Micro-Activity #2: Introduction to Discourse Communities

Quote 1: ” Indeed, many types of Discourse Communities develop shorthand expressions, such as abbreviations and acronyms, to aid speed of communication.”

Response: What I found interesting about this quote was how a discourse community could start with something small but then expand to a place where they could come up with ways to communicate with each other that they may only understand, it’s like they have their own language. Looking in from a strangers point of view listening to a discourse community communicate you may not be able to understand or keep up, but with everything you start adapting to the situation you’re in.

Quote 2: ” As we move from one DC to another, our verbal and social behavior adapts to the new environment, but I do not believe that this necessarily implies that we adapt new identities, or what we are somehow merely an aggregation of different personae.”

Response: When picking this quote what I found interesting is how it connects well with the first quote. Once you’re in a new discourse community you would think that you may have to change yourself so you could ” fit in” but often times that’s a misconception. Adapting to new verbal and social behavior shouldn’t have anything to do with changing your personae. Your personae is your character it’s who you are which shouldn’t change into a whole new identity once you’re in a new environment.

Discourse Community 1: The first discourse community I participate in is my dance group. In this group we all communicate with each other when it comes to dance routines or places we are going to be dancing at. Often times we meet up with other groups and talk about our performances, everybody has a different level of expertise but we all come together to perform as one. When communicating with one another we usually point out if we made mistakes and describe certain dance moves and what the correct form is.

Discourse Community 2:  The second discourse community I participate in is being a volunteer in a rehabilitation and healthcare center. As a volunteer I was told to follow certain rules and I was told to look at the centers policies. I was able to help elders and communicate with staff such as nurses, receptionist, and physical therapist as well as staff who would work in the offices who did all the paperwork. While volunteering there how I would hear them communicate was through codes, at first I was always confused but as time went on I understood more.

Discourse Community 3: The third discourse community I participate in is the college I’m currently attending. As a student I interact with different students and professors in different classes, although it’s different classes the goal remains the same which is to learn and get a better understanding of the subject. There is various way we communicate with each other but the most common one is either through emails or text messages we get to exchange information with one another and expand our knowledge.