Intro:This essay started to deal with the different communities that we have here at VMI. I am only focusing on a single community to show that it meets Swales’s criteria in becoming a discourse community. it has about all the characteristics and fits the bill of all 6 of them.
At VMI, there are all kinds of communities that have their own way of functioning. You have from sports teams, ROTC branches, to clubs and especially the classes. One discourse community that functions a little differently is the Army ROTC community. Unlike the others, they are broken up since there are so many and need to learn different things. Navy and Marines are grouped together and Airforce its own little group. There are even many different teachers for the Army groups. They have their own way of communicating between each other but more importantly the MS-1 group. They are the freshman of the group and are just learning things.
When talking about discourse communities, there are primary and secondary ones. Primary are the ones that you learn early on in life and the secondary community is the one that you learn in college or other experiences later in life. Some say that the you will always be influenced by your primary and others say that your secondary could actually take over your first one. You could even be apart of multiple discourse communities in some theories.
The things that make the MS-1 group of Army ROTC different is how they operate. The communication is not much different than from the rest but there is more teaching than the others. The way they cooperate is different since they are new to the program so they are just getting used to all the new things that it has to offer and learning how to take small leadership roles with their platoons. Initially we all have the same goal, to become a leader in the US Army and lead the nation.
The way that the MS-1 group communicates is mainly through email. They have group email set up for each platoon so that the platoon sergeant can send out email about PTT, physical training, or anything that is needed by the people in the platoon. It also helps the ones who are squad leaders know what everyone’s emails are. This is important so that they can take correct accountability or if someone is missing one day, they can brief them on anything that they missed. It works the same way with those in command of us as well, they have a group message set up so that they all know the plan for the day and can brief them on it so they can inform us.
For us to reach our same goal, instructors teach us the basics. We know the least about the ROTC because we just got into it this year. That being said, the instructors guided us on a lot of things and held our hands in the beginning so that we got the ropes and understood everything that we needed to. Slowly they have started giving us more leadership roles and responsibility to police our own. BY policing our own it lets us learn to take orders because if you can’t do that simple task, how are you going to be able to lead somebody one day.They want us to try to lead from the front and be a great leader at that.
Being an ROTC community, we have our own rules as well. Even though we are still at VMI, we are on Army time and so that means that we are not Rats at the moment. We can be normal people and act normal for a time. We still have to act respectful as usual, but we can talk more freely and have fun with the PT. Instead of having to be silent the whole time and getting yelled at, it is more of an encouraging environment where we are pushed to do better. If we put out during PTT, the instructors are happy with us and that makes it a very good day for us. It shows them that we take this seriously and are not trying to cheat ourselves of a good workout and that we want to be here.
Being a part of this community, you tend to gain other characteristics form being there. One of the major traits that you attain is the sense of brotherhood. You bond more with the people that you normally would not due to being in a different company and probably in a completely different barracks. It is something that you will take with you the rest of your life most likely and would be considered a secondary discourse community and is one that you add on to your original. When I talk about the brotherhood that some will get, I mean by the hardships they will bond. You will bond because you going through the exact same thing that they are going through which brings you closer together from a great thing called shared suffering. Even though you might not know the person real well, you all will still form a bond from pushing each other to do better. The community that is built is strengthened through the times we have PT, Army Control Time, or just class. That’s when the mission that we all share is reinforced and where the bond actually develops.
When you think of the MS-1’s you see that this community fits the criteria if you are looking at Swales’s 6 points. Some of the reasons that make up it having these 6 points are intertwined due to the fact that it is not a very complicated community. The MS-1 community is very simple and can be summed up in very few paragraphs maybe even a few sentences. To communicate, we use email or by word of mouth. We have a website so that we can learn the plan of the day in advance so we can prepare for it. We all take tests and the class so that we can learn the necessary materials to make us become great leaders. We all PT together because a physically fit officer that can do PT with his or her soldiers is respected by them. Because if you cannot perform with them, they will see you as weak and not put any trust in you or respect.