Litreature Review
In the article Intertextually and Discourse Community by J. Porter, the author defines the concept of discourse community as a group of individuals bound by a common interest who communicate through approved channels and whose discourse is regulated. Otherwise the author John Swales in his article The Concept of Discourse Community provides six different characteristics about the concept of discourse community: 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. A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise. (pp. 471-473)
My goal of this project is to explore how the communication is structured in vary aspects writing and/or verbally, and what are they major goals. The group I studied is a company called Telecommunication Infrastructure “TI” this is a department that belongs to the University of Texas at El Paso. The Telecommunication Infrastructure Department breaks up into four teams with different functions: Audio Visual Integrations, Network Management, Telephone services and IRP-Facilities P&C Liaison. Each group has their own supervisor. It counts with 14 employers and 7 student assistants and the director of the company Jose Huerta.
Its important to know as I mention before with the definition of J. Porter about the discourse community that is “a group that shares a common goals and objectives, but also John Swales tells in his article a community sharing rules for the conduct and interpretation of speech, and rules for the interpretation of at least one linguistic variety. Both conditions are necessary”. Through this study we can use this definitions as tools to apply them in the real world, in this case the “IT” company.
Method
This community had to be special because is related with the major that I am involved which is Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Texas at El Paso. It took me about three hours to complete my study, I watched all of the employers and talk to them a little bit, I asked them the tools and different sources they use daily or during work. I had a little conversation with the director Jose Huerta so he could introduce me about their business weather, also I had the opportunity to interview an experienced employer and a student assistant, the reason of this interviews are to see the different perspectives, the difference of communication does they develop.
While talking to the director Jose Huerta, I asked about the main goal as community, he said “The goal that this community has together is to keep or maintain, grow and innovate a unified, IP-based network that is integrated by data, voice and audio/video communications providing and opening the door to applications that will help the UTEP campus community a more efficient and productive learning and well working environment.” All of the work that they do is for the good for all of the students and faculty that belongs to the university.
As mentioned before the community of the Telecommunication Infrastructure breaks up into four groups and each group has a supervisor that is in charge of that assigned group. I talked to each supervisor to explain me in general what kind of work does he or she provide or what kind of thing does the are in charge. The first group is Audio Visual Integrations, the person in charge is Victor Gameros. Audio Visual which includes all of the projectors, boards, smat-boards, speakers, televisions, and electronic tablet, Video Conferencing, and Digital Signage installations with the goal of supporting instructional and informational by an easy and comfortable way for the students and faculty that are available through the IT Department. Students can do this work as well. They provide to the employer who is going to do the work either in a paper a design or the instruction he has to follow. When something has to be repaired they receive what they call “Calls” that are reparations request either by e-mail or by telephone.
The second group is the Network Management or Networking as they use to call it, the person in charge is Tom Mikelson. He told me that basically this group is the backbone of the campus’ information resources, through an ongoing maintenance and management program they ensures that the network remains robust enough to handle every day until today and capable exploiting future developments in technology and user services. They also receive the requests by the “Calls”, but they mostly use the meeting room where they explain what they have to do in a board, also provide different lists to the employers with the pairs, extensions or lines they have to check. Also the supervisor makes letters to a companies so they can provide the material needed.
The third group is the Telephone Services, the person in charge is Steve Rosenfeld. The university provides telephone services through the whole campus and number of off-campus affiliate buildings using VOIP that stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol, also works with the Networking group. Also teleconference devices and services can be obtained with advanced notice. Analog services for Faxes and modems. This group has the objective to maintain and keep checking constantly telephone upgrades, emergency call boxes, fax/modem lines, hunt groups, ACD groups. They provide to the employer in charge a chart with the working phones and what phones are not.
The fourth group is the IRP-Facilities P&C Liaison, the person in charge of this group is Marissa Kato. This group provides a single point of contact at the university projects requiring information technology services. The P&C department coordinates and works with costumers, architects and engineers, vendors, installation of networking infrastructure. This implements the technology in the newel constructed buildings or innovations or upgrades and remodeling projects of buildings as well.
While I was observing each of the members of the group I was able to see how does they communicate verbally and by writing. Each employer including some of the students have their own phone at their desk, the phones has a function that only the IT employers have, the function is that they can answer the phone by using their own cellphone. The email its other type that they utilize more often, they have a group on email called IT, it involves all of the employers and there is where they write announcements, or whatever they have to let the community know. They have a meeting room, it is utilized when a project is coming, they use a board to draw different type of maps, calculations, terms, etc. Also they utilize a TV which is connected to a computer where the presentations and information are projected.
I was able to interview an experienced employer he is Juan Olague, he is from Mexico and works at UTEP since 2003. I asked if they use some words that only the employers use. He told me that most of the employers are Hispanics, so the most common language is the Spanglish and some of the vocabulary does they use are words like: “garra” which is a towel to clean, “paro” it means help or support, “chingadera” this is considered when pointing a little thing with no value, “shop” this is how they call the local or the place they are working, “call” the reparation requests. I asked him what kind of writing communication he uses. He uses a lot of texting to send pictures to the shop of his work because its faster and easy to show what is good or bad with the work, he utilizes drawings to understand better what will be exactly the thing he has to fix, he uses emailing to be in contact with the rest of the employers, he has to print out reports about their weekly work.
