Julio Jaramillo

Rws 1301

Discourse communities
Language is a method of communication and it can be described as a complex system
that can be broken down into many different of its components. For example, when it comes to
writing they are different rules such a rhetorical elements that help identify discourse
communities. Language is needed to communicate and in a discourse community communication
is crucial. A discourse community can be best described as a group of people coming together
sharing interests using communication to accomplish a goal. Some of the components of a
discourse community are genres or different types of literacy used to communicate ideas in
different communities. A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public
goals, a discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members, A
discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and
feedback. A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the
communicative furtherance of its aims, In addition to owning genres, a discourse community has
acquired some specific lexis, and a discourse community has a threshold level of members with a
suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise.(pg473) These six characteristics
can facilitate one in identifying the different ways discourse communities work. I have decided
to conduct an analysis on two discourse communities I am part of. One of these communities is a
restaurant called Corner Bakery caf and I have conducted a research on how they communicate
to give excellent customer service. The second community I analyzed was a local soccer club
team I form part of. Over the course of a week I studied how the members of this team uses
communication to win and improve their team work skills.

Corner Bakery Cafe

Julio Jaramillo
Rws 1301

The study began with analyzing the restaurant I am currently working for, and its
employees. The restaurant is called Corner Bakery Caf and it serves American Italian food. This
analysis mainly focused on studying the way communication works between employees to
employees in the restaurant. This workplace used different methods of communication among
servers, cashiers, cooks and management. Every discourse community is one of its kinds
specially this restaurant and how they work as team to reach their goal. Their main priority is to
give out excellent customer service that makes them want to come back. The restaurant has
major components such as the employees and the menu itself.
One of the first components of the restaurant are the employees and the way they work.
The way the staff members operate is by networking and the sharing of ideas to meet
expectations. The staff is broken down into even smaller groups with their own specialized
language. According to Mirabelli (2004) he found Literacy extends beyond individual
experiences of reading and writing to include the various mode of communication. Here he
talks about the different methods of communication a discourse community can be made of. For
example the restaurant has a front of the house which includes servers, expo, and cashiers. The
first people to be analyzed were the cashiers and the servers. Cashiers and servers are the main
staff members to introduce the restaurant and its components to the customers. The second group
of staff members are the cooks and their responsible for the making of the food. Each different
groups work in a distinct matter but both strive for the completion of the same goal. The first
responders are usually the cashiers to interact with customers. For example as customers first
walk in cashiers are responsible to greet the customers out loud. Cashiers greet them by saying
Welcome to Corner Bakery this makes customers feel more comfortable and are easier to
approach. This greeting can be seen as just being polite however it can used as lexis or

Julio Jaramillo
Rws 1301

specialized vocabulary. This greeting is one of the few steps on how communication is
contributing to the meet goal of this restaurant. As more and more customers arrived, cashiers
were responsible of listening to the customers request on what they wanted to eat. . The servers
played a major role in this place since they were the mediators who communicated with the rest
of the staff the most. The servers had a specialized type of language used among themselves for
example when taking out an order. When food was ready, the expo would yell out runner this
would alarm the server that the food was ready for takeout. The server automatically knew that
when he/she heard runner that the food was ready. All the server had to do was read the ticket
to make sure everything was on the tray. Each employee had their own lexis according to what
their duties were. However they worked together if something that was trying to be
communicated was unclear. There was communication among all the employees back and forth
nonstop even when there was not many customers. There was times where customers were not
satisfied with their meal so servers had to communicate with the customer and with the cooks. In
these situations the servers had to quickly respond and ask the kitchen to fix the mistake that was
made. Here it showed how both of these groups of employees communicated sharing their
different types of lexis to meet their goal which was to give out the best customer service. This
is when one of the main components of the restaurant comes into place.
The second component that is important to the function of the restaurant is their food and
they way is transmitted with the menu to the customers. The menu is classified as a genre, and is
a powerful tool used by the restaurant to communicate with its customers. The menu is divided
into many different categories making it easy for the customers to read. The menu include all the
combos and meals a customer can expect to pay for. The menu includes all the possible meals
and their ingredients that make up each meal. The menu also includes price which is an

