Ruffin1 Philena V.

Ruffin Megan Keaton ENG-111-06 8 July 2013 Organizational Discourse and Social Discourse Every citizen has several forms of discourse communities in our lives. A person may never think of certain aspects of their lives as being a discourse community. There are two discourse communities that play a major role in my life; The Nation of Islam and Face book. The Nation of Islam (NOI) is an organization that has been systematically set into place in order to retrain men, women, and children whom are the descendants of slaves. The women and girls are taught how to take care of their children and husbands and how to act at home and abroad. The men are taught how to care for their wives and children and the importance of becoming self reliant as well. Male and female are taught to become business owners. To become a registered member of the NOI, a person must go through what is known as processing. In order to complete processing, a person must be able to recite The Student Enrollment by heart. The main focus of the Nation of Islam is to resurrect the mentally dead who were stolen from their homeland, now known as Africa, and stripped of knowledge of themselves and their God. This community can be recognized by the required attire that is worn by each member. Women and girls wear uniforms custom made that are a different color for every season. In the winter time, the uniform is a chocolate brown. During the spring and summer the uniform is tan or khaki. Every Sunday these women and girls are required to wear

Ruffin2 their white uniforms. They are also required to wear the white uniform anytime the National Representative of the NOI is speaking on Sunday or during our national holidays and events. Every uniform is to be worn with the head piece or a tam. These three uniforms are the regulated uniforms. When there is a Believers meeting or an activity out of the norm at the Mosque, the women and girls can wear their blue uniform. The blue uniform is not a regulated uniform. When the organization has an activity away from its home base, such as the park or the bowling alley, women and girls can wear either of the seasonal uniforms or simply wear modest attire. Men and boys are required to wear a suit and tie or a bowtie to Mosque meetings. Men and boys may wear slacks with a button down shirt to other events. Members of the Nation of Islam are expected to use proper English and grammar. There is very minimal to no baby language (curse words) during any type of discourse amongst this organization. The tone of voice is always moderate. The only time the voice is raised is during military drill. Although the NOI is a military structure, nobody is allowed to carry or use weapons of any kind. Members of the Nation of Islam have beautiful skin and look extremely young for their age due to their very unusual and strict dietary practice. They do not chew gum and drink only water and coffee during the course of the day and have their one meal per day between the hours of 4:00pm and 6:00pm. Their practice also consists of no snacks between meals. Members of the NOI that hold an official post are called Laborers. There are a total of 7 laborers or more in each Mosque within this organization: the Student Minister, Student FOI (Fruit of Islam) Captain, The Student MGT & GCC (Muslim Girls in Training and General Civilization Class) Captain, Student Secretary, Student Protocol Director, Student FOI first Officer, Student MGT & GCC first Officer. There are also Student Lieutenants. The number of

Ruffin3 Lieutenants depends upon the size of the Mosque. These Mosques are known as Muhammads Mosque and are located throughout the entire world. In order to become a Laborer, one must qualify by completing the Laborers Course and passing the Laborers examination in his or her area of interest. The National Representatives (rhetors) of the NOI make final decisions as to who will become a Laborer and which position they will hold after the Regional Representatives give the reports and recommendations. Regional Representatives are appointed by the National Representatives and National Representatives are appointed by The National Minister. The National Minister or National Representative is the Father of the NOI and was chosen by the Messenger to sit in his seat as the divine counselor of the universe. Any member of the NOI who is not a Laborer is known as a Believer. The word believer here is capitalized because it is also a proper title in the NOI. It is strong because it is the most honored of any titles. Everyone in the NOI is a Believer. There are many methods of communication in the NOI that have become common throughout most societies. One of the quickest and main methods of communication is emails. The letterhead always contains the words In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful, because it is protocol. Everything is done in the name of Allah. There is to be absolutely no foul discourse or abusive forms of language in any email sent out to the believers. It is offensive and goes against protocol. Some emails may contain pictures or attachments to enhance the readers understanding or show a location. Most emails are instructional and may be implemented according to the needs or capability of each individual Mosque because members have to be on the same page. Instructions provide the community with the guidance that is needed to conquer a task. Some emails are dictations that must be carried out as instructed to the teeth because it is important do exactly as told to be successful in accomplishing any task.

