April Ann Pinones

RWS 1301
Discourse Community Essay
January 29, 2016
My Personal Discourse Community
Communication is a tremendous part of everyones daily life but it is in the tone and the
way we approach these certain communities in that make them different and group off into their
individual communities. By grouping the discourse communities I can better distinguish what
kind of writings, visuals, or orally I would approach each discourse community. There are
several different types of discourse communities I am a part of but four in particular are the most
important in my life. Education, family, dance and church are the discourse communities that
will be separated and distinguished among the purpose, vocabulary, genre and conventions of
each topic of discourse community.
Education is one of the first things on my discourse community map because it has
diverse content and it is also the most general community in my everyday life. I receive the most
education by attending the University of Texas at El Paso discourse community. The purpose for
education in my life is to be more organized, responsible, and collect all types of knowledge for
my career and learn in general. The audience would be classmates, professors, and tutors
provided by the university to better format a healthy lifestyle and techniques to receive better
grades. Known terms of the discourse community of UTEP are bleeding orange, the student
union, or the utep shuttles, in other words the school color, where the hangout and food is and
utep shuttles are buses that go around the UTEP campus. There are many ways on how the

university keeps connection even if I am at home. Blackboard, utep email, and attending at
school helps me stay connected within the community.
Family is considered to be my other discourse community because of the different social
communication. Rather than emailing my family like I would to my professors, I call them or
have more of a face to face interaction or through text. With my family I am able to act more
like myself and enjoy myself a little more than I would in a learning environment. The purpose
of family is to love one another and not be so serious like I normally would in any other
discourse community. The vocabulary is not necessarily hard, but simple like cookouts or game
night. In these interactions it is nothing but fun and family talk in our home, at the park, or
sometimes out at a restaurant. It is harder to be accepted into the family community because I
had to be born to be in the family but close friends are considered family as well.
Among these many discourse communities, the dance world falls under one of my
communities. Dancing can start at whatever age at a studio and enables the body to express itself
without having any words. The genre is a little more different than a family or school
environment would be because the huge room is filled with mirrors to see ourselves and make
better corrections and criticize more on the technique. The terms of vocabulary are a little more
difficult because ballet was introduced by the France so a lot of the words are in French. One of
the words usually used is plie and alisicone which means bend the knees like going into a jump
and alisicone means turns. The audience is much broader than any of the other discourses just
because during performances anyone and everyone will criticize even if they are not part of the
community.

The last discourse community anyone can participate in is church. The purpose of going
to church is to have more of a connection to God and inspire people to better know him on a
daily bases. Church can be held anywhere there are two or more people in agreement, so I attend
church all week. Jesus grace and salvation is the words of a starting point for beginners within
the church. What people do not realize is that through Jesus we are saved through his salvation
and all our illnesses and poverty is already paid for through the cross. I stay connected with the
church through social media and church every Sunday.
Education is the only discourse community that has all oral, visual and written literacies
with family, dance, and church is more oral and visual instead of written. Through the tone,
genre, conventions, vocabulary and purpose it is understood what discourse community each
category would appeal to specifically the communities audience.

Education
Purpose: To be organized, responsible,
and collect all types of knowledge for my
career and learn in general
Conventions: Email, blackboard,
attending the university, proper grammer
and citation according to the format
Vocabulary: bleeding orange, the student
union, or the utep shuttles
Genre: At home computer, the classroom,
eassys and notes
Speech: A higher educated answer and
questions

Family
Purpose: Is to love one another while
being ourself
Conventions: Face to face communication
or thorugh text
Vocabulary: cookouts or game night
Genre: At the park, restaurants
Speech: more relaxed response that is
more jokingly and comfortable

April Ann
Pinones
Dance
Purpose: Enables the body to express
itself without having any words
Conventions: In a dance room, using
French words for ballet terms
Vocabulary: Plie and Alisicone
Genre: More of a visual and oral genre
Speech: Mostly in French and visually
demonstrating the movement counting in
eight count

Church
Purpose: Is to have more of a
connection to God and to get to know
him on a daily bases
Conventions: At the church or
anywhere
Vocabulary: Jesus grace and salvation
Genre: A written speech of the pastor
given orally to the audience
Speech: Promoting on what a great
God we have, teachings on the bible