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Process Reflection of Essay 3
When I was first given this assignment, I was slightly confused about what type of group I should be selecting and how to analyze the chosen group. My first choice in a discourse community at VMI was the paint ball team, which was offered as a club. As I began the research however, the organization only had one website, although it was informative about the activities of the group, there were no articles about the history of the group or a social media page where I could find more detailed information about the group. At this point, I still really did not have a clear understanding as to how I was going to analyze the group.
As I continued to discover more dead ends with the paintball team, I was listening to examples of groups my professor was providing, and she had mentioned the Regimental Band. I realized that this group was a worthy discourse community to investigate, largely due to my history in my high school marching band and, I will be joining this group in the fall upon my matriculation.
Once I had selected the Regimental band however, I still required a method of analysis. I turned to John Swales’s piece on discourse communities. In his article, he describes how he defines a discourse communities with six characteristics and qualities. This gave me hope as to how I should go about examining the Regimental Band. I then focused my research about this group and how I could compare it to Swales’s six points.
I was lead to the band’s home page from the VMI website and was presented with the generic facts about the group. For example, the date it was formed, many of the events it had participated in, and contact information of the leadership. I also discovered a fact sheet that had been assembled by the Communications and Marketing division of VMI as type of flyer that could be handed out. This page again gave me standard information about the organization. At this point in my writing process, I turned to my experience from my high school marching band as a source of information while I compared the Regimental Band to a discourse Community.
I began my piece with an introduction of the Regimental Band, giving the history of the performances and how the members represent VMI, as ambassadors, and embody the mindset and characteristics of the Institute. The participants exemplify the intensity of the Corps of Cadets and what they stand for. I then described the unity of the group and hinted at the characteristics that made it a discourse community. In my second paragraph I gave a description of the piece I was using from Swales as the backbone of my research and basic guideline for what to look for as I studied the group.
For my later body paragraphs, I used a quote from Swales’s pieces as the main topic for that specific paragraph. This quote was the exact characteristic Swales states in his piece and then later goes into detail about how it is a part of the community. Using that quote as the topic of analyzation for the paragraph I would talk about how a band community represented that specific trait. For example, with the first point he said how each discourse community always has a common goal that they wish to achieve. I spoke about how the band represents VMI, and how the job of the musicians is to entertain those who are at the functions which the band is attended. For Swales’s second point, he talks about a specific language of a group. I compared music as a completely different language that each musician speaks. From my own experience, each player can read and write this music, which to others just looks like lines and dots on a page. But to those who have learned the language and what the symbols represent they are able to understand what to do with this information and what to play. I did this for all six points, and was able to analyze the group in a way that I had never considered before.
However, once I had the conference with my professor, I realized that I had been using more of my personal experience to analyze the group instead of the required method of conducting research about the community. I had shown her the information I had acquired and she suggested that I contact the band’s director, Colonel John Brodie. I emailed him and asked a few questions which I had used to conduct some of my research. These questions included what some of the goals of the group were, what are the similarities between the Regimental Band and a high school marching band and also, what were the forms of communication between the members. Once he replied, answering the questions he suggested that I came in for a face to face interview.
Soon after I went over to Shell Hall, the central building for the Regimental Band and met with Col. Brodie. I brought along my essay and discussed the six points I was using to analyze the band. We reviewed each point and how it was relevant in the group. He expressed his opinions about why the band was a discourse community and how tightly knit the members were. He justified my explanations of music as a language, which I created from my experience in my high school marching band, due to the high similarities between my high school band and the Regimental Band.
After the interview I finished up the comparison of the six points from the Swales piece and in one of my conclusion paragraphs, I discussed my reasons for choosing the Regimental Band. The main one being, that I would be joining Band Company in the fall and wanted to know more about it. I end the piece with a revision of the six points incorporated in the Regimental Band and how it made a discourse community.