Ruffin4 Emails are written in basic form using basic vocabulary so that members can understand what is being communicated to them. In the emails, one will find that the rhetors or formulators use proper salutation or greeting, introduction, body, and then the proper closing because it is protocol. The proper opening is always As salaam alaikum, which is a short prayer that means May peace be unto you. The proper introduction always gives the Believers words of wisdom that encourages the righteous us to fight for righteousness and justice no matter what opposition the team may be facing. The proper body includes every instruction to be followed during that time. And the proper closings are words of encouragement that help with the forward movement of the instructions given in the body. And the last sentence of the emails is the same as the first; As salaam alaikum. It is done this way because it is also protocol. Believers open every single form of discourse with prayer and close the same way. Emails are formulated by the National Representatives of the NOI because they are the ones with first had knowledge and information from the divine counselor in our mist. Every email must be approved by the National Representative and/or his assistant before distribution occurs because it is proper protocol. After the email has been approved, it is then sent to the National Secretary and then forwarded to the Student Secretary of local Mosques and Study Groups because these are the rules. The local Student Secretary will forward the email to the rest of the Student Laborers and Believers. There are some specialized vocabulary that include: As Salaam Alaikum (Peace be unto you), Walaikum Salaam (Peace be unto you as well), All Praise is Due to Allah (The Arabic pronunciation of God), Praise be to Allah (no member credits themselves with any talent bestowed upon them or gift that they give to another), Believers, Laborers, and Allah is the Greatest. The term Student is placed before every Laborers title to remind them that they are

Ruffin5 always students and to keep arrogance at a minimum. The term Supreme Wisdom is the most prestigious of terms used in the Nation of Islam, because it is knowledge delivered to the entire human family from God Himself. Any attribute making reference to God is always capitalized, including, he and him. This is type of vocabulary that is used throughout the organization structure during any type of discourse, because it is protocol to learn the language of the Muslims so there are no misunderstandings and everyone is on the same page. Sometimes a special meeting is held after the email has been received by the Laborers and Believers. Other times the email may or may not be discussed in detail by the Minister or the Secretary of each local Mosque. The discussion is based upon the information in the email. It may come in the form of dictation, instruction, or it may be a solicitation of ideas from the entire believing community. This is how the community discourse becomes effective and efficient; everyone is a participant. This enables the Labors and Believers to make decisions and moves that are meaningful for the entire human race. On the other hand Facebook is a social website that has a very informal form of discourse. To become a member of this community a person just simply has to sign up by submitting a very short application that consists of basic information such as name, email address, birth date, etc. After a person has signed up, he or she then must send out a friend request to other people that have Facebook pages whom they feel they may want to be friends with. Other Facebook members do the same thing; send out friend request that the other person answers accordingly; the answer is either yes or no. A person may choose or choose not to be someones Facebook friend, which enables them to form their very own specialized community. Every person that a member sends a friend request to or accepts a friend request from is their

Ruffin6 audience. If a person is not a member of the community, he or she will have virtually no idea about the discourse in it. In this Facebook community, not any other one that I know of, is where a person will find Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhist, New Black Panther Party members, Bloods, Crypts, Black, Latino and White gang members, ministers, preachers, theologians, politicians, writers and religious scholars. Everyone looks different and are treated the same. People may appear in any form they choose by choosing a profile picture. Some of them choose profile pictures of themselves and a person can clearly see that they are Black, Asian, Moorish, White, etc. Many of them keep their identities hidden by choosing pictures of religious leaders, dog or their cat, etc. They also choose to use a variety of symbols as their profile picture. Members of the Facebook community are equal during discourse. Users are subject to every appropriate form of discourse. Members may choose any name they want to use as their profile name. The profile name is another way members are identified. Some members use their real names and others choose to use fictitious names. A person can either find a member by putting their username or their email address in the search engine. The search engine is a valuable tool to finding people with whom one may want to connect. Members can wear whatever they want to wear. Members may not be nude and must cover vital areas that are private and considered to be obscene if shown. Men do not have to wear a shirt, but women do. Members may be described as moody, depressed, happy, sad, angry, friendly, racist, neutral, or hateful. A member attempts to judge another members emotions according to their post.

