There are many paths in life that each person takes to achieve their ambitions. As they progress in life, these people find groups called discourse communities. According to John Swales, he defines the discourse community as “a widely agreed upon set of common public goals, mechanisms of intercommunication between its members, which uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback, utility and thus elaborates one or more genres in communication, promotion of its objectives, acquires a specific vocabulary and has a minimum level of members with an adequate degree of competence regarding relevant contents and discourses". In short, a discourse community is a group of people who share similar ideas, goals, and ways of communicating. People in the group usually assume designated or held levels of discursive authority. This essay will delve deeper into the discursive community of the shipping and receiving team at Home Depot, how newcomers become enculturated and gain authority in the discursive community, and personal experiences with authority within the community. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay To begin with, one discourse community I am a part of is the Home Depot Shipping and Receiving team. The group exists to maintain business at Home Depot. I was part of the night crew and the community's shared goal is to come into work on the days we are assigned work and complete the daily work task. Our job is to restock and/or stock every item that comes off the delivery truck, all within the hours of the night and before it's time to clock out. We also need to ensure, before the shop opens to customers, that our assigned department is cleared of any messes made overnight and ensure that all wings, side caps and end caps are presentable. Without the group, Home Depot would have nothing on the shelf to sell, and if it had nothing on the shelf to sell, it would not be able to create revenue and would eventually have to go out of business. The Shipping & Receiving community communicates in many different ways and uses terms that may only be understood by group members. Community members communicate face to face, in meetings, over the intercom, or by calling each other through the FIRST phones that each of us owns. We communicate mainly through meetings at the beginning of the shift to find out what the night's task is and who works in which department that night. During the night we communicate to find out who needs help, who is almost done or has already finished, to find out if there is anything else the boss wants us to complete or just to see what happens. Workplace genres are mostly casual notes, writing reports or lists, or posting on the whiteboard. Discourse communities come in all sizes, and each community has different sets of genres and different ways of communicating. Furthermore, for many newcomers, it is a little difficult for them to adapt to their new discursive community and it often takes some time before they feel like they belong. It's no different as a new member of the shipping and receiving discourse community. Newcomers to the community acquire the appropriate knowledge, language and genres through training in the first 2-3 weeks on the job. They first meet the other newcomers in an orientation meeting where the hiring manager goes over the rules and basics and gives them all the.