Julio Jaramillo
Rws 1301

important factor to customers. While the customers are announcing their orders cashiers are
responsible for taking order on the computer specially programmed with all the components of
the menu. The computer is programmed to have all the item in the menu to when the food is paid
the kitchen receives the order. It is clear that menu in this restaurant can be classified as a
category of literature or better known as genre. Some customers had no clue how that type of
genre worked so they had cashiers who are knowledgeable with the menu. This explains how this
genre has components that are only known to this discourse community. After the order has been
paid for the message is transmitted from the computers to the kitchen and expos screen. This
screen produces another type of lexis only known to employees. The cooks are well trained to
understand the screen messages to prepare the food to meet customers needs. The cooks are
responsible to follow what the order in the screen is since in times customers modify their order.
Cooks were also responsible on knowing the recipes for each meal. The cooks had in possession
of many different books that explained in detail how each meal should be prepared. These books
with recipes are another type of genre that is used by the management to communicate with its
cook to teach them how to prepare the meals. As the employees all worked, in the front of the
house the expo was responsible on reading the tickets to check every order that came out of the
kitchen was correctly done.

Soccer club team

The second part of analysis began with the research of local soccer club I am part of. This
research was conducted mostly recorded on practice day. The purpose of this team was to
practice more frequently to improve their skills as a team but also to learn how to better
communicate among themselves to win matches. The research for this community was divided
into three sections: before practice, during practice, and after practice. The soccer team is also

Julio Jaramillo
Rws 1301

made up of different components which is the different positions each player has. The three
major components are the defense, midfielders, and last but not least the strikers. Playing soccer
requires skill and dedication to become a better player. For example the goalie and defense are in
charge of keeping the goal from being scored on. To be a good defense you must be
knowledgeable of how your other team mates play. You must be able to read other peoples
moves to be ahead of them and recover the ball. To be a good defense you must communicate
with the goalie and the other defensive team players to bring out the best defensive strategies.
The midfielders are responsible on keeping the ball on your side giving it out to the next players
in the team. The strikers are the key players who score most of the goals but yet the others are
not limited. To be a good striker you must have vision to predict passes and be ready to shoot and
place the ball in the net.

Before practice
Before practice most of the team players arrived on time. Some came from school and
others from work or other responsibilities they have. Even though they were a group, they did
not talk as group but more as little groups among themselves. Before practice there was a not so
much conversation about practice more of unrelated topics. It was not until practice began where
things were taken more serious.
During practice
When practice began, thats when most of the conversations and yelling erupted. Players
first stretched and thats when the first type of specialized language was first used. The players
had each different names for each type of exercise they had to do. There was also the use and

Julio Jaramillo
Rws 1301

combination of the English and Spanish language common referred to as Spanglish This was
another type of lexis and genre used by the players to communicate among themselves. While
the team was practicing there seemed to be a lot communication and yelling within the team. For
example the goalie constantly was talking to the defense shouting how it was important for them
to move forward since they had possession of the ball. However when the opposite team had the
ball goalie made sure that his defense pressured and came to back to place to defend and prevent
them from scoring. Another example when the team communicated was on corner kicks. The
forwards and midfielders used hand signals to call the kickers attention. The use of hand signals
was another type of language used by the players to improve their team work skills. The kicker
was aware of the hand signals of his teammates so he had make the decision of placing the ball
where he thought it was more convenient for his team to score. When the kicker was ready to go
on with the corner kick he raised his hand this alarmed the attackers to be ready for the ball to
score.
After practice
After practice the practice continued since thats when player got together and talked with
the coach about how they had done. The coach was not part of this analysis however he was
needed to explain how the team did in the sense of communication in working as a team. After
practice the team got in a circle and listened to the coach. The coach went straight to the point
telling them that they had improved in communicating however they needed more practice. After
this the team talked about how good practice was headed to their homes.

Comparison

Julio Jaramillo
Rws 1301

Both of the discourse communities presented here shared similarities but were also slight
different. For example the restaurant described here showed how it was possible to reach their
goals by all the employees understanding each others lexis. Also the restaurant was more of a
community who offered a service and the soccer team worked to improve their own skills to
become better players. The similarities were how both discourse communities had a major goal
and with specialized language each were successful
Overall this analysis can help one understand how different discourse communities work.
It call also show the different components each discourse community is made of. This analysis
also shows how the use of communication can be a useful tool to reach a goal not only at work or
in a sport but in many other life situations.