us army

Roller Derby






Family and Friends




College student




Members: Joes, docs, sick call rangers, butter bars, blue falcons,
ncos, officers, pogs and jodies
Special language: time now, hooah, pop smoke, beat your face,
voluntold, dirty bird, high speed, re-up, fubar, and snafu
Media: email, texts, fragos, yelling, sarcasm, formations, and
meetings


Members: skaters, referees, nso's (non-skating officials, sponsors
and dedicated fans
Special language: jammer, blocker, call off the jam, pass the
pantie, wall-up, can openers, jumping the apex and bootie
blocking
Media: buttons, fliers, t-shirts, newspaper/radio ads, Facebook, e-
mails, phone calls, texts, meetings, practice and face-to-face


Members: Parents, Step-parents, siblings, step-
siblings, children, nieces, nephews, Army friends,
childhood friends and unfortunately...ex-spouses.
Special Language: Bro, Crazy, Hooker, Terd
Burglar, Bestie, Sis, Babe , Munchkinland and GO
COLTS
Media: Phone calls, text messages, Facebook, e-
mails, letters, court documents, skype and face-to-
face

Members: Classmates, academic advisors, professors, and tutors
Special Language: APA, Blackboard, studying, finals, midterms,
essays, speeches, GPA and tailgating.
Media: Blackboard, class, lectures, meetings, schedules, group
study sessions, e-mails, Google +, Discussion Boards, journals and
face-to-face
Running head: Discourse Community





Discourse Community Response
Brooke Ballagh
The University of Texas at El Paso
Christine Endlich







2014
DISCOURSE 1
The ability to adapt to different situations is a key ingredient to being successful in life.
Discourse communities are adopted throughout the world thus distinguishing individual cultures,
religions and countries all together by how the members within that community communicate
and understand each other. In this paper I am going to discuss four discourse communities that I
am a member of; the Army, Roller Derby, family and friends, and also being a college student.
These communities are all very different and I must be able to adapt and cater to each one when I
am trying to communicate efficiently and clearly.
As we have all grown up, our discourse communities have become much more defined
and centralized in our way of life. Being a recent veteran of the United States Army, I would
have to say that it is one of the biggest discourse communities in America. When one joins the
Army, they are not just starting a new job, they are adopting a new life style. With this new life
style comes a new vocabulary, dress code, mannerisms, and restrictions. Considering that we all
live in and around El Paso, which is the home of Fort Bliss military base where I was stationed.
Instead of discussing members of my discourse community in generic terms, I chose to highlight
some of the not so commonly heard terms we use within our community.
Lets start from the bottom and work our way up shall we? An enlisted soldier that is not
in a command or supervising position (E-4 and below) is what we like to call a Joe. This term
is used in various units, infantry mostly. I was a Combat Medic in the Army and I was called
Doc. Though not every medic is called Doc, I happened to be one of the fortunate ones to
have earned that title or nickname. From there we have the NCOs (Non Commissioned
Officers) which are the senior leadership (E-5 Sergeant Sergeant Major). Then we have our
officers, who are the ones that we have to salute whenever we see them. Out of all the officers,
DISCOURSE 2
the Second Lieutenant has a pretty distinctive nickname for his/her rank. They are called Butter
Bars and this is because of the gold bar they wear on their chest which in fact looks like a stick
of butter.
I am positive that Now drop and give me twenty is quite popular although has changed
over the years. Drop and beat our face! is how drill sergeants tell us to do our push-ups now.
Keeping a straight face when new soldiers took it literally was hard than the push-ups. Other
random phrases we tend to use include Time Now, Pop Smoke (leave now), High Speed
(nickname for over achieving soldier), HOOAH (means anything but the word NO) and FUBAR
(F**ked Up Beyond All Recognition). These are just a few samples of the Army lingo that I
thought would be interesting.
Communication in the Army is the biggest responsibility each soldier has. Accountability
is a key ingredient to running a smooth and successful mission. Communication is done through
several different medias including but not limited to e-mails, texts, meetings, phone calls,
formations and fragos (these are changes to an order or memo that already went out). Last but
not least there are those select few that like to communicate through yelling and sarcasm.
Yelling, on the other hand, is quite appropriate in my next discourse community. I have
been doing roller derby for the past six years. I originally became involved in roller derby
following my divorce and used it as a form of therapy. It just so happened that I was extremely
good at it and helped to form a team in my area. The roller derby community members consist
of the skaters, referees, coaches and NSOs (Non-skating officials). There are WFTDA (Womens
Flat Track Derby Association) guidelines and tests that must be met in order to participate.
DISCOURSE 3
These members are pretty much the meat and potatoes needed to have a successful bout (what
we call our games). In addition to those members, there are others needed including but not
limited to sponsors (they help fund the bout), EMTs (who are there in case anyone gets hurts)
and finally, our dedicated fans.
Like any sport, we use special words and phrases when we play. In roller derby there are
two types of players, jammers and blockers. The jammer is the one player from each team
on the track that wears a star on her helmet. Jammers are also the only player who scores points.
Blockers are the other four players from each team on the track. Their job is to get their jammer
through the pack and stop the other teams jammer from getting through and scoring points.
Roller derby is broken up into two halves which is broken down into 90 second jams. Jams do
not have to go the whole 90 seconds and can be stopped by the lead jammer by Calling off the
jam. If the jammer gets stuck behind a blocker or tired she can pass the pantie to another
player on her team and they become the jammer at that point. During play it is common to hear
players and coaches yelling wall up ,which is a defensive tactic, trying to communicate where
to go and what to do. Bootie blocking and can opener are two types of blocks done by all
the players during a jam.
Communicating within the team is done through the use of texts, Facebook, e-mails,
phone calls, meetings, practices and face-to-face. In addition to communicating internally, we
also have to communicate externally so as to inform people of this great sport we love to do.
This communicating is done through posters, buttons, t-shirts, newspaper and radio ads, fliers
and word of mouth.
DISCOURSE 4
On top of my step-brother joining the men's roller derby team in Indiana, my family and
friends are my biggest fans when I play derby. Family and friends is another discourse
community that hopefully everyone has. My community consists of my parents, step-parents,
siblings, step-siblings, my daughter and nieces and nephews. My community of friends include
those I have gained in the Army as well as the ones I have from childhood. Lastly, there is a
member that I hope no one ever has and that would be my ex-spouse.
The language used between me and my family is pretty generic and I'm sure is used by a
majority of family discourse communities. Mom, dad, bro and sis are the traditional terms used
by us. Munchkinland is a little nickname that I gave my daughter when she was younger and
there are multiple explicit names in which I call my ex-husband (not in front of my daughter of
course). Babe is a universal term I use for everyone when the situation calls for it. I live with
my bestie (best friend) in which he calls me turd burglar and I call him crazy.
Love Mom is what my mom used to sign her texts with when she first started learning
how to text. I about peed my pants laughing so hard those first couple months when she was just
getting the hang of it. Texting and Facebook are probably the biggest forms of communication
used with my family and friends due to the fact that we are all spread out throughout the United
States and Canada. Phone calls and emails are two other forms used on a regular basis. When it
comes to my daughter, I go old school and still like to write her letters by hand and Skype her on
the computer every chance I get. Unfortunately, court documents and subpoenas are the normal
way for her father to communicate with me.

