Crowley 1

Alex Crowley Megan Keaton English IIIII July 9, 2013 Here there are two discourse communities being discussed, a community college English class and a social online media known as Facebook. More often than not writing is a social act, and what was written is meant to be read, and read by a particular audience. Depending on this audience, there will be certain constraints. These constraints form what a person says and how its said. Over the content of this paper there will be explained characteristics of b oth communities allowing for comparison and contrast. Everyone has a sense of being, and at times people may feel alone, even in a crowded room. To deal with this loneliness people develop methods to occupy their minds and interest. People search for a mate, or several, or pursue a hobby or carrier. One thing they have in common is that they find themselves in a community, with or around those who have similarities in some way. People enjoy being around others like them, those with similar interest and pursuits. Often a person is seen and even judged based of those associated with that person. What the people around them do can greatly impact a view on the individual. In the English class mention earlier, there are several participants. The community is mostly made up of students. These students are between the ages of 18 and 23 all with common roles and goals. They dress similar, wearing casual summer wear often more than not

Crowley 2

sandals and something comfortable perhaps to focus on the real reason they are there, to learn to write. The community meets Monday through Thursday unless otherwise emailed a change in schedule by a teacher and also students are expected to frequently check their Moodle. Moodle is an online website that helps students and teachers stay in communication. To log into Moodle one will need their CPCC login thats created when signing up to the larger community that this English discourse community is within, and using that login to create yet another login for Moodle. This important stuff and will greatly impact communication. The community is expected to learn and understand these means of communicating that will be essential to progress, let alone keep up, with the class. However some people are only there to pass and get the credit. It shows in a persons writing, how interested they are. The class is allowed three absences and every three late offences count as an absence. Every tardy and late there after brings down the students grade by a letter grade. This is yet another way to see how much effort is put into the class as many students show up early every day, some show up right on time, and several have stopped showing up at all. Even with a couple members dropping out of the community, the community is still going strong and maybe even more efficiently now that there are less people. Also in their speaking, half the class doesnt talk much and when they do its almost reserved, quiet, and forced though opinionated. Not everyone knows each others name, so the teachers assigned nametags to help with unity of the community. The teacher however is quite talkative and friendly; unlike some students the teacher enjoys the material of the community. The teacher is the leader and the students are the apprentices. While some people never speak or at least hardly, others speak openly. There are those there to learn and to try, those there to pass, and one to teach them all. To be assigned those

Crowley 3

positions depends greatly on the amount of effort put in. How one feels can really show in their action and writing. A common role of the students however is writing. Be it into their blog, daybook, or papers the students aim is to improve and be prepared for the next level English class. The role of the teacher is to teach obviously, if no one talks she forces a talking game, she gives topics and assigns homework which greatly effects what is and can be written, grades the classrooms work and supervises over their writing.. Now as for the roles and goals of Facebook do note there will be a number of differences and similarities. Both communities write but in entirely different ways. Anyone can join Facebook, and get on at any time. It is a social media with the goal of keeping in touch with people and meeting new people, all while describing who the users are through pictures and pages and written comments. Communication allows instant messaging, emailing, wall posting, page poking, commenting, sharing and several other options in which to communicate. Facebook is connected throughout the world. The goal is to create a page that reflects who a person is that created the page and then links it up with other pages that people made to create a social circle bringing people closer together. They have relationship status, and family relation section. Theres even a block button for those unwanted annoying pests or creeps. All attempts to personalize a persons page. Oh look Aerial just poked a page. Email her back! All is possible on Facebook. The users are expected to show public decency when on the web. What is put on the Internet is forever on the Internet. People act differently on the Internet. There are several roles on Facebook. Some people want attention and say funny things, some people are on too often, and others dont seem to be on hardly at all. There are the creeps, the stalkers, bored news feed scroller, and even programmers to keep the site running efficiently. A

Crowley 4

particularly funny one is the ever so not tough, tough guy who feels protected by their computer monitor. Everyone, however frequent a user, is allowed all the options Facebook has even posting a personal status that reflects the users current thoughts and feelings. Aerial liked that status; she must want a poke back! Its easier than ever to communicate and keep in touch with close friends and family. Facebook reminds people of upcoming events and birthdays to help keep track of whats going on in peoples lives. If a users mother is coming to town and its her birthday, Facebook will have a reminder and an upcoming event alert if set prior. If she will be leaving in a few days one wouldnt mentioned the crazy wild party they are attending the day after on their status update. Again we see restraints in what one says. There are many restraints when on the web just as there are in public. One must act decent and mannered at least to a degree and based on who is present. If theres someone that the user would rather not attend the mentioned crazy wild party such as an x with harsh feelings and a motive for raining on their parade then there is another restraint keeping the user from mentioning this on their status. Thanks to the privacy setting however, individual status may be set to be seen by selected friends. If the user decides they want to spread the word about the party to all of their friends on Facebook, they have the option of making a status that cannot be seen by selected people such as family. People might then go and make a status that might be seen by their friend in common that the user didnt intend to let know about the party. Another option is to simply message any friends the user wishes to invite along. They could like a picture or send a poke to start a conversation and after some light conversation inform them about the upcoming best night of their lives.

Crowley 5

Both these communities have several genres of writing. Lets focus on one for each. In English, lets look at the blog mentioned prior. The blog is due weekly every Monday, and the teacher may ask for on occasion additional entries for homework .It is organized through the daybook also mentioned earlier. The daybook is where the students write their thoughts and reflections on the topics assigned by the teacher. Every week the student must pick one entry from their book and submit it to their blog. With this, also required is a response to the entry describing why that entry was chosen, what the main idea is and what it means to the student. Now, anyone can see this post compared to the daybook which no one but that student may ever see. The teacher will read it to grade, be careful what is said. This is a type of constraint, public decency and being a good student. The student wants to come off as intelligent to some degree and to pass the assignment by following those rules. If a student wants to be viewed as good or intelligent they would reframe from taking short cuts in their grammar, spell out words correctly and compose complete sentences. In a paper the student writes three or more drafts which are revised and organized. The first two drafts are posted online to their blog. If the student did a good job the online blog that will be viewed and graded by the teacher will have well thought out, well transitioning, and well organized thoughts expressed. A major genre of writing on Facebook and the most commonly used is the users profile Status updates. This is intended to allow the user to write freely whatever they choose. Facebook has even been described as an overbearing girlfriend. When forming a status it asks whats on your mind? and inquires additional information Where are you? Who are you with? And it needs to know all of the persons friends too! This generally is used to express thought and to inform a circle of friends whats currently going on in that users life. The cool

Crowley 6

things about this is the user can inform people of what has happened or what has been on their mind, what is currently going on and what theyre thinking about, and whats upcoming in the ir life. Often the writer writes for particular people hoping they see it, hinting at something trying to make someone think or even respond with a comment, a like, or a message. Like in life, online, people like to play games. They are not direct or straight forward and a lot of meaning from action can be assumed. When someone randomly likes an old photo on a users profile, it means they were digging deep and really looking into the profile. This could mean they were bored, or that they wanted Facebook to inform the user they were for some reason looking into them. Maybe its a crush or an old friend reflecting on good times. If someone pokes the user or messages them out of the blue with little to say, someone may think they wanted something. In the status the users are allowed to Tag people who cause their profile to alert the user that they were mentioned in the status. Depending on whose friends with the user on Facebook and privacy settings almost anyone can see the users status, this causes a big restraint. Perhaps the user has family online, or a girlfriend or x girlfriend. This can all very greatly impact what is, and what is not said.