Research

Major Assignment 1 Rough Draft

Everyone has experienced a landlord of some type and currently I am living under the supervision of a resident assistant. The purpose of this position is to make sure that everyone on the floor follows the rules and respects other’s privacies. However, I would like to go into the more intricate parts of the position and learn about how the RAs manage their time, use forms of writing to distribute information and how they communicate effectively in times where it is calm and other times where there may be an emergency. I am planning on using John Swales' idea of discourse communities to look at how Resident assistants talk to floor members and distribute information for my research site. Swales idea of a discourse community is focused on how it is a community of people who use speech to reach similar goals and purposes Discourse communities are one of the most important and influential components of writing. Overtime many have delved into the idea of discourse communities trying and share information on the topic so writers can take advantage of discourse communities to improve their pieces and be more efficient in spreading information. Swales discuss the required 6 rules for discourse communities as follows " A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common

public goals. A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily. A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims.to provide
information and feedback. among its members. In addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired some specific lexis. A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise." (Swales 27). These rules are an accurate representation of what a Resident Assistant is required to do. The job of the RA is to set goals such as keeping the building clean and making it a goal to stay out of trouble. The communicative part of discourse communities is what I will be focusing on. Resident assistants constantly must be on alert ready to tend to any emergency or problem one of their
residents may be having. This is done through flyers/writing informing who to call in emergencies or where to go, as well as providing their phone number for residents to directly contact the RA and so that the RA can provide updates and information in real time. I plan to further my research in the topic of discourse communities through real life experiences as well as online research. Through this research I am planning on acquired four
pieces of primary information that all contribute information that I feel is valuable to the reader. I am planning on getting in contact with my RA so I can get a firsthand account of what the position truly is...the challenges and the upsides. Talking with my RA I will be able to ask him any question I feel is necessary such as what is the main form of communication among RAs?
How often must you create flyers to distribute information? Do you feel that people listen to what you have to say when writing? Questions like this will hopefully give me the ideas and pieces I need to build a big picture about the use of discourse communities. As I discussed earlier about John Swales, I am going to begin by going into thorough research of his article about discourse communities as he is commonly known as the creator of the idea of discourse communities in writing and popularized the topic in his book. I think that if I can understand the origin of the discourse communities it will give me a better understanding of how they show in

everyday life, and I can associate it with how the RAs go about writing. I would like to be able to simplify it for the readers so that they can understand. In addition to John Swales article, I will be researching Dan Melzer’s “Understanding Discourse Communities”. I believe this will be helpful in the topic as it is an elaboration of John Swale’s definition of Discourse communities. The reason for Dan Melzer to write this text is
“with the goal of explaining why this concept is important for college writing and beyond” (Melzer 2). I think that Melzer is going to attempt to widen the readers’ vision and help to identify discourse communities in our everyday lives which is what I am trying to forward to my readers. Finally, I am planning on using the website room pact who offer a guide for resident assistants to write an incident report. I am hoping this will give me a direct view of the guidelines and procedures that a resident assistant follows to ensure that everything is properly documented. I think this will help myself and the readers better understand all the components
that go into the writing process of an RAs report.