DISCOURSE 5
Out of all the discourse communities that I have mentioned before, this last one I'm going
to discuss is the only one that has changed dramatically over the last sixteen years. When I
began college back in 1998 at Ball State University the members of the community where pretty
close to being the same as they are now, but the language and media have changed quite a bit.
The members consisted of the usual classmates, academic advisers, professors and tutors.
Although some terms have remained constant, like studying, finals, midterms, essays, speeches,
GPA and tailgating, some have been add due to the advancement in technology (AKA the
Internet). Once upon a time it was vital for students to visit the library to get any of their work
done. There is now almost no need to go there because everything is on the internet including
actual classes. Blackboard is one of the terms used on a daily basis and is vital to receiving a
higher education.
Communicating in the collegiate world has changed over the years as well. There are still
classes, lectures, meetings, schedules and group study sessions the same as when I started years
ago. Thanks to the internet we now have a much faster and efficient way of communicating.
This is done by using Blackboard, e-mails, texts, Google+, discussion boards and journals. We
used to be required to turn in a hard copy of every paper that we wrote and when it came time to
get our grades they were printed on an actual report card.
I have been very fortunate throughout my life to have been many places, met many
people and learned many things. I honestly could not say how many discourse communities I am
a part of. I have always been a curious person and one to try anything once. I enjoy listening to
people discuss their passions. In my experience, I have found that having an open mind and
learning as much as possible with every opportunity given to me has made me a very well-
DISCOURSE 6
rounded person; A person, that if I was to walk into a room of complete strangers, would have at
least one discourse community in common with each and every one of them. No one knows
everything but it is a good idea to know a little about a lot of different things.