I was able to interview a student assistant as well, he is Ricardo Contreras, he is a junior student of The University of Texas at El Paso. I asked what ways of communication does he use. Verbally he uses his phone to check some of the security cams, call and text to the supervisor as well as an easy way to be in contact with him. He either receives the “calls” or the supervisor gives him in a paper with the instructions he has to follow to do the work, he receives also lists of the phone extensions so he can make a replacement or reparation. Each student every 15 days have to provide a Time sheet with total hours worked, and sign it so they can get paid, this only applies for student assistants.
Conclusion
This community is not a big community but there is a community where all of the people involved are really close to each other and support each other too. They share common goals, race and spoken languages too. From this investigation I learned based on what did I see that a well developed community has to have a clear and well organized way to communicate each other either in person or by a device, a good discourse community or well developed is because of the support that they provide to each other, the brotherhood and the will to help. This pushes me to keep studying hard, I am not saying that I could work there but it gives me an idea of how the real world works, how my future could be if I keep doing what corresponds to me.
References
Porter, J.E. (Autunm, 1986) Intertextuality and the discourse community. Rhetoric Review, Vol. 5. pp. 34-47. Retrieved from http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici+0735-0198%2819623%295%3A1%3C34%3AIATDC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X
Swales, J. (1990) The concept of discourse communities. Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Pp. 21-32.
Telecommunication Infrastructure. (n.d.). . Retrieved , from http://admin.utep.edu/Default.aspx?alias=admin.utep.edu/ti
In the article Intertextually and Discourse Community by J. Porter, the author defines the concept of discourse community as a group of individuals bound by a common interest who communicate through approved channels and whose discourse is regulated. Otherwise the author John Swales in his article The Concept of Discourse Community provides six different characteristics about the concept of discourse community: 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. A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise. (pp. 471-473)
My goal of this project is to explore how the communication is structured in vary aspects writing and/or verbally, and what are they major goals. The group I studied is a company called Telecommunication Infrastructure “TI” this is a department that belongs to the University of Texas at El Paso. The Telecommunication Infrastructure Department breaks up into four teams with different functions: Audio Visual Integrations, Network Management, Telephone services and IRP-Facilities P&C Liaison. Each group has their own supervisor. It counts with 14 employers and 7 student assistants and the director of the company Jose Huerta.
Its important to know as I mention before with the definition of J. Porter about the discourse community that is “a group that shares a common goals and objectives, but also John Swales tells in his article a community sharing rules for the conduct and interpretation of speech, and rules for the interpretation of at least one linguistic variety. Both conditions are necessary”. Through this study we can use this definitions as tools to apply them in the real world, in this case the “IT” company.
Method
This community had to be special because is related with the major that I am involved which is Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Texas at El Paso. It took me about three hours to complete my study, I watched all of the employers and talk to them a little bit, I asked them the tools and different sources they use daily or during work. I had a little conversation with the director Jose Huerta so he could introduce me about their business weather, also I had the opportunity to interview an experienced employer and a student assistant, the reason of this interviews are to see the different perspectives, the difference of communication does they develop.
While talking to the director Jose Huerta, I asked about the main goal as community, he said “The goal that this community has together is to keep or maintain, grow and innovate a unified, IP-based network that is integrated by data, voice and audio/video communications providing and opening the door to applications that will help the UTEP campus community a more efficient and productive learning and well working environment.” All of the work that they do is for the good for all of the students and faculty that belongs to the university.
As mentioned before the community of the Telecommunication Infrastructure breaks up into four groups and each group has a supervisor that is in charge of that assigned group. I talked to each supervisor to explain me in general what kind of work does he or she provide or what kind of thing does the are in charge. The first group is Audio Visual Integrations, the person in charge is Victor Gameros. Audio Visual which includes all of the projectors, boards, smat-boards, speakers, televisions, and electronic tablet, Video Conferencing, and Digital Signage installations with the goal of supporting instructional and informational by an easy and comfortable way for the students and faculty that are available through the IT Department. Students can do this work as well. They provide to the employer who is going to do the work either in a paper a design or the instruction he has to follow. When something has to be repaired they receive what they call “Calls” that are reparations request either by e-mail or by telephone.
The second group is the Network Management or Networking as they use to call it, the person in charge is Tom Mikelson. He told me that basically this group is the backbone of the campus’ information resources, through an ongoing maintenance and management program they ensures that the network remains robust enough to handle every day until today and capable exploiting future developments in technology and user services. They also receive the requests by the “Calls”, but they mostly use the meeting room where they explain what they have to do in a board, also provide different lists to the employers with the pairs, extensions or lines they have to check. Also the supervisor makes letters to a companies so they can provide the material needed.
