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Zianya De la mora English 1311 Discourse Community Response To communicate within our own discourse communities we must know how to express our ideas so they can understand the information we are trying to transmit. Writing is the most common way of communication, and can be done through several technologies and devices. To make sure we give our audience an appropriate idea of what we are writing we have to choose a purpose. This is going to help us to communicate our ideas more efficiently. Also, is important to adjust our tone, media, context, etc.; to our audience. This will facilitate the communication between ourselves and the communities we belong to. In my family which is one of my discourse communities the communication is very informal. Of course, the tone I use to talk to my brother, which is relaxed and many times involving jokes, is different from the tone I use to talk to my parents. With my parents the tone is informal but respectful. The main purpose of writing within this community is to let each other know about how our day was or to give a short message. For example, Mom, I am going to stay at my friends house. Talk to you later. To communicate with the members of this community, the most common media and genre used are face to face conversations, phone calls, texting, short notes, and sometimes emails. When I text my brother I use a lot of emoticons, while with my parents the use of those is limited. The topics we usually talk about are daily events and future plans, like vacations. The main guidelines or rules within this community are to talk with respect

and tolerance. With my family, Spanish is the primary language used because is our native language. We speak Spanish all the time. We use phra ses like Cuentame que hiciste hoy?, or Cuales son los planes para el otro fin de semana?. To become a member of this community you are born into one. The second discourse community I belong to is Forensic Science majors peers. My audience are my peers who are studying the same as me, and instructors who we communicate while studying in this field. The purpose to write within this community is to share ideas, knowledge, and information related to our field of study. Emails, face to face conversations, notes, reports, and essays are the most common genre used. We usually talk about classes, assignments, and job opportunities. The main conventions in this community is to be respectful and use an appropriate language, no rambling. While writing a report or an essay we must follow certain guidelines like an APA format, in this way our grades will be high and good enough to obtain a passing grade. Most of the work we turn it to our instructors is by e-mail, but sometimes we give some papers during class. The tone we use with our peers is informal but not necessarily relaxed. The tone changes to a more formal one while talking to your instructors, you must sound more professional. English is the language we use the most, but sometimes we also speak Spanish to communicate with our peers. A place where we use a specialized language can be during bio-lab classes. In here we must use specific terms to complete our assignments correctly. For example, how to write a lab report, or what are the steps of the scientific method. The tone we use here is more objective, rather than emotional. To be part of this community, you need to have a high school diploma, take some exams, apply to college, and then select forensic science as your major.

Friends are my third discourse community. The people I communicate with in this community are my closest friends. The purpose of writing is simply to talk to each other whenever we need it. The most common media and genre is texting, but of course we use phone calls, face to face conversations, emails, and snapchats which are a picture and text. The subjects we tend to talk about are movies, music, gossip, relationships, and daily events. The tone we use is relaxed, informal, and sometimes even silly, but sometimes we talk about serious stuff and our tone changes a little bit. Sometimes our tone is very loud and happy, for example while you are singing your favorite song with your best friend. Or it can change and be almost a whisper. We really have no guidelines, we tell each other what we think in a very open and sincere way, and mostly we use an appropriate language. We use both, English and Spanish as languages to communicate between us. A kind of specialized language we use is to send and SOS text, this mean that is really important to see or talk to the other person. To be a part of this community you must earn friendship by trusting, caring and helping each other. The fourth discourse community I belong to is a tennis club. The audience would be all the members of this club, mostly players and instructors. The main purpose to write in this community is to give information to others about events related to tennis. The most common media and genre we use is face to face conversations or by email. The most common subjects we tend to talk about are practices, tournaments, health, tips, and matches of professional tennis players. The tone we use with our instructors is a little bit more formal than the tone we use with other players. The guideline that we follow is being respectful. Mostly we use and informal language, sport related. The specialized language we use is mostly about terms used inside the sport, you need to

know the basic terms used in tennis. Sometimes we have inside jokes. To become a member of this community you go the facility, fill out some information pages, and finally they give you a membership. Today is really important to know how to communicate with others. Knowing how to use an appropriate tone, context, genre, and media is really useful to have successful communication skills. If we modify these according to each one of our discourse communities, communication would be easier and the audience will respond better to us.