Chirag Patel

Mrs. Kyllikki Rytov

ENC 2135
3 October 2016
FSU ENGINEERING - FACEBOOK & TWITTER

Willy Leparulo is an academic advisor for Florida State University and

the College of Engineering. Thousands of students choose to be a part of the
College of Engineering, whether they major in civil, mechanical, biomedical,
etc. At Florida State University, if you are in the engineering field, regardless
of your specific major, typically the first two years are spent in PreEngineering. Once the undergraduate requirements are accomplished, the
student is transferred into their specific major of engineering and continues
to take classes related to the specific major. As a member and leader of the
Pre-Engineering group at FSU, Leparulo states his specific goal is to bring
those in Pre-Engineering together in one place, both those upper classmen
and lower classmen to share ideas and answer questions that each has
similarly gone through or are going through. The perfect way to achieve
this, is by creating a group on social media that every other student can
communicate with.

Similar to numerous programs, clubs and organizations, FSU PreEngineering uses social media to communicate in an effective way with their
members. FSU Engineering on Facebook and Twitter are digital discourse
communities that use many discursive genres to communicate to the
members very successfully in different ways. These genres can also be used
by each member to communicate with other members and the leader of the
group. It is very common that digital communities have many different
discursive genres. Genres differentiate depending on the purpose, the
context, and the audience you are trying to communicate with. If you are not
familiar with the term discursive genre, according to the Bedford book of
genres, a genre is a compositions kind, category or sort. For example, on
Instagram, genres can be; hashtags/captions, pictures, or even comments.
For my discourse community, my genres are; wall posts and messenger on
Facebook, tweets on Twitter, and image postings between both communities.
However, genres are not always fixed, they can change depending on how
people use them. Also, depending on the audience the genres can function
differently. For instance, in composition, depending on the different
audiences, the specific style of writing, or the genre of the writing, will be
different. You could use a letter if you need to get a question answered or a
concern addressed, or you could use an essay to persuade or explain.
Facebook is a very popular social network among a wide audience,
aging from old people to kids as young as around fourteen. If you are familiar
with Facebook, you know that you can communicate in different ways. Some

of the most popular discursive genres on Facebook are, posting on

someones wall if they are not in a private group. If the people are in a
private group only the members can see the posting. Or even on a more
personal level, you can message someone if it is more important. This way
no one can see the conversation besides the two people. After becoming
familiar with this community you learn that certain people are more
important and more credible than others. If these people post something it
will most likely be important and it is important that all members view that
post. This is an example of how this community can use ethos, depending on
who is more important and more credible. In my opinion, members in the
FSU Pre-Engineering group utilize the wall posts much more than the private
messaging. Leparulo agreed when asked, What genres do you see very
common? Although I believe the private messenger is also used frequently
throughout the group and one of the main discursive genres, Leparulo seems
to disagree: I think by virtue of it being a Facebook group the only genres
we utilize regularly are wall posts. I believe the private messenger can be
used to communicate with the more credible members and gain information,
with maximum privacy. The wall posts are open to the public so that anyone
in the group can communicate back and help you find the answer you are
looking for. The majority of the questions asked in the group look to be
general enough that it can pertain to more than just one person. Because
this genre includes a large audience, you never have to worry about not

finding the answer you are looking for. Someone will most likely know the
answer or redirect you to someone that does know.
As generations have progressed we have noticed, that many social
media companies have been created, and it is not just Facebook controlling
the market. We are familiar with Snapchat, Instagram, Tumblr, or even
Pinterest. However, the one that catches my attention is Twitter. Following
Facebook, Twitter, in my opinion, is the second most common social media
network. It has become very common with ages fourteen to around thirtyfive. I believe Twitter can be very effective with the many discursive genres
embodies. From the hashtags to the replies to tagging someone, all the
genres have different purposes, function differently, and apply to different
audiences. However, Tweets, as we all know, can grab someones attention
and get the information across. Tweets can be retweeted hundreds and
hundreds of times so, the information can reach over thousands of people.
So unlike Facebook, Twitter can reach a larger audience and is not restricted
to only the specific members of the community. This is my favorite discursive
genre on twitter. For FSU Engineering, I believe it is very helpful. For
example, Institute for Electrical Engineers is holding their first General Body
Meeting tonight, Sept.8th at 5:30pm on @FAMUFSUCOE campus in room
A105. (Example taken from FSU Engineering on Twitter.) Just in one tweet,
the event, the location and the time, you can see all the information you
need to know to attend that event. When I asked him, How can students
and members use tweets to communicate? Leparulo states, Dont use

twitter for work. Leparulo insists that twitter not be used for work, however,
both Facebook and Twitter function similarly, and use different discursive
genres to represent some of the same information. It could possibly be that
because of the privacy Facebook has, Leparulo insists not to use Twitter, the
settings can be changed to only allow friends to see the tweets.
FSU Engineering also includes the option to use photos for both
discourse communities; Facebook and Twitter. Visual posts often times can be
the easiest way to get information across a group of people. Why is that?
Well, if there is a flyer for the first general body meeting, why write out all
the information when you can easily
just post the picture. Each of the
communities use this often. Unlike a
wall post or a tweet, a picture or
video can express the same
information, and attract attention
from almost every member. When asked if visual posts were effective,
Leparulo responded, especially important to use posts with links, pictures of
sorts. As a leader of the group, Leparulo understands the importance of
getting information to the audience and inform all the members. Aside from
using photos to get information out, they can also be used to buy and sell. In
college most students understand the struggle of having to pay rent, tuition,
and for food. So the last thing students what to be doing, is paying a fortune
for books and classroom accessories. Being a part of this community, gives

you the advantage to buy books and materials that previous students have
had to buy. Between Facebook and Twitter, it is very common to post a
picture of the textbook you are trying to sell. Within a couple minutes you
will have ten different people auctioning the book from you.

Depen
ding on how the picture is taken, (to make a product look better), this genre
can use pathos to attract students interest. Personally, this is my favorite
discursive genre. I believe that photos can be the most effective in a way,

depending on the purpose, the context, and the audience with which you are
trying to communicate.
The FSU Engineering page on both Facebook and Twitter, are two
digital discourse communities that can often
times make great use of the discursive
genres from social media. Although there are
many different genres, between the two
social networks, Facebook and Twitter, wall
posts, tweets, and visual posts are the most
popular and most useful for publicizing
information to a group of people. These genres are used by many different
programs, clubs, and organizations. By utilizing these genres, they are able
to accomplish their mission, which stated by Leparulo, is to bring those in
pre engineering together in one place, both those upper classmen and lower
classmen to share ideas and answer questions that each has similarly gone
through or are going through. Once these accomplishments have been
achieved, the process continues by passing along the insight and wisdom
one student had obtained and sharing it with those who need it. These types
of strategies allow students to improve their communication with their peers,
along with sharing skills that will benefit both sides of the spectrum.
Depending on the purpose, the context, and the audience you are trying to
communicate with, different genres can be used.