Vaibhavi Patel

November 11
th
, 2013

English 1101

Rebecca Agosta

Discourse Communities

An ethnography is a study of peoples behavior and interaction in their daily,
community context. The focus of an ethnography is a particular site, culture, or
subculture. Its purpose is to study this group of people as a whole, rather than
individually. These cultures and subcultures are known as discourse communities.
A discourse community is a group of people who share common goals or purposes and
the use of communication to achieve them. They share literacies, genres, and other shared
ways of being in the world. There are six characteristics that define a discourse
community: an agreed set of common public goals, different ways of communicating
amongst members, using communication to give and get feedback, talk with their
members to further their goals, distinct vocabulary, experts and novices. As long as
a group of people contains these qualities, they are considered to be a part of a
discourse community.
The ethnographer is usually an outsider who immerses her or himself in
the community in order to try to understand behaviors, customs, and habits from the
inside. The discourse community that I observed was the Bollywood Dance Team,
Adaa, here at UNCC. In this discourse community, I consider myself both an insider and
an outsider. I know all of the members on the team, the types of dances, and because my
culture relates to the Bollywood theme of the group, I feel like an insider. Due to the fact
Vaibhavi Patel 11/11/13 4:17 PM
Comment [1]: }osh- 0pening this essay
was the haiuest pait, anu so it is tiicky to
get a goou hook that catches the ieauei in S
seconus oi less
Vaibhavi Patel 11/11/13 4:17 PM
Comment [2]: }osh- This is wheie I felt
like I ieceiveu the "eneigy" to keep ieauing..
I feel like the fiist paiagiaph is too lengthy,
the ieauei may get boieu befoie coming to
this paiagiaph
that I am not a member of the team, I would also consider myself an outsider because I
do not attend all the practices, nor am I included in the performances or dances.
According to the criteria described above, I believe that this dance team fits these
conditions.
The first criterion that describes a discourse community is that they should have
an agreed common set of public goals. This is true for the Bollywood team because the
goal of the team is to make it to regional and national competitions and place in them. To
reach this key goal, the community has to start off with smaller important goals. The
team has to overcome any obstacles that get in the way such as arguments or
disagreements. The team also has to be committed to come to practice on time whenever
practices are held. If they cannot reach practice at that time, they must notify the team
captain and set up an alternate private session to catch up on the routine. In order to
achieve the main goal, the team must also take into consideration other members
opinions and ideas. If they work together as a team during practice then the will reach
their common goal of reaching the competition of their choice.
The second and third criterion go hand in hand because there different ways of
communicating amongst members and getting feedback from these methods of
communication. The Bollywood team uses many different mechanisms of
intercommunication including mass text messaging, the official team Facebook page and
interpersonal communication. The team uses the Facebook page to distribute and obtain
information about practices or performances. The team captain will list the date and times
of each practice at the beginning of each week. The captain also uploads videos of the
dance routine so other members of the team can practice at their own pace and in case
Vaibhavi Patel 11/11/13 4:18 PM
Comment [3]: }osh- Each paiagiaph uoes
have a point that it gets acioss, it was
oiganizeu well. Subtitles may be helpful.
any member needs to catch up. Since everyone has a smart phone nowadays, text
messages are a common way of communicating through the team. Text messaging is
more of a casual form of communication while messaging through Facebook is more
professional. Interpersonal communication is a very important method of
intercommunication during practice because it is more organized and convenient at that
time. It is used during practice to call out any members that need help with a step or if
there needs to be any changes to the routine, then members can communicate between
one another to make the necessary changes.
I use text messaging as an artifact because it shows how members of the team can
communicate both casually and professionally. Text messaging is significant in the
community because the captain uses it to send out information about when and where
practices are. The members of the dance team use this form of communication to see if
they can make it to practice or not. It is also substantial because communication between
members is the key factor of achieving the common goals in a discourse community. The
uses of text messaging described above are a few values that this artifact reflects for on
this subculture. They can quickly contact all members of the team at once and this is very
convenient for the community. Although these are professional conversations, there are
also casual conversations that can be appropriate. From asking a member how they are
doing today to asking a member for academic help, things like this can help make the
team a better community as a whole. This is the most important method of
communication because this is the go to method of communicating. It is at the palm of
your hands and very convenient for everyone to reach to.
For the fourth criterion, a discourse community uses one or more genres to
complete their goals. Using flyers and posters is one way of accomplishing this. Before
each performance, the team hands out these flyers to local residents to come support the
team. The team also uses promo videos to further their goals. They use these videos to
recruit the best dancers on campus and try to be number one after competing in each
competition.
There are a few words and phrases that stick out as lexis in this community. For
example, from the top is referred to as starting the routine from the beginning or from
where you left off. Another lexis is take five, which simply means taking a five-minute
break. The last example is formations, which implies you start the routing from the
formations you were assigned to. These are considered lexis because not everyone in the
outside world can comprehend these phrases, but for people in this discourse community,
these terms are commonly used in everyday life.
It is easy to distinguish the experts from the novices in this discourse community.
The captain is classified as an expert because he/she is chosen by the members of the
community to be the leader. He/she has to be an excellent and organized dancer. Novices
are easy to point out due to the fact that they are off balanced with the timings of the
steps and are stiffer than other dancers. These are the people that ask the experts for help
to better the discourse community as a whole.




Vaibhavi Patel 11/11/13 4:16 PM
Comment [4]: }osh- This can be ieau
alouu, but I feel like as if this woulu be moie
of a speech oi piesentation iathei than a
conveisation between ieauei anu auuience.
Vaibhavi Patel 11/11/13 4:16 PM
Comment [5]: }osh- The only new
infoimation that I can see that is neeu is
youi inteiview, anu I suggest that you uon't
just have a section foi the inteiview. I think
that incluuing quotes fiom youi inteiview
thioughout the papei woulu auu moie
peispective in this papei.

This papei is long enough to give the neeueu
infoimation while at the same time it is
shoit enough to keep the ieauei wanting to
leain moie.
Vaibhavi Patel 11/11/13 4:07 PM
Comment [6]: }osh- Foi the most pait,
you aie oiganizeu, it is easy to tell wheie
you aie anu what you aie talking about.

You aie also pietty specific with each
ciiteiion, I leaineu some things about this
gioup by ieauing ovei this papei

You weie on point with uesciibing the 6
chaiacteiistics.

I uiu my intio similai to the way you uiu
youis, it seems like the only way to open it,
to be honest, just make suie to incluue youi
inteiview.