1.1

Discourse Community –

• A discourse community has a large set of agreed upon rules that are written into articles or documents
• It has workings of intercommunication within the group
• It uses participation as the main way to give out information and feedback
• A discourse community uses multiple styles in the moving forward of the goals
• The community has also acquired a few sets of culminations of words in the communities vocabulary
• A community has a set level and amount of people who have a good degree of content and expertise.

2.2

Dear Incoming Rat,

One thing that is a good thing to know when you get to VMI is a discourse community. A discourse community has six different characteristics to it and they all apply to VMI. These characteristics are like rules set upon rules. The first one to consider is the fact that a discourse community has a ground set of specific rules that are set into stone into documents. At VMI you will find that there are an overly many amount of rules that go to everything such as with what clothing you are wearing and how to wear it, how to walk, how to talk, how to eat, how to sleep, and how to study. The second characteristic of a discourse community is that there are systems of communications between the members of the groups. At VMI, us cadets are broken off between classes and are told stick with our brother rats. This relates to the second characteristic because as a group we have to learn to communicate among our whole class. In addition, within our companies, you have to learn ways of communicating with actually verbally saying anything at a given time. The third characteristic says that the discourse community uses systems of participation as a way to get information and feedback to its members. At VMI, everyone participates in everything as a way to maintain order and get information to help him or her along the way and get feedback that can help him or her. The fourth characteristic of a discourse community says that the community will use different styles as a way to move forward with goals and aims of the group. At VMI, some ways they utilize this is that they push you to your limits so that you can break through to new levels and achieve greater things. The fifth characteristic of a discourse community uses different sets of culminations of words that have stuck with the community and become a common tongue. Some examples of this are, rats, pee stains, dyke, dress dyke, and ratline. The final characteristic of a discourse community is that the community has a set amount and level of members who are higher up and have a good degree of experience and expertise in their field of study, to be able to help out the rest of the members. At VMI, there is a system of having cadre and dykes or higher ups that accompany the new members of the community as they come in.