and love one another, which defines the importance of support. Support expressing how we care and love for each other is our family goal. Personally Im not as affectionate as they are, because Im the reserved one in my family. They always call me amargatorade which is a combination of the Spanish work amargada, meaning bitter in English and Gatorade, dont ask me where Gatorade comes from, I have no clue! I guess for them that is love. Nevertheless we usually we show support trough letter or cards. Youll always see words written down like my baby, mija, and one that could never be missed is te quiero or I love you. A simple piece of writing in maybe a card simply isnt a piece of paper with letters on it, but it could be a time machine that takes you back to a certain time in your life that is sacred. This time machine can take you back as many times as you want, and it makes me feel god to re-read them. At times when you feel sad and see the silly words they use, it makes me laugh and appreciate that you have your family support. My second discourse community is probably one of the hardest to gain membership, it isnt an easy job there are a lot of rules involved. I work at the El Paso Psychiatric Center (EPPC) as a Psychiatric Nursing Assistant (PNA); we deal with patients with mental illnesses. Our patients are so diverse, no patient is the same and our number one goal is to provide quality care with an individualized psychiatric care for each one of the patients. In order to gain membership you must apply online at the Texas Department of State Health Services website. Afterward youll be interviewed and be given a contract plus attend a 3-week mandatory orientation, not just anyone is hired, you need to have some healthcare related background and be CPR (cardio pulmonary resuscitation) certified. In this orientation theyll try and cover all the rules, goals, and expectations, the standards of conducts. In the standards of conduct it might say

Clara Martinez

Discourse Community

9/10/13

why is it important to follow our schedule as it was given what to do if we are to report as unable to attend, and our schedule is how they can track us down. At the El Paso Psychiatric Center (EPPC) writing is very fundamental for the benefits of documentation and for the patient which targets our number one goal. First of all, the language mostly spoken is Spanish but the other common is English, so it benefits you and your patients to be bilingual. Now regarding the employees, for your benefit you must know medical abbreviations such as q15 (every 15 minutes), BM (bowel movement), bid (two times a day), LOS (line of sight), PAC (patient activity center), which are mostly used in charting their vital signs and activities of daily living which are written in their designated paper or typed out in the computer. Not only are they used for charting but it saves us time when typing or even telling someone when giving report on patients. For example, if you mess up and put the wrong vital signs with the incorrect patient then you failed to provide an individualized care since those vitals werent really the patients. Once we have built a rapport with the patient(s), we can talk to them in the way that we best feel comfortable everything is accepted just as long as we arent trying to become a friend, and once they feel confident enough theyll show us what they have written down in their journals. If you see that in their journal per say they wrote down they dont want to live here anymore, nobody likes them or they methodically wrote down how they are going to kill their roommate, we must report it. This helps us provide quality care which is preventing them from harm themselves or others; we wouldnt have noticed this dangerous behavior. If we neglect what we write down or what the patient writes down then we have failed the patient, this rarely happens because we are very cautious. As far as to how communication is amongst co-workers it all depends who it is and what type of rapport you have. Nevertheless, this

Clara Martinez

Discourse Community

9/10/13

community has showed me how important it is to pay attention to every detail in writing because it could really make or break someone. Friends is my third discourse community, basically anyone can become a member you just need to talk to me, not really I mean we have to at least like or have something in common such as coming from the same school, this group is the informal and most random of them all, where it is all about freedom and fun. Our goal is just to express what we feel in whatever way, within us in order to have fun and be free. Rules, no rules exist except probably not to be boring or insult one another. The rules are in place just because if we are going to be boring or insult one another than why be friends? This community is where one can freely express what it wants to; if we want to say an outburst of profanity it is completely normal within us. In messages that Ill receive from a friend she could put bitch and Im not going to be like dont say that because it is something accepted. Like all of the other three groups we speak English and Spanish. We meet everywhere, especially social places such as the mall or the movies. Our topics are so random we can be talking about our day and all of a sudden we see a dog and start talking about guys. Writing here is really important because now that school has started it is harder to see each other since our schedules are so different and not to forget our extracurricular activities. When we communicate we use a lot of abbreviations, e.g., WTF (what the fuck), IDK (I dont know), and LMFAO (laughing my fucking ass out) and we use it for both written and verbal use. We usually message each other either by computer or cell phone or by cards, and once in a while talk on the phone. Our conversations go on tangents we could see a bird and be like, e.g., doesnt that look like Ever. We are very informal we really dont care honestly, sadly my generation, but we arent to the point where we act like morons. My friends have showed me that

Clara Martinez

Discourse Community

9/10/13

when writing, it is good to have fun with it and express what you are feeling and to be free whenever you have the opportunity. My family, friends, and work have helped me look at writing as something else other than just a boring paper to write that will eventually be thrown away. Expressing what you feel while having fun and putting your heart into it allows you to feel that freedom you might not get at home, and experiences like these are the eye-openers that show where writing can take you to a whole new place and how it makes each discourse community unique.