Logan Freeman

Professor Ruth Benander

English 2089

1 October 2022

Describing Your Discourse Community

A discourse community is a community which collectively shares something in common. In this course, I hope to help create change in a certain community which holds similar interests to me. For a while, I’ve developed a major interest and background in technology. I’ve noticed that when used properly, technology can provide for a better lived and more efficient life. Nowadays, technology is employed everywhere in our lives, as most people's entire livelihood depends on its existence. Since there exists all this amazing potential and importance, I feel as though the opportunity for innovation in IT should be harnessed. Though, its necessity can cause the field of technology to get complicated and there needs to be a starting step. Therefore, I wish to help simplify it for those who are interested and possibly considering a career. I believe the best community for this goal is students who have promise in IT. Ultimately, I hope to give my perspective as a student myself and share my values of learning.

First of all, in my high school career, I took it upon myself to do extra with my passion for technology. I developed the goal of using this passion and my knowledge to help others strive. Hence, in all of my IT classes, each time someone was struggling with an assignment I would be the person they would go to help them solve their problem. Crucially, I did not simply provide the solution, instead I did my best to better their knowledge. The teacher of these classes strongly encouraged this effort as she was proud of my eagerness to help others. I notice that this endeavor not only made me feel good, but it allowed me to further my own knowledge and improve how I apply it. Beginning my senior year, I aided an entire IT bell consisting mostly of freshmen. Throughout the semester I made sure the students were on track and putting forth the necessary effort. Opportunities like this made me aware of the importance of learning. I believe that when someone takes learning as fun and engages frequently, they can get more out of life in the long run. This realization gave a reason and the motivation to choose a similar path in this course.

Next, constructed from my past experience, I recognized an amazing opportunity to help a community which can always benefit from improvement. This semester I had the plan to aid in IT classes at my previous school on the days I am off campus. As mentioned previously, I already have a strong connection to helping others with IT. Therefore, I found this idea perfect for this course, as I required a community that encompassed a genre I have a grave interest in. My goal for change is to give my perspective on IT and share my experiences. I feel as though this kind of interaction is important and may foster more interest in technology or even other topics. My ambition is to take this to another level compared to what I’ve done previously. Specifically, I wish to become more of a leader in regards to helping my community prosper. I am mainly interested in piloting my goal in an Intro into Information Technology class taught at my previous school. In this kind of community, there are many types of students. Such as students who persistently care about learning and those who often don’t see much purpose to school. I specifically want to connect to those who see little value in expanding one’s knowledge. When helping students in the past, I noticed a gradual but persistent change in their attitude from the beginning to the end of the course. Not only this, but their personality and even ethics as a person seemed to improve as well. I hope to enlighten these students' spirit in technology and as a whole the world needs more leaders, more innovators, more creators, and just more genuine people. I hope to have a positive effect on their view of the world, so they can help change it for the better.

Finally, and most important, the community I wish to serve is a discourse community and fits into Swales’ 6 characteristics for defining one. The first point is having a “common public goal”, where it is evident that my community shares the goal of learning technology. Though, a more general idea of school is to work towards gaining an education. Next is “mechanisms of interpersonal communication”, in the scenario of school communication is often integral to being successful. Engaging in communication can improve a student’s ability to understand and retain the knowledge they wish to learn. Then, there is the idea of using “participatory communication methods for feedback”, in the community of a school grades are used in this manner. This idea provides the student with feedback on how well they understand and can apply the topics presented. Further, in an IT class, there is certainly a “use of one or more genres” as the focus of these classes is about learning the nature of technology. Along with this, school itself is a genre of pursuing learning and gaining knowledge. Similarly, information technology classes can “use specific lexis” in order to define different aspects of programs and processes. This can occur in the forms of terminology or skills which are learned throughout the class. Likewise, in high school, typically the goal is for the student to have “a standard of knowledge needed for membership”. To make it to this certain point of high school, students must be successful in the grades taken before. This specifically applies to IT, where some classes require prerequisites with a certain grade or level of knowledge to be eligible. The community of a school is certainly one that is necessary for the betterment of our future, therefore any improvement can be beneficial.

Overall, I feel as though I’ve found a community which parallels my interests and ambition for change. Importantly, this community matches the standard definition of a discourse community. I have the goal of helping those interested in IT at my previous high school. Not only do I plan to explain the intricacies of technology and give my perspective, but I also hope to promote the importance of valuing learning. My ultimate goal in life is to change the world for the better and to make positive change. Though every change has to start somewhere, in this course I hope to take that step and make a difference. I’m looking forward to pursuing this goal!

Works Cited

Wornyo, Albert. (2021, June 1). Discourse Community. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/HyIIIjrelOU