Major assignment 1

Everyone has experienced a landlord of some type and currently I am living under the supervision of a resident assistant. The purpose of this position is to make sure that everyone on the floor follows the rules and respects other’s privacies. Resident assistants work long hours as they are required to help residents with all their problems and emergencies. I would like to go into the more intricate parts of the position and learn about how the RAs manage their time, use forms of writing to distribute information and how they communicate effectively in times where it is calm and other times where there may be an emergency. I am planning on using John Swales' idea of discourse communities to look at how Resident assistants talk to floor members and distribute information for my research site. Swales idea of a discourse community is focused on how it is a community of people who use speech to reach similar goals and purposes. Discourse communities are one of the most important and influential components of writing. Overtime many have delved into the idea of discourse communities trying and share information on the topic so writers can take advantage of discourse communities to improve their pieces and be more efficient in spreading information. Swales discuss the required 6 rules for discourse communities as follows " A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals. A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily. A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims.to provide information and feedback among its members. In addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired some specific lexis. A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise." (Swales 27). These rules are an accurate representation of what a Resident Assistant is required to do. The job of the RA is to set goals such as keeping the building clean and making it a goal to stay out of trouble. The communicative part of discourse communities is what I will be focusing on. Resident assistants constantly must be on alert ready to tend to any emergency or problem one of their residents may be having. This is done through flyers/writing informing who to call in emergencies or where to go, as well as providing their phone number for residents to directly contact the RA and so that the RA can provide updates and information in real time. I plan to further my research in the topic of discourse communities through real life experiences as well as online research. Through this research I am planning on acquired four pieces of primary information that all contribute information that I feel is valuable to the reader. I am planning on getting in contact with my RA so I can get a firsthand account of what the position truly is...the challenges and the upsides. I plan to have a discussion with an RA on
another floor as well so that I can compare their tactics and methods to do their jobs. Talking with my RA I will be able to ask him any question I feel is necessary such as what is the main form of communication among RAs? How often must you create flyers to distribute information? Do you feel that people listen to what you have to say when writing? Questions like this will give me the ideas and pieces I need to build a big picture about the use of discourse communities. As I discussed earlier about John Swales, I am going to begin by going into thorough research of his article about discourse communities as he is commonly known as the creator of the idea of discourse communities in writing and popularized the topic in his book. When I have a better understanding of the origin of the discourse communities it will give me a better understanding of how they show in everyday life, and I can associate it with how the RAs go about writing. I would like to be able to simplify it for the readers so that they can understand. In addition to John Swales article, I will be researching Dan Melzer’s “Understanding Discourse Communities”. This will be helpful in the topic as it is an elaboration of John Swale’s
definition of Discourse communities. The reason for Dan Melzer to write this text is “with the goal of explaining why this concept is important for college writing and beyond” (Melzer 2). Melzer is attempting to widen the readers’ vision and help to identify discourse communities in our everyday lives which is what I am trying to forward to my readers. Finally, I am planning on using the website roompact who offer a guide for resident assistants to write an incident report. This will give me a direct view of the guidelines and procedures that a resident assistant follows to ensure that everything is properly documented. This will help myself and the readers better understand all the components that go into the writing process of an RAs report.

WHY?

This assignment builds around the idea of generating inquiry. In this work I discussed Dan Melzer's Understanding of discourse communities as a way of exploring rhetoric. The author goes into great detail about what discourse communities are and how they are apart of our every day life. Not everyone understands or is aware of what a discourse community is so I wanted to provide a foundation in case they decided to take a look at my research.

Major Assignment 2 Rough Draft

Secondary source:

The author of this article Dan Melzer had the intention and priority of helping the reader understand what a discourse community is and why it is important for college writing and beyond that. The article goes into detail about how there are genres working within discourse communities and why different communities hold different expectations and goals for their writers. Melzer also goes into depth about the specific qualifications or requirements needed to be considered a discourse community. This article stood out to me because the author uses a personal account of a discourse community he is a part of and builds off of his own experience to help the audience better understand. This article seems credible because it is giving the benefits and constraints of a discourse community rather than just funneling biased information.

I truly think this will positively contribute to my research assignment due to the first hand example provided by the author. The article easily relates back to my other sources discussing discourse communities and it will help me to fill in the gaps of knowledge that may be missing surrounding the topic of discourse communities and college living. This article is also based off of a similar foundation as John Swales’ article who is known as the founder of discourse communities

Melzer, Dan. “Understanding Discourse Communities.” Understanding Discourse

Communities, wac.colostate.edu/docs/books/writingspaces3/melzer.pdf. Accessed 11

Sept. 2025.

Secondary Source

Schlosberg, D., Collins, L. B., & Niemeyer, S. (2017). Adaptation policy and community discourse: risk, vulnerability, and just transformation. Environmental Politics, 26(3), 413–437. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2017.1287628

Links to an external site.

In this article, David Schlosberg goes into detail about a social experiment done to see how different forms of discourse have different effectiveness around the world. He talks about how different countries' governments have different priorities and it shows within their population's concerns. He took information from several countries around the world with different economic situations to compare the worries of the citizens. He talks about how the discourse brings people together to express their concerns but also makes a point to discuss how the "the language of community groups illustrates a diversity of concerns"(Scholsberg), illustrating that discourse communities help to identify how people are truly feeling about a topic. The author discusses how leaders and community members need to adapt to changes in concerns and how it can bring communities together to improve upon each other.

This article will assist my research project as the author explains why different discourses have different impacts on their communities. He helps to simplify how their are different perspectives on topics of real world problems and that the variables provided through the people's citizens and the government go hand in hand to create discourse communities. This will relate back to my primary sources and the topic of a resident assistant using discourse to bring their residents together to form a community and feel comfortable expressing concerns that they have or someone else they know may have.

