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Wyatt Sefranek
Grant
UWRT 1101
11/24/14
Discourse Community Ethnography: Chem 1251
In this paper I will be explaining how the Chem 1251 Classes at UNC Charlotte are a
discourse community based on John Swales Six criteria and the idea presented in Ann M. Johns
article Discourse Communities and Communities of Practice: Membership, Conflict and
Diversity. Chem 1251 is a chemistry class offered at UNC Charlotte for mainly freshman and
sophomores. It is the entry level class to advanced chemistry and is a very challenging class for
most incoming freshman.
The main goals of the Chem 1251 discourse community are to learn the basics of
advanced chemistry, to understand all of the concepts taught in the class, and of course to pass
the class with the best grade possible. There are many tools for intercommunication in the
community that include emails, lectures from the instructor, TASL, texting and calling using
phones, and talking in person. The emails are used for multiple things, the instructors email there
students before every class to inform them on what will be covered, send them notes and practice
problem that will be used in class, and to notify students of any important events or changes. The
instructors and students also exchange emails when they are having problem in the class or on
the homework. The lectures from the instructors is the most important tool of
intercommunication, this is where the instructor teaches the students the material covered in the
class and helps prepare them for the quizzes and tests. If a student misses a couple of lectures
then the will most likely fail the class. TASL is a small class separate from the lecture class
where students get together to work on problems together. This is a very good way to get a better

understanding of the material and communicate with other students. The TASL instructors are
students who have taken the class and done very well in it, they help teach the students how to
solve problems that they are having trouble with. Texting and calling using cell phones is mainly
used by the students to get together and study for test and quizzes and to help each other with the
homework.
There is a lot of specific lexis in this community, many people would not understand
what was happening if two students were having a conversation about the class if they were not
in it or have taken the class in the past. One of the best examples of lexis is the periodic table and
the abbreviations of the elements. Most people know what the abbreviations for hydrogen (H)
and oxygen (O) are but many people would not be able to tell you what francium (Fr) or cesium
(Cs) are. The experts in the community would be the instructors and supplement instructors, and
in some cases students who had a vast experience with chemistry before taking the class. The
newcomers would be people who have little previous experience with chemistry or are doing bad
in the class and dont understand what is going on. To become an expert in this community, you
have to spend a lot of time studying the terms and topics covered in class and do the practice
problems, test, and quizzes provided by the teacher.
There is a lot of conflict going on in this community. The conflicts mainly come from
problems with authority in the form of the instructors of the class, the TASL instructors, and how
the tests are graded. Many students have problems with how the instructors teach their classes
compared to other instructors. From my own experience, my current instructor professor Arim is
a very smart man, but has no idea how to translate the material to the students in a way we would
be able to understand clearly. My class had instructor cover for professor Arim, the instructor
was able to teach the material in a much better way than professor Arim. I believe that is I was in

the other instructors class, I would be doing a lot better. Many other people have the same
feelings I do. During my interviews with fellow classmates Will Lennon and Anthony Johnson, I
asked them how they felt about professor Arims teaching style. I feel professor Arim speaks a
different language and then expects us to do well on the tests. I believe there are many other
teacher that could teach better than him (Lennon). Professor Arim is an intelligent man with a
wide plethora of knowledge. I feel that he covers the main topics within class time but is very
bad at transferring his knowledge to us via lecture (Johnson). Both of them had the same feeling
as me and many other students is his classes. This cause students to get angry at the teacher and
disrespect him in class. Many student also dont like there TASL instructors and feel they dont
know what they are doing. This causes student to not show up to TASL and can lead to bad
grades on the tests and they start to complain to the instructor and it becomes one big mess.
There are many elements of belongings that newcomers need to learn to be able to
understand what is going on in the class. The main things are to understand basic chemistry,
memorize most of the periodic table, and memorize the basic equations. UNC Charlotte has a
very diverse community with many different nationalities attending the university. Many of these
students take Chem 1251. There are many different ways to pronounce words in chemistry sense
it is taught all around the world. For example people born in the U.S. understand our measuring
system. People from other countries understand the metric system of measurement. Many
members in this community are stereotyped in many different ways. Most of the time it is by the
way you look and dress. There are a few women in my class that are from the Middle East and
wear a turban. Many people in the class avoided them and dont talk to them. Due to the way
some students dress and look, many people assume they care more about their social life, but
dont care about their education and vice versa.

The Chem 1251 community has many of the characteristics to prove that is its discourse
community according to john swales six criteria and Ann M. Johns article. This community is
represented by some of the smartest young students at this university. It takes a lot of hard work
and dedication to do well in this class. That hard work and dedication teaches student what it will
take to succeed in the world. The work done in the community will help establish a future for
many students to better their own lives and the lives of other through the field of chemistry if
they chose to pursue a career in the field.