Ruffin7 Facebook may be accessed from most electronic devices such as ipads, cell phones and computers. Members may choose to be close friends with another members or just an acquaintance. There are no spoken words on Facebook, discourse is written. Friends can also

choose to block a person so that there is no discourse between that person and them anymore. This occurs when a member has offended another member in some way. Facebook members can give friends any position they choose by making the selection. The owner of each individual page decides what role a friend plays on his or her page. A member may become a friend or a close friend and that is as far as it goes with this page. People may also un-friend and block another user from ever requesting their friendship again. This usually happens when a user becomes greatly offended by the other user. When member is blocked, neither party can see any interactions by the other unless the block is undone. The goal of the Facebook community is for a person to be able to express what is on their mind. Members can just come off the top of their head with a statement, plan, or words to a song etc. Facebook is up and running twenty four hours a day unless there are technical difficulties. A person may also send and receive messages that no one else can see in another members message box except the sender and the receiver of the message. This keeps personal interactions private so that no one else can see what is being discussed. People have the ability to chat as well, which has the same characteristics as messaging. A person can chat with multiple people at once and the conversations will be private. They are located at the bottom of the screen in their own little box. A member can navigate from box to box. Making a written public post is the most efficient genre available to Facebook users. A member may do so from his or her homepage, where the newsfeed appears. There is no particular organization behind the posts; however they do appear in order by date and time. The

Ruffin8 person making the post and their friends are welcome to comment on whatever they say. There are three words that appear at the bottom of each post: like, share, and comment. If a person clicks on the word like, it just lets the person who made the post know that the other person likes his or her post. Every time a person clicks on like, it automatically adds up and the person who made the post can see exactly how many likes the post received. If a person decides to share another persons post, they click on the word share and the post will also be shared with other members of Facebook, whom are their friends, but may not be friends of the original person that made the post. If a person clicks on the word comment, a box will appear with their profile picture beside it and they can type their comment in that box. Whether a person, likes, shares or comments on a post or pictures depends upon how strongly they feel about its content. Facebook members are welcome to use any formal or informal language about any topic in the content of their post. If a user becomes too vulgar, offensive, or hostile in their verbiage he or she may be reported to the Facebook police by other users. There are no rules to sentence structuring. Anything goes! Users are welcome to write any way they please. Facebook users truly have their own voice here unless they are planning to do something against the law. If a person is going to break the law he or she had better not write about it on Facebook because he or she may be arrested. Every form of vocabulary is welcome on Facebook. This Facebook community that is spoken of in this paper does not contain any groups. Groups are rejected because this page is an open forum page only. There are no close friends, only members and acquaintances. There are no blood relatives on this Facebook page. No member on this page receives any special treatment. Everyone is equal in everything aspect of the Facebook page and its genre. This is a lawless society where everyone can say what he or

Ruffin9 she please at anytime. Members may use every participatory instrument to provide information and opinions without any special rules whatsoever. The specialized vocabulary consists mostly of acronyms and shortened words like nice pic (picture), lol (laugh out loud), smh (shaking my head), tdb (too damn bad) and the list goes on and on. Other words include friend request, notifications, events, messaging, chatting, status, profile, apps, feedback, timeline, and page feed. Facebook is basically a lawless society when it comes to genres of writing. The genres of this community are the most diverse of many communities. The genres of the NOI are very strict and orderly. Being a member of both communities provides much needed balance.