Blog #7

                I have had such a hard time deciding what discourse community I wanted to write about. Since there are several discourse communities that I am very interested in but I am still not sure which one I would enjoy writing about. After finding out that it is important to question and research discourse communities that are currently running rather than the activities of these communities in the past, I was stuck. Although the past can give us all a little glimpse into the discourse communities that I wanted to write about, it will not be sufficient enough to explain current or even future direction of those discourse communities. Here are the ones I was thinking of:

Economics

Since this is my major, I was very interested in was APEC (Asia-Pacific Economics Cooperation). This is a big group formed with 21 countries in order to improve and sustain stable economic growth for Asia-Pacific region. This involves a lot of those countries in Asia to unite and create meetings to support free open trade and investments to help economic development. The countries joined as separate entities into a community working side by side with the WTO (World Trade Organization) to improve trade and economic conditions for those Asia-Pacific countries involved. Their board members are appointed almost yearly and their membership is very exclusive. Besides the facts, I have always wanted to dig deeper into this organization because Vietnam and Thailand are members – I feel connected to these two members because I might decide to invest in their growing economies in the future. This will help me gain insights into the various involvement and the improvements that these two countries have made to date. I don’t think I can get answers from members directly, so I think it is best if I do a lot of research about APEC current projects and possibly finding answers through my research.

Restaurants

This discourse community is very fun for me to talk about because I want to own a restaurant in the future. I was a hostess and have worked my way up to waitressing a while back. I have an idea what the common goal is for each restaurant I have worked at. There is a sense of separation sometimes between the workers and the employer but I think the common goal at the end of the day is to make as much money as possible and create great experiences for diners no matter how difficult it is. I went through what it was like to be an employee but I have yet to experience what it is like to be an owner or even someone higher up in the restaurant. This is why is discourse community had my interest because it seems different at each of the restaurants I work at. I have friends that are still servers/waiters therefor, the only issue is to find a restaurant owner and/or someone in a higher position at a restaurant to ask the questions regarding about creating a successful business in the food industry.  

 

Feminist Movements (Pro-choice)

As many of you must hear, there is an ongoing debate between members of the pro-life and pro-choice movement. It is obvious what the common goals are between these two movements. I have read and learned a lot about issues regarding hidden or illegal abortions due to economic or suppression issue when it comes to women in many countries. However, it seems like America itself is suffering from the split itself. There were many violent attacks on abortion clinics and abortions doctors from many radicals who wants to take away the rights that women have with their bodies. I grew up with very strict beliefs and values regarding the creation of life but I began to learn about the suppressions that women continue to endure today when it comes the choices they have with their bodies. I strongly feel that I have to support the pro-choice movement because women have suffered long enough throughout history. I was more heart-broken when I watched recent documentaries that involves illegal abortions and unsafe health choices that these women are left with. I am interested in finding out about the groups involved in the pro-choice movement and choosing the one I would like to write about. This is possible for me to do because I am sure it is not hard to contact the members to question them about their strategies along with their discourse community and the research will be very enjoyable to do.

                Overall, I think this project will be a lot of work and these discourse communities are the ones I am very fond of. I have yet to think of the question(s) I want to answer but I will continue to narrow down the discourse community that fits best and work on the question after. Regardless of the choice of discourse community, I hope to gain a lot of information that I can carry through into the future.