Coggins 1

August Coggins
Rebecca Agosta
UWRT 1103-007
7 November 2014
Annotated Bibliography
What motivates him to be a member of each community?
How does he adjust to the literacies and characteristics of each community?
Does his personality change or does he just adjust his behavior?
How does being a member of one community, affect the others?
Jones, Alex. "Alex's Communities." Personal interview. 1 Nov. 2014.
Throughout this interview I keyed in on a lot of Alexs characteristics and way of
thinking. Alex stresses the importance of individuality and staying true to the person he is
even if he loses friends in the process. Being a member of so many communities, he was
sure to tell me his personality or values never change for the sake of the people he is
around. He simply adjusts to the language and behavior expectations of the certain
community while staying true to the person he is. In tennis and the vocabulary he has to
use for that and the way he acts, as a teammate is much different from the lexis in his
group of friends and how he acts with them. He illustrates why each community means so
much to him and why he is so motivated to be a part of each one. While some questions I
asked werent directly correlated to communities, like what makes you house a home?
through his answer and the way he answered gave away more information than youd
think. I learned about the person he is and why he does what he does. I learned little
things about his character and the way he goes about tasks given. Having said this, Alex
explained all the things he has learned about himself through being a member of these

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communities and the contributions each on has brought into his life, shaping him to be
the person he is today.

I was having such a rough time starting my research and figuring out the best way to get
as much information as I would need. After this interview I was surprised at how much
just this gave me. He opened up to how he interacts with each community and how that
affects his views of the others. I can use this and apply it to the observations I did,
comparing what he told me and what actually happens. I will use the interview to form an
insight on how each community is connected and what meaning it brings to his life. I
learned a lot about his identity, not only as an individual but also as a member of each
community uniquely. Like I said above I saw that his values and personality doesnt
change, he knows how to adjust to each one and does so accordingly which is very
important to know in my research. Overall he puts so much emphasis on using his skills
to be the best person he can be and letting that shape the person he is but not so much that
he cant express his individuality that wasnt formed from the communities.
How does his interview answers compare with his actual interaction with the communities?
How do other people see him as an individual? Does his perception of identify match
what other people think of him?

How do the communities he is in affect the people around him? What does each community
offer him as a person finding out who he is? How does he adjust to the literacies and
characteristics of each community?
Jones, Alex. In Home Observation. Observation. 1 Nov. 2014.
Just through watching him interact with his family, I learned a lot about the person he is
and the specific ways he communicates with his family. I looked at the relationships with

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each member of his family and watched how he acted within each. I made notes about his
character and the way he presented himself and the way his family responded. He is very
close with his mother. They have the same sense of humor and its almost as if just within
the two of them they share a lexis. The way they interact you can tell how close they are
and open in conversation they are. He felt so comfortable talking to her. As a single mom
she uses him a lot around the hose and depends on him for a lot of things. He is expected
to help around the house and fix things when theyre broken and help his younger
siblings with homework. In my opinion that is also, in itself an understood concept or
lexis in his family. He knows his responsibilities and how to act on them and his family
depends on him to know the responsibilities and do his part. He isnt as close with his
siblings, I believe because of he age gap but they do get along and you can tell how much
he cares for them. His brother Charley looks up to him so much. He knows Charley has
grown up without a dad and within their relationship they know how hard that is and so
Alex is there as a role model and someone that can provide a father figure for his brother.

By looking back at my observation notes I have inferred a lot about Alex and how this
contributes to my research. During this observation I gathered a lot about his personality,
identify and the way he interacts with the people within his home community. He isnt
very good at taking criticism. He pushes back and offers criticism for the other person.
He isnt mean or offensive by it; he just has a hard time accepting failure or error. I saw
how this carried over to his other communities through my other observation and I will
use this to compare how it affects the people in each one. Seeing him in person actually

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engaging with one of his communities made all the difference in understanding his
personality and use of communication in this discourse.
Does he act the same across all communities? Do people respond the same to how he acts?
Is he any different because Im there watching?

How do the communities he is in affect the people around him? What does each community
offer him as a person finding out who he is? How does he adjust to the literacies and
characteristics of each community?
Jones, Alex. Student Government. Observation. 8 Nov. 2014
I did a lot of the same methods for this observation as I did for the in home one. I
watched and listened to the discussions he had with others and their responses to his way
of communicating. I watched how as a whole they performed tasks, delegated power and
had an overall understanding of what needed to be done and who needed to do it.
Because this was a more exclusive group than his family, I was able to step back and
observe from even more of an outsider and watch his behaviors. He was a lot quieter than
he was with his family. He knew when to speak and give his ideas and when to sit back
and listen. He held the same values; he just didnt speak his mind as often. He doesnt
necessarily jump in and ask how he can help but when he is given a job he is very quick
to get it done and do it to the best of his abilities. I was surprised at how shy he was
acting around not so familiar people, compared to how he acts with his family. I think
that has to do with the expectations of that community. They all have set goals and ways
they want it done so he knows his role in that process and doesnt really step outside of
that. Looking at details, this community, being specific to the schools leadership, use

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lexis and vocabulary that not many people outside of that community would understand.
This was a change from his home setting where most of the conversations were common
and universal. They discussed community give-backs and the Hayley Hustle which is
a 5k they organize. They were concerned with spirit days and class contributions all
things that as a group understand what went into these and what they were composed of.

Using this for my research will significantly help in understanding his way of adjusting to
the communities lexis and how well he stays true to the person he is while just slightly
changing his behavior for the requirements of the community. I did see a similarity in
both. When given criticism or something he needed to improve on in Student
Government, he was a little more polite than he was with his mom with his response but
he still responded with an excuse or alternative rather than accepting it and moving on.
When I look at the interview and both observations as a whole I can start comparing
interactions and gather a better understanding of Alex as a person.
How does each of his communities connect and contribute to his daily life? What more can
I observe to better understand his role in the communities?

How does he adjust to the literacies and characteristics of each community?

Swales, John. ''The Concept of Discourse Community." Genre Analysis: English in Academic
and Research Settings. Boston: Cambridge UP, 1990.21-32. Print.
In Swales article, in the section A Conceptualization of Discourse Communities he
discusses how in a community it shares characteristics, languages and a way of
communicating ideas. He specifically illustrates 6 characteristics that define a discourse

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community. These include A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common
public goals. A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among
their members. A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to
provide information and feedback. A discourse community utilizes and possesses one or
more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims. In addition to owning genres, a
discourse community has acquired some specific lexis. A discourse community has a
threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal
expertise. He further explains each of these and talks about how within the communities
there are unique concepts of language and goals. Each of the six characteristics share a
common theme, that a discourse community is any group of people that share a common
goal and using their identities have a specific use of language and way of sharing these
ideas.

By using Swales article for my research I can better understand the meaning of discourse
communities. I can use his interpretation to academically look at my observations and
then in turn make my own interpretations of communities. Without fully understanding
the meaning of a discourse communities and how they work, I cannot truly look at my
research from an academic viewpoint and accurately analyze what it means. I will use his
information to compare my interview observations with his meaning of community. By
doing so I can see the similarities and differences of how Swales interprets the
interactions and what I am actually seeing.
How will I use this piece of information to further investigate Alexs languages and
behaviors in each community?