Secondary source

This source takes a closer look into the leadership aspect of a resident assistant on college campuses. The article discusses how resident assistants are supposed to be known as some of the most positive and supporting people on campus. The author then takes time in this article to dive into the techniques used to develop healthy, comfortable communities for the students living in these buildings. This article is going to be worth adding to my research because it discusses different ways that RAs are being leaders in their discourse communities and give examples of discourse being used to promote their goals and messages. The article also discusses how a resident assistant can be an outlet to other sources of help or information that a student may be looking for or someone feels they need.

I think this source will link well with my primary sources because it is giving more context as to what steps and RA takes to create a discourse community. I am looking forward to comparing the techniques discussed in this article to the techniques given to me through my personal interview with the RA on my floor. This article gives me the more social point of view of a resident assistant rather than just the qualifications and responsibilities of one.

Soria, K. M., Brazelton, G. B., & Roberts, B. J. (2021). Resident Assistants’ Leadership Efficacy. The Journal of College and University Student Housing, 48(1). https://doi.org/10.71348/001c.137515

Secondary Source:

In this article John Swales, who is also known as one of the founders of discourse communities, breaks down what a discourse community is and provides a basic foundation for the topic. He differentiates sociolinguistic grouping and sociorhetorical grouping, this is being done with the intent to try and separate discourse communities and speech communities. There are different social needs and ideas between the two groups due to the people involved. Swales feels there is a valuable difference between the communities, beginning with the distance they create within the community. Discourse communities are meant for a more localized group while speech communities can branch among far distances. Location generally has a play into what speech group you are born into or adopt. The main difference between the two groups as stated by Swales ". A speech community typically inherits its membership by birth, accident or adoption; a discourse community recruits its members by persuasion, training or relevant qualification", you must earn the right to be in a discourse community whereas for speech communities you get to choose.

Furthermore, Swales gives six defining characteristics to look for when identifying individuals of a discourse community. This will be the most useful contribution to my project because it gives a check list for readers and myself to go down to determine if the qualifications are met for a group of individuals to be considered a discourse community. When interviewing a RA I will go down this checklist and ask questions as to how they meet each qualification.

Swales, John. The Concept of Discourse Community, 2011, www.mjreiff.com/uploads/3/4/2/1/34215272/swales.pdf Links to an external site.

Primary Source:

For this source I went directly to UCF’s website in order to learn more about resident assistants’ roles, qualifications and responsibilities. Through reading about resident assistants on the website I found that the main role of an RA is to be a leader in a community focused on student success and a feeling of belonging among their peers. The website lists several activities and responsibilities that come with being a resident assistant at UCF along with a description of what each task is. My findings have helped me to better understand that there is a lot more to a resident assistants’ job than just creating flyers and opening locked doors. There is a lot of meaningful rhetoric that takes place among the discourse community created by RAs.

This source is beneficial to my research because it contains valuable and credible information about what it really means to be a resident assistant. Some people in the audience may not understand what a resident assistant is and this website will help me to better explain to my audience so that they can have a better understanding of how discourse communities are incorporated. I think that the source can be related to my other sources because it holds information about the rhetoric that a resident assistant needs to take advantage of and gives a direct view into a resident assistant created discourse community.

“Resident Assistant.” Resident Assistant • Housing and Residence Life • UCF, UCF Residence and Housing, www.housing.ucf.edu/employment/resident-assistant/. Accessed 14 Oct. 2025.

Primary Source

My final primary source is from the UCF housing youtube channel. The channel is filled with informational videos about the roles and responsibilities that come with being a resident assistant. The channel provides videos giving process information as well as introductions. UCF allowed for people to ask questions to the RAs and also posted that on their channel. This website is another example of how resident assistants use discourse among their communities to spread information. This follows up on the idea of multiple ways of writing because it is giving an audio and visual display of information rather than a written or face to face message. The channel is more instructional than informational and I think that it is a good idea creating videos as it gives a visual guide to the audience of people who have never been to UCF before.

I am looking to relate this source back to my other sources that were discussing housing at UCF and put together a bigger picture of all the different uses of discourse used by RAs in their residential buildings to create a comforting community.

“Ucfhousing.” YouTube, YouTube, www.youtube.com/@UCFhousing/videos. Accessed 15 Oct. 2025.

Primary Source

This method took me right to the source of my research topic. I personally asked the resident assistant on my floor questions about how he is making our building a discourse community. I interviewed him one on one to ask all the questions I had for him. The time that I spent with him was valuable because he broke down the different types of discourse he was using as well as the additional activities he does to help create a community of people with similar goals and likes. My RA discussed how he puts flyers on the resident’s rooms when the information he has is important but not urgent whereas if he has urgent and important information, he will write it in the online group chat for the entire floor. He also discussed how he sets up events in hopes of creating community and bringing everyone together to socialize and share any ideas they have towards each other or the building.

