Justin Ervin Professor Schley English 1101 27 October 2013 The Community of Mechanical Engineers In our world today,

Mechanical Engineering is one of the most important occupations. I choose the American Society of Mechanical Engineers because it serves a diverse pool of members who are create and modify machines to improve our way of living. I hope to find how do the characteristics of the discourse group American Society of Mechanical Engineers further the community or help them reach their goals. A discourse community is a group of people who have a common goal or interest and adopts certain preferred ways of participating in public discussion. According to Swales, there are six characteristics that a community needs to be a discourse community. The six characteristics that a discourse community needs are broadly agreed set of common public goals, mechanisms of intercommunication among its members, uses its participatory mechanisms to provide information and feedback, utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims, acquired some specific lexis, and has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise. Literacy and Contemporary Theory One of those characteristic is that the community needs to have a broadly agreed set of common public goals. People have always used the process of setting and chasing goals to achieve a desired outcome (Branick 558). From this quote we learn about common goals and how everyone in the community should share same motives or want the same thing. Starting with

Ervin 2 their common goals, American Society of Mechanical Engineers goals are to reach all planned deadlines for making proposals, budgets, and events. During a semester, they usually create about three main deadlines. One of their biggest goals is right now is to attend HPVC (Human Powered Vehicle Challenge) competition next year. Also have goals to serve worldwide communities by disseminating and applying engineering knowledge for improving the quality of life, but also communicating the excitement of engineering. Another characteristic that the community needs to be discourse community is to have methods of intercommunication among its members. A range of practices specific to groups and individuals of different cultures, races, classes, and genders (Mirabelli 542). The members in American Society of Mechanical Engineers exchange information in three different ways. The different ways they exchange information are Facebook, OrgSync, and email. Email is their primary source of communication because they use it to send messages to inform other members in the community about speakers, meetings, and competition information. They still use Facebook and OrgSync very often. They use Facebook to post pictures of events and also post reminder for meetings. On their OrgSync page they shared files for their projects. They also have their constitution of society on OrgSync, which states all the rules and structure of the community. One more characteristic that the community needs to be discourse community is to uses it participatory mechanisms to provide information and feedback. In American Society of Mechanical Engineers, they use online forums and meetings to share information that could improve the society. At the end of every month they hold a meeting where they give feedback on how they improved the performance in their projects.

Ervin 3 One of those characteristic is that the community needs is utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in communicative furtherance of its aims. In the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, they use several different types of genres which are newsletters, magazines, articles, research journals, and books. They use these different types of genres to find the solutions that benefit humanity. Also from these genres they learned some lexis, which is another characteristic of Swales. Lexis is just some specific terminology used in the community. "Most commonly, however, the inbuilt dynamic towards an increasingly shared and specialized terminology is realized through the development of community-specific abbreviations and acronyms" (Swales 473). In ASME, the terminology they use is a lot of engineering jargon. Examples of words they say are nanotubes and mechatronics. Nanotubes are small cylindrical structures and mechatronics is the combined interaction of mechanical engineering, electronic control and systems thinking in the design of products and manufacturing processes. Someone who is not in engineering might have a hard time understand what they are saying. The final characteristic of Swales is that the community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise. There are four different levels of authority in American Society of Mechanical Engineers which are the Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer. Authority is bestowed by institutions, can be just as easily withdrawn by those same institutions or its members, and must be maintained through appropriate expressions of authority (Wardle 525). This relate to American Society of Mechanical Engineers because authority is very important for this organization to be successful. The way they are given authority is by be vote in by the other members in the organization. Their term of authority starts in January and ends in December. Most of the officers are also member the National American Society of Mechanical Engineers which allows them to provide very

Ervin 4 useful information to everyone in the organization. This also allows them to participate in national competition like HPVC. Methodology The way I did my research on American Society of Mechanical Engineers is by interviewing people who were in the community at University of North Carolina at Charlotte. I also collect documents that they use for communication in and out of their meetings. I also observed them during a few of their HPVC (Human Powered Vehicle Challenge) meetings. My sources are the documents I collected, the interview with Pheng Vang and Justin Holland. Pheng Vang is the Chair of the organization and Justin Holland is just one of the members. In interview with Pheng Vang, I learned about the core values, common goals and history of American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Also I learned about how they use authority in their organization. From the authority how everyone look up to him to get tasks done. In the other interview with Justin Holland, I learned about how the members give the officers of the organization authority. Another source I have is what I observed during Human Powered Vehicle Challenge meetings. I chose American Society of Mechanical Engineers is because I was personally interest in the community. The reason why I have personal interest in the community because they use computers to design the machines then they build them in real life. American Society of Mechanical Engineers American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an engineering society that was founded in 1880. They are also a research and development organization that provides training and education for people in Mechanical Engineers field. Everyone in the ASME share the same core values which are Embrace integrity and ethical conduct, Embrace diversity and respect

