Discourse Communities

Part 1
Some discourse communities that I consider myself to be apart of include:

• Roosevelt students
• immediate family
• friends from high school
• high school graduating class
• friends from college
• church community
• Eleanor Roosevelt Society
• Alpha Gamma Delta 
• University Center
• Hometown 
• Communications or International Studies Major
• high school athletes
• campers
• dog people

Part 2
         My friends from high school have been an extremely influential discourse community throughout my life, and they continue to be. There are only four of us, but we are incredibly close. We communicate through text messaging, phone calls, skyping, facebook, twittter, and when we can, casual hang-outs. Our common language is mostly sarcasm, inside jokes, and words we make up on the spot but all understand. I became a member of the group by growing close, personal relationships with each one of the girls. We all got a chance to get close when we played soccer together our freshman year of high school.
         There is no real permanent leader of our group, and I like to think that we all share power equally. The only "rules" in our group are though that are implied by our shared values. We look down upon murder, drugs, and espionage, but there are no actual rules of our group. When one of us, "breaks a rule," they will be confronted, and if it is absolutely horrendous we will probably stop hanging out for a while. It would be extremely difficult to do something worthy of being kicked out of the group. In a group of friends, it is not the goal to gain more power, because my life isn't Gossip Girl, but if I did want more power, I guess I would just start being an awesome friend. By being a really good friend, I would have the attention and respect of all the members of my group.
Part 3
         Pretty much all of the groups that I associate myself with have a similar idea of success, they all want me to have a career and have a happy, long life. The difference is what career I should have. My hometown would find success in being a farmer, while my university would like for me to take a job where i could fight towards social justice. My family would want me to be a teacher in order to be successful, but my group of friends that are high school athletes would say to just keep practicing and maybe one day I'll be good enough to be a professional. Success to my church community would be to grow in my faith and raise a God-loving family and at the same time, my friends from college would view me as successful if I looked deep into different religions and weighed my options.
         This conversation could go on forever, but the main point is that success is viewed in radically different ways, just by the people that I surround myself with. Many of these groups would look at each other and be disgusted at their ideas of success.

"The 10,000 Hour Rule"

       If I had ten years to spend on becoming a master in anything I wanted I would probably waste all of my time trying to decide what to do, because I am such an indecisive person, but for the sake of the assignment I think I would choose to be an incredibly good soccer player. I know that that is not the most ambitious or awe inspiring choice, but I loved to play soccer in high school so I would appreciate the opportunity to play again. I feel like this would be a good choice for me because I know that I already love soccer, but I am not that good at it. It is a fun game that anyone can play and it is really the world's sport. It is a game that my friends all used to play, so that would probably think it is cool that I am an expert at it. 

       I also wanted to choose to be an expert in something that would not put me in the public eye too much, for instance I have no interest in being a rock star or famous actress. I would just enjoy being able to play a fun game with confidence and skill. I believe that by choosing this activity I am also selecting to stay in great shape for at least the next ten years. I would love the chance to be a part of a team again and have pride in what I do. I also love to compete, and I have been missing that lately.

"The Matthew Effect"

          Gladwell clearly states that he personally does not believe that hard work and talent alone can lead to success, he makes the point that there are certain circumstances that a person can attribute to their success whether they realize it or not. He points out that the boys who are born very close to the cutoff date in hockey have an unfair advantage because they are bigger and more developed than the other boys that are competing for the same positions. While Gladwell makes a good point, I find it hard to believe that a person's birthday can be the only reason for their success. It is strongly apparent that being the older player is an advantage to have, but it should not affect the success of so many people so drastically. In my opinion, such a small variable should not be the primary factor between success and failure, because there are so many more things that are a part of the equation; many of them being choices such as being a hard worker.
          People can always make the choice to work harder, stay later, and to sacrifice more in order to achieve greatness, but I feel like Gladwell completely ignores this fact in this chapter of Outliers. He only focuses on one variable that leads to the success of hockey players, but it is important to point out that these men were most likely also some of the hardest working men in their profession. I understand that Gladwell has a good amount of evidence and analogies to support his ideas, but it is also very clear to me that throughout this passage he sounds very narrow-minded. He just continues on and on about the hockey players and their astrological signs, but refuses to touch on anything else. He could have researched the areas where the players grew up or the family history and how invested in hockey the families were, but instead he is singularly focused on one thing. I am not saying that it is a bad thing to focus one's research on a certain variable, but it is extremely important that we, as readers, take note of this fact and take what Gladwell says with a grain of salt.
         

About Me

I am a freshman at Roosevelt University studying Communications and International Relations. I am from Central Indiana, and I enjoy playing sports, spending time outdoors, and hanging out with my family. After college, I hope to join the Peace Corps and then possibly start working for a non-profit organization.