Omar Villarreal
Discourse Response
English
Discourse is the way to communicate through writing or speaking. As individuals of society we have many discourses (ways of communicating). It’s also important that we communicate through different means of communication like the Internet, Phone, Newspapers, TV, etc. Communication is important for your everyday life because you express your problems to people and you get to meet new people. I have created this discourse map to represent the groups that I involved and care for the most. I have four groups in my discourse map, Academic, Professional, Personal, and Civic. I’m going to explain to you why I have picked these four topics and why are they so important in my life and have helped me improve my communication skills.
My family has been very influential in my academic life and communication. They have taught me not to be shy around people I don’t know and to always be polite and enjoy meeting new people. We are very talkative family and always having discussions about different perspectives, we also speak about our personal problems and even love life. My cousins and me are around the same ages so we are really close and like having fun, we usually hangout and even party. Were always finding new ways of communicating with each other like via e-mail, chats, and video conferencing and our phones. Our family has a lot of reunions, birthday parties and any type of get together that you can think of. But its always fun because we get to catch up and eat some food. Our family helps each other learn new ways of speaking and how to apply to society.
As a student of The University of Texas at El Paso you have to be able to communicate in a distinctive way. Understating how to communicate with others will make your years at UTEP memorable and easy. By all means meeting new people, doing group projects, e-mails, or just socializing. Some conventions that are typical on a daily basis are people talking about their majors, what classes they have? , Let’s go eat, I need to do my homework ugh!!, etc. Some of my major goals here at UTEP are getting a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, Be educated on a specific field, apply for medical school and maintain a GPA of 3.75- or higher. Being in a university has taught me that there is many ways of communicating with people whether it’s on the Internet or by person; you’re always going to find a new way.
My professional group is of course my current job with HOT SHOTS; it’s a photography company. Our job revolves around taking peoples pictures like Baseball teams, Football, Soccer, Basketball and any other sport that you can think of, and we also do other types. Our customers usually contact us because of flyers, website, workers walking around the parks, know us personally or were recommended by others. Some of the conventions in this type of job are Action shots, lenses, camera, the equipment, flash, Nikon, and Canon. We have created a specialized language between each other so that we can communicate thoroughly. We usually tell customers to smile, cheese, don’t move, and smile. And were always cracking jokes to each other to make our job fun.
I’ve been a soccer player for about 18 years and at the same time a fan. There’s many ways to watch soccer or even follow it like television, newspapers, ESPN, blogs, websites, and friends. When you are playing or watching Soccer you and other people create a special language that only soccer fans understand. For example: Goal, Hat trick, Scissor kick, Juggling, headbut, pass, and score. Well some are typical on other sports. There are also specific conventions that are similar to the sport, like cleats, goal nets, shin guards, socks, jerseys, and the soccer ball. As a team you learn to communicate through signs and gestures. And also speaking in a very particular way, you do this because communication on the field is very important for your success.
In conclusion communication is a very important aspect in your life. And with this discourse map you have seen what groups have helped me facilitate communicating with others. There are still many ways that I could learn to help me communicate differently and I hope that this course helps me, not just to benefit me as an individual but in a academic perspective. Different ways of communicating can help you learn from others and adapt to your environment.
