discourse community

Mejia, Stephanie
Professor Mitchell-Wagner
English 1A

Business: The road to Entrepreneurship in reading and writing forms

Business is an occupation, profession, or trade; as so www.dictionary.com states. In a business environment one can expect a lot of reading and writing coming from the business itself when it comes to keeping track from income statements to all the investments in the company or business. Reading and writing is found in many discourse communities, it can be a group that shares the same goals or interests. There are many ways in which we can incorporate our reading, writing, research and critical thinking skills that apply to our daily routine. I’ve developed in my understanding of my identity and how it has been shaped because of reading, writing, research, and critical skills. To weather its learning from others experiences in literacy or just picking up skills from an article on research done online. There’s a difference between the reading and writing done in a discourse community such as a business opposed to a job at the business, both require different ethics in the literacy world. There is always a form of literacy involved everywhere we look. In a workplace literacy is usually used to keep a firm organized environment. “As composition widens its focus beyond academic writing, it is increasingly important to consider what it means to write in the workplace. Not only will such knowledge help us prepare students beyond the classroom, but, as Bolin points out, those of us working in rhetoric and composition must continue to respond to complaints by the media and general public that we have not fulfilled our responsibilities and ‘polished’ students’ language use so that they can convey information ‘clearly’.”(Wardle 522). In a business when one receives a complaint the communications division is responsible for replying to the person or group in writing whether it’s via email or phone call it is all kept in records for further reference. In a discourse community there is no exceptions on what we can accept, whether it’s a business or just an ordinary job there will be reading and writing involved. “Discourse communities can also be professional; major profession has its organizations, its practices, its textual conventions, and its genres. Active community members also carry on informal exchanges: at conferences, through e-mail interest groups, in memos, in hallway discussions at the office, in laboratories and elsewhere, the results of which may be woven intertextually into public, published texts.”(Johns 502). The discourse community I plan to become a part of is that of a business involving entrepreneurship. This type of community involves a lot of reading and writing due to the fact that everything is recorded on paper and files. Businesses are established by writing and reading when it comes to writing an income statement to keeping records of the business. Not only is reading and writing important but also the way we project our voice. We also use our voices to share these forms of writings and apply it to our personal lives. Artists use song and lyrics to express themselves, it’s written but it’s also sang through voice. Mary Pipher in her reading “Writing to change the world” says, "Voice is everything we are, all that we have observed, the emotional chords that are uniquely ours- all our flaws and all of our strengths, expressed in words that best reflect us. Voice is like a snowflake- complicated, beautiful, and individual. It's the essence of self, distilled and offered in service to the world". One can use words in order to reflect ourselves and show our identities. I used to write lyrics and songs, to me it was a way of expressing how I felt and it helped me learn more about myself and into who I was and wanted to become in the future. Words through voice gives it a bit of a touch and can truly express their feelings out loud and showing expression. Most writings are closed feelings because you can’t see the emotion through ones face and see whether or not it is coming from the soul. The way we communicate throughout our business is very important because we have to speak to our co-workers or even to get in touch with another business firm. “Literacy takes away locality and parochiality, for members are more likely to communicate with other members in distant places, and are more likely to react and respond to writings rather than speech from the past.”(Swales 470). This generation has degraded in the communications field. Now, every communication is usually done through email or text, in rare cases a phone call is used. This is primarily the main reason other countries call American’s “lazy”. We can change society’s view by incorporating a speech communications based business. There are many ways to incorporate writing skills in a business rather than using technological devices. If we manage to add these writing styles maybe we can improve the reading and writing environment. “ To develop an effective business writing style:
Use shorter sentences.
Use simpler sentence structures.
Use active voice.
Write from the point of view of the company.
Write more univocally. (The voice of the company is always already a social voice).
Identify the agents of actions unless there is a good reason for hiding agency.
Avoid nominalizing verbs. (changing verbs into nouns, i.e. "decide" into "decision.")
Recommend action rather than refer to individual mental states.
Avoid qualifiers that weaken recommendations or express doubt.
Avoid self reference and references to individual states of mind.” http://pages.uoregon.edu/ddusseau/101/199/style.html. These skills provided are an example of what one can do so that reading and writing isn’t just something we through away and not use anymore. The whole point of going to college is to gain skills for a future reference and use it as an ideal encouragement to our career. Reading also plays a major role in the business community. When it comes to busi ess meetings and other such things the employees are given paperwork to read from or fill out. “Reading is one of the most useful lifelong habits you can practice to boost your business communication skills.” http://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/bookhub/reader/15?e=mclean-ch04_s02. Reading is always used everywhere, not just in a business firm. It can be used in all forms, We have the ability and the skills to involve reading and writing in our future career.
“1. Routine
Write daily.
Write often.
Even if you work full-time, you can make time for your writing.
I write in the mornings right now. That’s my creative time. What’s yours?
2. Outline
When you write, start with an outline.
Map out what you’re going to write and what message you want to convey.
This is more true for non-fiction writers than fiction writers. When I wrote this article, I mapped out the 7 habits first, and then I filled in the blanks.
It makes my life much easier.
And it allows me to write the first draft for this article in 10 minutes or less.
3. First Draft
Once your outline is in place, it’s time to write a horrible first draft.
New writers make the mistake of trying to edit while they write. It doesn’t work, so don’t even try.
When you write your first draft, it should be at lightning speed. You should get everything out of your head and onto paper. Let it flow uncensored.
Don’t worry about editing or rewriting. That comes later.
4. Rewrite
After I’ve written my first draft, I rewrite.
But I don’t rewrite right away. I let my article rest for 24 hours first.
I sleep on it.
And with each 24 hour cycle, my article gets better. I come back to it several times with a pair of fresh eyes.
Sometimes I’ll rewrite an article three times over 3-4 days, and each time it improves.
5. Demon Bashing
This is a biggie.
When you write, you will run into your inner demons.
You’ll run into that negative voice. It’ll tell you how:
You’re not good enough
You have nothing to say
You might as well give up
Whenever it pops up, say hi and keep writing. Writing isn’t effortless for prolific writers. But they keep going anyway.
They sit down and write. Even if nothing comes out, they get things done, because they have a structure in place.
6. Confidence
When you first start out, you won’t be very confident when you write.
And that’s fine. It is as it should be.
When you write a lot, you get better, and you gain confidence.
I’ve written millions of words and thousands of articles. I started out horrible, but I’m getting better with each passing day.
There is no quick fix to finding your writing voice, or eliminating fear. It all comes down to sitting down and writing.
7. Read
Prolific writers read - a lot.
They gather inspiration from books. They observe the structure other writers use, and they steal what resonates with them.
For example, I help change makers build a thriving online business, so when I’m reading sales copy and it moves me to buy, I backtrack.
I go inside and look at what it was that moved me. Then I think about how I can use that in my writing and business.
The Wrap Up
If there’s one thing I want you to take away from this article, it’s this: sit down and write.
Being a prolific writer is all about refusing to listen to your own excuses. It’s about eliminating any obstacles that prevent you from writing.
Writing never seems to be easy.
There’s always some way you could procrastinate, but if you want to get your message out there, you have to just sit down and write.
The world needs what you have to share.
So write. http://writetodone.com/7-habits-of-highly-prolific-writers/. To become an “insider” in my community I plan to do anything possible to consider myself a member of the community. My goal is to become a business and the road I am heading toward is entrepreneurship which is a basic fundamental in a business. Communication involving reading and writing is used in this type of community. One has to have sufficient patience in order to keep everything in order to be successful. Reading and writing plays a major role in this community making the business an organized business.