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William Dublin Megan Keaton English 111-09 3 June 2013 Discourse Communities in Math/English Discourse communities are generally defined as a community of people who use a particular kind of language, or discourse (communication of thought by words, talk, or conversation. We are all a part of a discourse community or communities in our everyday life whether we recognize it or not. In this assignment the two communities which were chosen to be compared in contrast are math, and English class. The two will be compared in three parts. By their roles, goals, and participants.

Math class is taken place primarily at the Central Piedmont Community College main campus in the Belk building in a classroom setting. The roles of the participants are the instructor (the rhetor) the person that is responsible for coming to class everyday ready to teach class assignments, and homework (the syllabus), and the students (the audience) the people that are responsible for coming to class everyday ready to learn, and tackle all of the tough assignments that the instructor has planned not only for the day, but for the semester too. The instructors goal in the math class is to attempt to teach the students how to solve practical everyday math problems, reason, communicate with mathematics, work confidently, collaboratively, analyze problems, think creative, and independently using technology to integrate them all. While the

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students primary goals are to try to learn all of these challenging techniques, and apply them in a classroom environment as well as in the real world. There are a couple of different forms of writing that takes place in this math class. Math XL which is an online site where you must do your homework and where all of your grades are posted such as your test, and quiz grades. The other form of writing is the use of the magic board, although emailing is used too to keep you informed of any classroom emergencies, and also keep you informed about any school closings. The magic board is a board that is used by the instructor, or either the students by using a magic marker, and eraser to write down on the board specific assignments, and math problems that are usually generated from the math book primarily, and occasionally from the instructor, and students that are in the class to use to show how to work out, and solve a problem in its entirety. This particular community has a very diverse group of people with an age group ranging from 18 years of age to about 40. The dress code is mostly relaxed although you do have a few people who come in dressed professional occasionally. There are both genders male, and female. The races include black African American males, and females, Caucasian males, and females, a Jamaican female, an Asian female, and a Latino female. The goals of all the participants are the same in this community. To pass the class, and to learn something.

English class takes place at Central Piedmont Community College at the main campus in the Overcash building in a classroom setting although there are some online assignments that are a part of this class. The participants in this community are the instructor (the rhetor) the person that is responsible for coming to class everyday ready to teach the class assignments and homework (the syllabus), and the students (the audience) the people that are responsible for coming to class every day to learn, and tackle all of the challenging assignments that the

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instructor has planned for not only the day but also for the semester too. The instructors goal in English class is to attempt to teach the students how to produce well-developed essays, and research papers using standard formats and style, work independently and collaboratively in small groups, think, and read critical, interpret readings, and integrate them all using technology so that they can be applied in a classroom setting as well as in the real world. There are a few different forms of writing that takes place in this community one being a blog site used to post daily reflections, emails so that the instructor can keep you updated on any emergencies, Moodle which has homework assignments, PowerPoint slides, and our grades. Also we use two workbooks Models for Writers a book that is used for short essays, and compositions, and also the easy Writer which is used as a pocket reference for writing, sentence grammar, sentence style, punctuation/mechanics, language, research, and documentation. The age group of this community ranges from 19 to the mid-40s. The dress code is relaxed most of the time although the instructor is usually the only one who dresses professional most of the time. This community is diverse it has working people in it as well as students full time as well as part time. It also consists of black African American males, black African American females, Caucasian males, and females, and an Asian male. All of the people in this community have the same goals in common and that is to pass the class.