Ervin 5 the dignity and culture of all people, Nurture and treasure the environment and our natural and man-made resources, Facilitate the development, dissemination and application of engineering knowledge, Promote the benefits of continuing education and of engineering education, Respect and document engineering history while continually embracing change, and Promote the technical and societal contribution of engineers. The kinds of the people that you find in American Society of Mechanical Engineers are students who have a passion for Mechanical Engineering, but they are not the only ones that participate in this community. My Observations The way I observe American Society of Mechanical Engineers was by attending some of their HPVC meetings in Mechanical Engineering building which were October 3 and October 10 at 6:30pm. In their meetings, they have two teams which are the Aero team and Chassis team. The Aero team was working on a design for a more aerodynamic bike and the Chassis team was working on a mechanical machine. Throughout the meeting the members were constantly using different technical talk. I also saw everyone always questioning the Chair, Pheng Vang, about different with the model of the bike to the stress on the bent metal on the mechanical machine. The mechanical machine is a robot that they designed to do different tasks or challenges. Conclusion So after comparing Swales six characteristics of a discourse community to American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), we can say that they correspond perfectly to this discourse community. There are many characteristics that American Society of Mechanical Engineers has that would allow them to reach their goals. An example of one of characteristics that allow them to reach their goals is them using different methods of intercommunication with their members. If they did not use any methods of intercommunication, they would have a very

Ervin 6 hard time completing their projects on time or at all. Another example of one of characteristics that allow them to reach their goals is their core values of organization which are rely on for honesty and trustworthiness. It is important for them to always have honesty and trustworthiness in Mechanical Engineering so they can improve the quality of life.

Ervin 7 Cited Work Branick, Sean. Coaches Can Read, Too: An Ethnographic Study of a Football Coaching Discourse Community. Writing About Writing. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 557-573. Print. Holland, Justin. Personal interview. 1 Oct. 2013. Mirabelli, Tony. Learning to Serve: The Language and Literacy of Food Service Workers. Writing About Writing. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 539-555. Print. Swales, John. The Concept of Discourse Community. Writing About Writing. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 468-479. Print. Wardle, Elizabeth. Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces. Writing About Writing. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 521-535. Print. Vang, Pheng. Personal interview. 10 Oct. 2013.

Ervin 8 Annotated Bibliography Branick, Sean. Coaches Can Read, Too: An Ethnographic Study of a Football Coaching Discourse Community. Writing About Writing. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 557-573. Print. Summarize Assess In Branick`s article, he talks about his findings of a football coaching discourse community that he was studying form. Branick talked about that there are five important parts to goal focused coaching. For example, a coach must help the player set goals that coincide with his values. He later talks about the characteristics of an effective coach which he said that coaches in team sports must be organized before stepping onto the playing field. Lastly, he talks about confidence in coaching. He explained that coaches who are makes their plans and play the game using their imaginations are more likely to find any strengths or weaknesses in their plans. Reflection This article will be helpful for me because it shows me what ethnography looks like. I never have seen ethnography before so it would be very hard when I have to write one. He has his paper organized very well. For example, he added title to different section of his paper like Goal-Focused Coaching. I hope I can make my ethnography as good as this one. Studying the discourse community of football coaching Goal-focused coaching Characteristics of an effective coach Confidence in coaching

Ervin 9 Mirabelli, Tony. Learning to Serve: The Language and Literacy of Food Service Workers. Writing About Writing. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 539-555. Print. Summarize Assess In the beginning of Mirabelli`s article, he talks about how a lot of people today assume that people who are in the food service industry do have an education. Later talks about the literacy and contemporary theory. Where the key proponent of this conception of literacy states that to be literate mean to have control of a socially accepted association. Next he talks about how he relied on some of the methodological tools from the work of Hull. Then talks about Lou`s restaurant which is a privately owned diner restaurant patterned style that is very popular. A pattern where there is an open kitchen layout with a counter where individual customers can come and sit. Lastly, he talks about the menu which is the most important printed text used by waiters and waitresses. It dramatically affects how they are able to do their work. Reflection This article will helpful for me because it shows how important language is for us. Mirabelli also gives us a great example of a discourse community when he was talking people in the food service. Literacy and Contemporary Theory Methodology Lou`s Restaurant The Menu

Ervin 10 Swales, John. The Concept of Discourse Community. Writing About Writing. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 468-479. Print. Summarize Assess In the beginning of Swales` article, he talks about what discourse community is and clarifies the different term of discourse community. Then later on he starts talking about what a community and how they relate to discourse communities. Next Swales talks in great detail about six characteristics that he believes are need for a community to be a discourse community. Lastly, Swales talks about how there are sometime misconceptions that are placed or go with different discourse communities. Reflection This article will be helpful when I writing my own ethnography about my discourse community. The reason is because it explains what a discourse community is, which is a community that I have never heard of until now. After reading Swales article, I now have idea of what discourse community is. A need for clarification Speech Communities and Discourse Communities A conceptualization of Discourse Community Remaining Issues in Discourse Community

Wardle, Elizabeth. Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces. Writing About Writing. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 521-535. Print.

Ervin 11 Summarize Assess In Wardle`s article, she focuses on how people adapt to new discourse communities which is big thing that happen in workplaces. She also explains how you must find your own identity in discourse community. She does state that it is important for you to figure out who has authority in the community. She also include example of discourse community with the story of Alan who is a computer support specialist. Who is trying to adapt to the discourse community in his place. In his workplace writing is very important, which was a problem for because Alan did not write in the way the community member saw as appropriate. Reflection This article will be helpful for me because Wardle includes an example of a discourse community where someone is trying to adapt to. Now I can relate to people who are not able to fit in with the discourse community around them. Identity in the workplace Authority in the workplace Learning to write in a new workplace Alan`s Story