Karen Flores

English 1301
Discourse community response
My mother, my brother, my friend, my boyfriend, my classmates, and my costumers.
These are some of the people that make a part of my discourse community. A discourse
community are groups that have goals or purpose, and use communication to achieve these
goals. (John Swales) These people are essential in my day to day life. Language, topics, genre,
purpose, and conventions are the most important factors in order to being able to join and stay in
each of the communities.
In order to join my family discourse community, you must be born in or marry a family
member of the community. The communication with my mother throughout a text or email my
brother and me always have to write a greeting, have appropriate spelling, and we always talk in
Spanish just like every other conventional Hispanic families. Buenos Dias, me podria hacer un
favor? is an example of a text message I would send my mother in case I need her help for
anything. We talk to her in this formal ways because our family has always being really strict
with their traditions and has always enforced us to communicate with all adults this way because
it shows respect to older generations. In my family some of the most common topics is school,
and encouragement. My family has a strong family union, even if the rest of my family members
dont live close to us we have never lost communication with them. In order to keep that strong
bond we have between our family we call each other almost every day and have family reunions
either in Juarez or at my house every other weekend to talk about school, our lives, about any
family events, sports, or just to have dinner together.

In my friends community joining is really simple we just need to get to know each other
and befriend me. I believe this environment if more casual and not at all formal. I have many
friends but one of the longest friendship Ive had is with my best friend Sonia we met in middle
school and ever since we have being inseparable. Even though we now go to different schools
and have our own schedules now we always try to keep in touch by getting together at least once
a week, and texting each other every day. Our conversations topics have changed over the years,
but nowadays we mostly talk about school, homework, family, and relationships. Even though
we communicate with each other more informally we always try to be respectful and patient with
each other in order to avoid any arguments. My boyfriend Alexis and I have being together for
three years now and in order to keep our relationship going even if it can be difficult due to the
fact that he is deployed and the time zones are really different we always try to find the way to
talk to each other. We may not talk much or see each other as often as other couples but we work
together in order for our relationship to keep working. Sending letters, Skype, and texting are
some of the ways we try to keep our communication going, some of the topics we talk about is of
what we did during the day, school, family, work, friends, and many other things.
The academic discourse community in order to join this community you must be
accepted to the University of Texas at El Paso, the process may be hard but it is not impossible.
The language for this community is mostly formal English. In order to communicate with the
professors and other students our tone and voice must be appropriate. The communication
between the professors and students is mostly about school rules, attendance, assignments,
homework, and the rules and consequences of plagiarism. Students can keep in touch with their
professors thru blackboard, emails, blogs, and some of them thru text messages. It is important

for students to keep in touch with their professors in order to be able to successfully complete the
course and be able to receive their diploma.
In my manicurist job the environment is more professional. Being able to join the
community was wonderful, all I had to do is attend to a school in Juarez for six months and get a
certificate. Thanks to this course I am now able to make some extra money by making my
costumers happy with my job. It may not be easy to get many costumers but I never gave up. By
creating many flyers and knocking many doors I was able to get many costumers, and I now
have my own personal space in my house for my costumers to be comfortable while having a
professional manicure done. In order to make appointments and keep in touch with my
costumers I send emails, make calls, or through a text message.
In order to being able to join and being able to keep a place in a community in todays
society communication is one of the most important factors. Understanding the different types of
environments between each community and the different way of language and respect can be
very essential to be able to succeed in that community.