Fernando Laverde

ENC 1101
11/12/14

Discourse Community
Throughout the school year Ive realized how much my writing has improved, but it wasnt easy.
It took time, a lot of practice, concentration, and dedication to learning how to become a better writer.
When I was introduced to ENC 1101, everything in terms of writing, understanding how writers think,
and do their work became easier. For the last section of our course we were guided through a concept
that helps us understand the peoples writings weve read throughout the semester, in other words
writers. In this last writing, weve been advised to understand what a discourse community is. When I
first understood what this meant, it brought an entirely new idea to mind. It showed me how one book,
with many different topics, was all behind the same front cover. This book was brought together, not
because its a story, or all the same subtopics, but because every writer had the same goal. This book
was to educate us, and show us that many different things, with hardly anything in common can still be
brought together by one idea. This is an example of a discourse community, a group of people that have
the same idea, or goal in mind. Even though many topics are different, and there is a variety of different
writers, the book explained it best, same goal, their own mechanism to communicate, they use their
knowledge and ability to provide information, utilizes one or more genres in their communicative
furtherance of its aim, they acquire specific lexis and a discourse community has a threshold level of
members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise. (Writing about Writing,
pg 221-222).
I considered the book Writing about Writing by Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs a discourse
community integrated in one book. We have writers like John Swales and James Paul Gee that explain
what discourse communities are, and it specifies what a discourse community should consist of. In

general this book has a lot of people that wrote in it, but all of them have the same goal. In my opinion,
every writer in the book wanted to inspire us to have a better understanding of how the writing process
works. Swales on page 222 of the book, gave an example of a discourse community, which is a
community that he is a part of. Hong Kong Study Circle is a hobby group that is emphasized in the
knowledge of the stamps of Hong Kong and their uses. He explains that there's at least 320 members all
around the world and some of them are rich people that can invest in world class collections, but theres
also people that are not as wealthy and purchase collectables that are not as rare and expensive. Hes
giving us an illustrated example of ordinary people that could be consider part of a discourse
community, all because they have one ending goal in mind, but absolutely nothing else in common.
There are many different ways we could separate this book, by different topics, ideas, or
authors. No matter how much these writings do not have in common, there was a goal, and that was to
give an understanding and educate the reader. Every topic is an educational writing. Each writer has a
different writing style, some styles that I may understand or relate to better. This book shows a prime
example of how people can have many different interests. The book also could be separated into
author, and where the authors originated from. This book shows how all these authors have the same
assumptions and values. The writers come together, as one, to discuss the common goal that they have
to create this book. Every section has its own way of teaching and educating the reader. Ive learned
many different ways to write, after reading this book. Now, I have a better understanding of how
discourse community relates to everyday life.
Here, at UCF, Im part of the mens soccer team. Im part of a family that was brought together
solely because of this school, and not because we have anything else in common with each other. We
have players from many different parts of the country. We have players from multiple different states.
We even branch out to speaking different languages, different skin types, and different styles of playing.
This shows how my life relates to this topic. Every single day we meet for practice, we all have different

problems in our lives, but we put all of those aside to set out for one main thing, and that is the game of
soccer. We may all have different interests, or different goals in life. At this point in time, we have the
same goal, and that is to put everything we have out on the field. We treat each other like family and
learn new things every day. In the end, we all want the same thing to come out of the journey of being a
college soccer player. I think this is a better way for me to understand what a discourse community is, it
helps me relate to my own life. This example is the exact way to understand the book as well. The
writers in the book are the same as the players on my team. Each person has their own interests, and
ways of doing life. Topics in each book are the same as the interested of each player, as if every player
was writing a paragraph by their own choice of topic, they would all the different. Yet, all the players
come together to create one team, and the team creates goals as a whole. I live my life every day in a
discourse community, and although we may not realize it, there are many different discourse
communities around us.
I attend school Monday through Friday, along with thousands of other student. I go to four
different classes, in which I may sit by someone I dont know, and have absolutely nothing in common
with, yet we sit there, in the same exact class, learning the same things. What does this other person
and I have in common? We both sit, and learn in the same class, to gain credit and pass that particular
class. I may never know who this person is, and ever understand their life, but we both contain some of
the same ending goals. Every student in my class is compelled to do the same homework, assignments,
quizzes, and tests that I do. We are all different people with different minds, held to the same standards.
We all have different approaches to getting to this goal, as do the writers in, Writing about Writing. It
is very seldom that we interact with each other, but we all come to the same conclusion at the end of
the day, and that is to pass whatever class it is that we are a part of. This is another example of
discourse community that I use in my everyday life.

Throughout the year, Ive received a better understanding about what writing really is. Ive
learned how to dissect a writing into many different topics, and learnings. Even through parts of the
book that I didnt understand, I still completed the chapter, and learned something new. After
completing this writing, I understand better why this book was brought together. I understand the goal
of the writers, and why this book was written. Throughout this class, and each topic, there were times I
didnt understand why we were learning what we were learning. This topic has brought this book
together a whole, and helped me bring the class assignments together as well. This book is a prime
example of a discourse community, same goal, their own mechanism to communicate, they use their
knowledge and ability to provide information, utilizes one or more genres in their communicative
furtherance of its aim, they acquire specific lexis and a discourse community has a threshold level of
members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise. (Writing about Writing,
pg 221-222).