Ruben C.

Campos
RWS 1301 6:00pm-7: 20pm
9/12/14
Discourse Communities

Discourse Communities are a group of people who share specific interest that
involve public discussions and how literacy is used in these communities. This essay will
show several discourse communities and how literacy is used in each one.
My family is the first disclosure community that I will present to you. The people
who are my audience and are involved in this discourse community are my mother,
father, step mom, my stepfather, my aunts, uncles, cousins, and my nephews and nieces.
These people always have my back no matter how far I fall and are always there to
congratulate me when I get to the top. The main use of writing that is used in are family
involves list for either chores errands or groceries and a lot of signatures are used for
academic and medical reasons. Our disclosure community uses more verbal forms of
communication such as talking over the phone and face to face conversations.
We still do use writing to plan out our days and future events though out or busy
lives. The type of media and genres usually revolve around my Grandpa Ramon, Grandpa
Guillermo and my Uncle Teto. The Genre that is used for my Grandpas and Uncle is
medical. We are constantly taking my Uncle Teto to phoenix to get his treatment for his
severe seizures and we had to hire an aid to watch my Grandpa Guillermo because he has
diabetes, dementia and is falling ill with every passing day. My Grandpa Ramon is

beginning to show the same signs as my other grandpa and we are doing everything to
pervert the same out come.
The languages that we have to be able to understand in our family are English and
Spanish. The reason why we must know these languages is because my grandparents first
language is Spanish and even though they know English their age is taking advantage
over them and tend to remember less and less of their English. For example when they
talk to my cousins and I they will switch the language theyre using out of nowhere and
then switch back due to there memory slipping. The rules and guidelines in this
discourse community are very simple and brief. We are to never give up on one another,
support whoever needs help in my family and to not sell out your family for anything this
world could offer. The only way for anyone to become part of our big family is to be
married or born into it.
The next discourse community is civic. The people that I must appeal to are the
people in the city of El Paso. The main focus in this civic discourse community is to help
others with nothing in return. For example I have done volunteer work at Regret Care
Center helping the staff and the elderly. The forms of writing that is used there is mostly
for prescriptions and medical chats of the all the patients in the facility and certain events
that were marked on planners which included the times, days, event name, and which
patients would go in on that day.
I would have to understand these instructions exactly to prevent any sort of
confusion and or accidents. The genre of my civic discourse community was strictly
medical and the media revolved around the patients and the medical staff. It was my
responsibility to carry out the task I was asked to do and follow what was on the event

board. I also had to follow the rules of the facility, which are to be attentive to everyone
in the event, center, not to let the elderly pass the front desk or go outside unless family
called them out or they were permitted to do so, and the elderly had to be cared for in the
safest and calmest way to prevent injury and arguments. The languages that we had to be
able to understand were English and Spanish. An example I could use is when I was in
charge of a bingo night and halfway into the game two elderly people started to argue
over the amount of chips they had and how certain numbers hadnt been called yet, they
both spoke Spanish and I had to step in and clam them down and explain to them that the
amount of chips was even and the numbers had been called in Spanish. Once I had
cleared everything up they settled down and we continued the game. To become part of
this discourse community you would have to have patience, attentive and be very
responsible.
My academic discourse community resides at The University of El Paso Texas
otherwise known as UTEP. My audience members at UTEP are my professors. I
must show then that I am a headworker that will do what is necessary to pass the course
and move on towards my degree. The purpose of literacy in my academic discourse
community is to accomplish work such as writing assignments, work sheets and reading
the pages that are required to pass the test, quizzes, and final exams for each class. With
all the assignments come certain genres such as writing, mathematics, politics, and
engineering. The different types of media we have to use as students are e-mailing,
blackboard and commuting with our professors about the current assignments.
The topics that we write about are dependent on the assignments we get for
homework. For example in my political science class I have to write notes on politics, in

my university class I have to answer engineering questions however in my writing class I

must type essays about what ever topic is assigned to us that week or day. The rules of
this university are very strict for example we can only miss three days of class before we
are dropped from the course and we are only allowed to drop six classes out of the years
that we must be there for. There is no cheating of any kind on campus and the
consequences for this rule are severe. If you cheat and are caught doing so you will be put
on academic probation and or get expelled from the university itself. The language that
is mostly used on campus is mainly English however this is not the only language taught
or spoken on campus. For example if you are taking electives to learn other languages
such as French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, etc. these would also be spoken and knowing
how to speak these languages are useful to know depending on where you will work and
what you work as. In order to become part of this discourse community you must send
your transcript and take several test such as the Accuplacer, Advance placement test, The
SAT and the ACT.
My professional discourse community is running with Eastwoods Cross Country
and Track team. The audiences of these clubs were other coaches, runners, college
scouts, the families of everyone participating and our city El Paso. Writing in these sports
were very important. Our coaches used writing to give us hard workouts, a start times for
practice, permission slips to go out of town and most importantly our times. The purpose
of these two sport clubs is to make the runners on the team run as fast and efficiently as
possible so that we could bring home medals and trophies as proof of our
accomplishments and to be come nationally ranked in the top ten. The rules of these clubs
were not to slack off at practice, go to practice every day, in order to race you had to

attend practice for two weeks straight, be on time and to keep your grades high. If you
must one day of practice without a good reason and or doctors note you would not be
allowed to race in competition for two weeks. The two languages mainly used in these
clubs are English and Spanish due our very diverse city. For example our club goes to
different parts of the city as while as other states. Most of the runners have Mexican
backgrounds and may only speak Spanish, which is a barrier to the other runners. This
may require that coaches as well as the runner to know both languages so that no on is
singled out. The best way to become part of these clubs is to be a dedicated person with
strong work ethics, have good grades, must be able to get along with others and to be a
positive role model to others who might join later on.
In the end discourse communities are a big part in our lives that can be found with
any type of social group shows how every group uses literacy in its own creative way as
motive, work, communication, to get a point across and instructing others on what to do.