It is astonishing how the world revolves around communication and writing. Most individuals are involved in several discourse communities in the four areas of life: academic, professional, personal, and civic. A discourse community is a social group that communicates through written texts and shares common goals, specialized vocabulary, and genres. The discourse communities I am involved in are being a pharmacy student, working as a pharmacy technician intern, friends, and a HOSA volunteer. Various methods of written, oral, or visual communication are exhibited in these discourse communities. One way I have shown these communities is through a discourse community map.
The academic area of my life involves being a pharmacy student. In this discourse community we share common goals such as studying, earning good grades, achievement into pharmacy school, and eventually becoming a pharmacist. Most pharmacy students share these goals. In order to communicate effectively with a professor, formal diction and professionalism is essential. When writing an E-mail to your professor you would use etiquette and include salutations. An E-mail to a peer could be less formal and use colloquial language. Genres included in this discourse community are E-mail, text messages, essays, phone calls, letters, and notes. This discourse community involves the context in writing because communication is an essential tool in order to be a successful student. Each genre can be formatted differently when speaking to various types of people. An E-mail to a professor would be more professional than writing a text message to them. A peer would probably prefer a text message than a phone call or E-mail. Specialized language such as Dr. Klein, PPO, and the Co-Op Program are used between pharmacy students when communicating about the pharmacy advisor, the Pharmacy Club and the Cooperative Program with UT Austin. To become a member of this discourse community you must apply to the program or decide to study this major when applying for college. My writing has developed through this discourse community by writing essays for classes and by learning more information from other peers and staff.
Communication is highly important for the professional aspect of life. Being a pharmacy technician intern has required me to use genres such as E-mail, prescriptions, text messaging, and staff meetings to communicate with other staff members. Getting information across to one another is vital for efficient working skills especially when dealing with a patient’s life. Conventions involved in this discourse community include filling prescriptions, assisting the pharmacist, and organizing the medication. All pharmacy technicians are responsible for completing these tasks in an efficient manner, so it is important for communication between patients and the pharmacy technician and/or between the pharmacists is clear and precise. Specialized language is used in order to communicate in a quicker and uniform manner; some phrases include prescription, NPO, and UTI. Becoming a member of this discourse community includes being a part of the Pine Forest High School Allied Health Science classes and applying for the internship. In this discourse community it is important to use professional language and be detailed when speaking to staff members and patients. Colloquial language would not fit into the genres of this community because specificity is necessary for the job.
My personal discourse community involves the way I communicate with my friends. We communicate through text messages, webcam, phone calls, and Facebook. I especially have to know how to write effectively through written genres since my friends live in other states. This discourse community involves specialized language such as saying Green Team and OMG and goals such as maintaining unity and respecting one another. It is easy to communicate with friends using colloquial specialized language because we created our own quick ways of communicating to each other through abbreviations such as OMG or BTW.
Lastly, the civic area of my life includes being a HOSA volunteer. As a volunteer I helped organize and advertise for the school blood drives. Genres that I used to communicate with others in this discourse community were through memos, text messages, Facebook, surveys, and E-mails. Professionalism is used throughout this discourse community because everyone must be serious and stay informed of all information. Conventions included helping people become knowledgeable of the blood drives, organize schedules and rosters, and assisting the staff. Communicating through advertisements was very important to recruit people to donate blood. Also, communicating to the audience such as the patients and other volunteers was important because they may not know all the information dealing with the blood drives. It is important to be specific and use formal instructions sent in E-mails and on data sheets. To become a member of this community you must be a student at Pine Forest High School and be a Junior or Senior.
My discourse community map was designed as a circle with four pieces to represent the four discourse communities. I believe that all discourse communities are connected because each one includes a type of communication that is essential for an effective society. I included pictures because I am a visual person and learn best, especially in writing, with a visual genre. Specificity is a key element to writing and creating an effective discourse community.
In various discourse communities different language is used to develop the writing of the community. In the academic area language and genres such as E-mails must be formal and professional when communicating with a professor or staff member. When communicating with a peer you may use colloquial language to exchange information. The professional and civic area requires formality when communicating with all audience members because information is vital and should be detailed so that no mistakes will occur. The personal aspect allows colloquial language to be used among friends using specialized language. When communicating through discourse communities it is essential to know how to communicate through the genres by knowing the goals of the community. Being specific may not be a necessity in all discourse communities but in order to achieve efficient communication there must be details or a type of specialized language.
