The Different Divides of Discourse

Everyone participates in discourse and every one belongs to a discourse. After reading Gee’s article to gain a clearer understanding of discourse communities I was able to identify several discourse communities that I am already a part of. My primary is discourse would be my family. This is a discourse that I was originally brought up in and a part of from the very beginning of my life. My family played a huge role in shaping me and how I viewed the world ultimately playing a role in what secondary discourse communities I eventually joined. A secondary discourse community I am a part of is being a NC State student, and also being a first year engineering student. These two discourses are secondary because I chose to be a part of them and was not born into them but picked up on each one’s particular vocabulary, ways of communicating, body language, clothes, and other traits in order to be considered a part of the discourse community. I would say that between most of my discourse communities their relationships make sense and are harmonious. My family has always supported me to pursue my education and what my passions in life are so it makes sense that my primary discourse community of family would coincide with my secondary discourse of being a NC State student. Everyone in my family also has science or technical based degrees so my family can understand my discourse community as a first year engineering student as well. NC State is also well known for their engineering program so these two discourse communities work well together as well. The only real source of tension between any of these discourses would be my family values Christian beliefs while most engineering students and science based degree students do not. These intricate connections between discourse communities and their individual characteristics and tensions shape each of us help us to discover who we are and how we interact with one another.