The third group is the Telephone Services, the person in charge is Steve Rosenfeld. The university provides telephone services through the whole campus and number of off-campus affiliate buildings using VOIP that stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol, also works with the Networking group. Also teleconference devices and services can be obtained with advanced notice. Analog services for Faxes and modems. This group has the objective to maintain and keep checking constantly telephone upgrades, emergency call boxes, fax/modem lines, hunt groups, ACD groups. They provide to the employer in charge a chart with the working phones and what phones are not.
The fourth group is the IRP-Facilities P&C Liaison, the person in charge of this group is Marissa Kato. This group provides a single point of contact at the university projects requiring information technology services. The P&C department coordinates and works with costumers, architects and engineers, vendors, installation of networking infrastructure. This implements the technology in the newel constructed buildings or innovations or upgrades and remodeling projects of buildings as well.
While I was observing each of the members of the group I was able to see how does they communicate verbally and by writing. Each employer including some of the students have their own phone at their desk, the phones has a function that only the IT employers have, the function is that they can answer the phone by using their own cellphone. The email its other type that they utilize more often, they have a group on email called IT, it involves all of the employers and there is where they write announcements, or whatever they have to let the community know. They have a meeting room, it is utilized when a project is coming, they use a board to draw different type of maps, calculations, terms, etc. Also they utilize a TV which is connected to a computer where the presentations and information are projected.
I was able to interview an experienced employer he is Juan Olague, he is from Mexico and works at UTEP since 2003. I asked if they use some words that only the employers use. He told me that most of the employers are Hispanics, so the most common language is the Spanglish and some of the vocabulary does they use are words like: “garra” which is a towel to clean, “paro” it means help or support, “chingadera” this is considered when pointing a little thing with no value, “shop” this is how they call the local or the place they are working, “call” the reparation requests. I asked him what kind of writing communication he uses. He uses a lot of texting to send pictures to the shop of his work because its faster and easy to show what is good or bad with the work, he utilizes drawings to understand better what will be exactly the thing he has to fix, he uses emailing to be in contact with the rest of the employers, he has to print out reports about their weekly work.
I was able to interview a student assistant as well, he is Ricardo Contreras, he is a junior student of The University of Texas at El Paso. I asked what ways of communication does he use. Verbally he uses his phone to check some of the security cams, call and text to the supervisor as well as an easy way to be in contact with him. He either receives the “calls” or the supervisor gives him in a paper with the instructions he has to follow to do the work, he receives also lists of the phone extensions so he can make a replacement or reparation. Each student every 15 days have to provide a Time sheet with total hours worked, and sign it so they can get paid, this only applies for student assistants.
Conclusion
This community is not a big community but there is a community where all of the people involved are really close to each other and support each other too. They share common goals, race and spoken languages too. From this investigation I learned based on what did I see that a well developed community has to have a clear and well organized way to communicate each other either in person or by a device, a good discourse community or well developed is because of the support that they provide to each other, the brotherhood and the will to help. This pushes me to keep studying hard, I am not saying that I could work there but it gives me an idea of how the real world works, how my future could be if I keep doing what corresponds to me.
References
Porter, J.E. (Autunm, 1986) Intertextuality and the discourse community. Rhetoric Review, Vol. 5. pp. 34-47. Retrieved from http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici+0735-0198%2819623%295%3A1%3C34%3AIATDC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X
Swales, J. (1990) The concept of discourse communities. Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Pp. 21-32.
Telecommunication Infrastructure. (n.d.). . Retrieved , from http://admin.utep.edu/Default.aspx?alias=admin.utep.edu/ti
NOTE:
After realizing this project I felt identified because even though most of the time we do not realize it, everyone belong to a community that shares goals as a whole but it also shares styles of communication verbally and writing.
When writing this project I had few errors and struggles because after finishing the first project I found myself more familiarized with these concepts of writing, the only thing that stopped and still holds me is when organizing the ideas of the writing.
I found myself more mature knowing that I already learned the things that causes me procrastinate, so I tended to be aware about what to write and how to do it.
The revision process is always important because in this case I thought that everything was right but the classmates and the professor pointed out details that I did not realize, so it is effective because it helps you to build and improve your writing process.
I feel that I accomplished my goal to study the group and learn the different concepts of the discourse community and now in the real life observe how does the diversity of communications surround us and we most of the time do not even realize.
After realizing this project I felt identified because even though most of the time we do not realize it, everyone belong to a community that shares goals as a whole but it also shares styles of communication verbally and writing.
When writing this project I had few errors and struggles because after finishing the first project I found myself more familiarized with these concepts of writing, the only thing that stopped and still holds me is when organizing the ideas of the writing.
I found myself more mature knowing that I already learned the things that causes me procrastinate, so I tended to be aware about what to write and how to do it.
The revision process is always important because in this case I thought that everything was right but the classmates and the professor pointed out details that I did not realize, so it is effective because it helps you to build and improve your writing process.
I feel that I accomplished my goal to study the group and learn the different concepts of the discourse community and now in the real life observe how does the diversity of communications surround us and we most of the time do not even realize.