FAMILY

EDUCATION

Activities

Activities

Lunch, go to dinner, sometimes travel, we

meet each Sunday at my grandmothers house
to talk, watch movies, eat.

Projects, take notes, study, lectures,

research, homework, exams, quizzes.

Language
Language within family can be informal or
casual. Mainly Spanish. Elders are talked to
with respect. We talk about how is it going for
us, concerns, problems, successes.

Language
Informal or formal depending on whom
you are talking to, it can be teachers,
students, faculty, friends.
Members

Members

Students, teachers, faculty, staff,

friends, even family members.

Siblings, mother, father, grandparents, uncles,

cousins.

Written Forms

Written Forms
Text messages mainly because they live in
Ciudad Juarez, sometimes birthday cards,

FRIENDS
Activities

E-mails, texts, notes, Windows Office

documents, presentations, exams,
reports.

CARLOS
EDUARDO
ORTA Activities

ORCHESTRA

Go to concerts, parties, study, do projects,

live together, go to clubs, bars, drink,
jokes, occasional traveling.

Rehearsals, study, listen to music,

travel.

Language

Language

Formal in presence of authority like family

or teachers, but informal within ourselves,
sometimes inappropriate. We talk about
parties, we make jokes, experiences.

Can be informal with friends

(orchestra members) and formal
and respectful with teachers and
conductors. We talk about music,
pieces, how to play a passage,
rehearsal times, but also chill and
hang out.

Members
Past schools students, cousins, siblings,
people from extracurricular activities such
as orchestra, church, gym, parties.
Written Forms
Texts, E-mails.

Members
Musicians, sometimes school
friends and students, conductors
and teachers.
Written Forms

Discourse Community Response

Carlos Eduardo Orta

RWS 1301

My discourse community map talks about the stages of my daily life and,
who is in it, what we do, how we talk and what we talk about, and how writing plays
a role in it.
How I manage my four different discourse communities is in the difference
between how to communicate with each one. My family has a casual, not that
informal and relaxed way of being. We do respect the adults in it, but sometimes
we can communicate with them as if we were talking to friends. We hang out on
Sundays, talk about our week, and watch some TV together, dinner. It is not a
formal environment as in school talking to teachers or faculty or my orchestra
conductor. The way we interact and the time we have been interacting in this way
gives confidence to talk informally between us. Because of this we do not use a
formal type of media like e-mails or letters, a simple informal text message is
sufficient for an effective communication. We also use birthday cards once in a
while or memos for the grocery, but not that often; technology is widely used in my
family. The goals of a family is to be good with everyone and keep in touch with
important events for our members.
Formal conventions and writing are used in mainly in school to talk with a
teacher or for an interview. It is different to write an email to a professor that to
write one to a friend, this because we are to show our professionalism in college

and not at home. Friends do not need this professionalism. Of course, when
working with partners for a project or homework we do need to make it as formal
as we can to present it, but while making the assignment we as friends can be
having an informal conversation or way of working, we can even text to remind
someone to finish a part of the assignment. The final work, however, needs to be
presented formally with proper conventions for the professor. Faculty is to be
communicated with respect also; we do not know this people very well, maybe
even less than our professors. This lack of confidence drives us to treat these
people with formal language. They also will talk formally to us and maybe with time
when they get to know us well and our potential we can now talk and write them in
a more casual way, but not in an informal one because of their authority over ours.
When in our hobbies we feel in confidence with what we like to do and we
are surrounded by people who share these interests with us, so I can say that
when I am at rehearsals with my orchestra I can treat others with this sense of
relaxation and casualty. We talk about music, composers, pieces, but we also hang
out as friends and partners. The goal of the orchestra is always to get better to
present a good concert. We work together to achieve this goal, with our teachers
and conductors, but the environment within these rehearsals is also relaxed
because we are all musicians and share that hobby of making music (including
teachers and conductors). The conductor however is to be treated with a little more
respect because of his authority over the orchestra. We do not send emails or text
to him or her that often and if we do it will obviously be formal, but in person we

can be more casual and informal with him because we are in that relaxed
environment of study and jokes at the same time.
The social circle of friends is the more informal and relaxed that there can be.
With friends we feel comfortable with a informal way of talking or writing because
we know they feel the same way. Confidence is key for an affection relationship
and speciation is not that high to achieve with a friend. We usually have friends
that have the same age as ourselves and that is a factor that matters because
there is no real authority over each other. The way of writing in this area is fully
informal and free to choose. People even text with different grammar when texting
with friends, including me, grammar that I definitely should not use with teachers,
nor parents nor grandparents, nor my orchestra director. These forms of
communication can often be a little offensive but when we feel in that confidence
bubble it really doesnt matter. We even make activities I wouldnt do with even my
parents; like going to a club or a party or drinking, or going to concerts, this
because the environment with friends is a totally different one than with other social
areas of our lives. The communication with each aspect of our daily basis is based
on the environment you are at and who you are with.
Today, we use different conventions to communicate with loved ones,
professionals, and partners. These depend on our surroundings and how we
manage them. Text that is used within our daily lives is based on the specific
discourse communities we belong to and the ones we are targeting for to
communicate. An effective writing is achieved by knowing our audiences to then
know how to transmit it.