This source is very useful towards my research because it ties all my sources' different ideas together with a real life firsthand example. This source helped to answer my questions. For example, I was able to see how he puts a flyer together, what information he makes sure to include and where he puts it for the right audience. I think this will be one of if not my most valuable source because I can return for more information if needed and I am constantly being exposed to ways he is utilizing discourse to spread information and create community.

Primary Source

For this source I stuck with the in person interview as I wanted a more personal, first hand experience. I interviewed one of my roommates that share the same RA as me and asked him questions about the effectiveness of the different forms of writing used in our building. I wanted to know if he feels up to date on all the information being sent out by our RA and if he felt there was anything that the resident assistant could be doing better to make sure he doesn’t miss any important information. My findings have further led me to realize that the idea of discourse communities are not very popular and there is a difference between the forms of writing that are being used to disperse information.

This source was very helpful towards my research as it gives the audience as well as myself a real experience from someone inside of a discourse community. My roommate was unaware of the concept of discourse communities so I was able to take advantage of this situation and explain to him how they are implemented and used in our everyday life whether we are aware of it or not. I think this source really can relate to any of my others as it shows all the information the other sources are providing but in a real life scenario.

Research paper intro rough draft

I have been researching the techniques and responsibilities of a resident assistant with the goal of seeing how discourse communities are utilized to create a comfortable community among people with likeminded ideas and aspirations. Through this research I have discovered that resident assistants have a lot more responsibilities than meets the eye. More importantly however, I now have a better understanding of what a discourse community is and how we are surrounded and included in these communities, whether we are aware of it or not. Having a better understanding on the subject has allowed for me to better identify discourse within my research and translate it into a way that is easy to see and understand for any audience. The main conversation I am having currently is about the importance of understanding discourse communities and being able to provide an explanation to those who wish to hear it. Discourse communities are not only important in college settings but as well as beyond graduation. Discourse communities are created among people with similar goals so your future or current career opportunities will give you a chance to create a discourse community with people who share aspirations. I plan to join the conversation of discourse communities, specifically among resident assistants, through research obtained by first hand accounts and credible articles that hold information I feel is valuable to the audience. John Swales' ideas and writings have piqued my interest and he is known as the father of discourse communities. He believed that discourse communities are one of the most important but underdiscussed topics in literature. He gives a differentiator between speech communities and discourse communities which has been helpful in identifying discourse throughout my research. He believed that there is a checklist of qualifications that needs to be passed in order to be considered a discourse community. I am looking to see if resident assistants do enough in their community to meet the qualifications of a discourse community. I think this will hold value in a conversation among those who understand discourse communities because RAs watch over students who have a common overall goal of graduating. Discourse is seen in many forms and I believe that a resident assistant is a great example of a leader creating a community for people to feel safe and comfortable.

Major Assignment 2

Secondary source:

Melzer, Dan. “Understanding Discourse Communities.” Understanding Discourse

Communities, wac.colostate.edu/docs/books/writingspaces3/melzer.pdf. Accessed 11

Sept. 2025.

Secondary Source

Links to an external site.

Secondary source

Soria, K. M., Brazelton, G. B., & Roberts, B. J. (2021). Resident Assistants’ Leadership Efficacy. The Journal of College and University Student Housing, 48(1). https://doi.org/10.71348/001c.137515

Secondary Source:

Swales, John. The Concept of Discourse Community, 2011, www.mjreiff.com/uploads/3/4/2/1/34215272/swales.pdf Links to an external site.

Primary Source:

“Resident Assistant.” Resident Assistant • Housing and Residence Life • UCF, UCF Residence and Housing, www.housing.ucf.edu/employment/resident-assistant/. Accessed 14 Oct. 2025.

Primary Source

“Ucfhousing.” YouTube, YouTube, www.youtube.com/@UCFhousing/videos. Accessed 15 Oct. 2025.

Primary Source

WHY?

This piece of work is a great example of information literacy and research genre production. I navigated many websites and articles to find the most credible forms of information that I could find on how discourse communities are utilized by resident assistants. I made sure to include various primary and secondary sources in different forms of writing to have a well rounded research project. Having to document all of my sources ensured that I checked credibility and how valuable the information is to the conversation at hand.

Final Draft

I have been researching the techniques and responsibilities of a resident assistant with the goal of seeing how discourse communities are utilized to create a comfortable community among people with like-minded ideas and aspirations. Through this research I have discovered that resident assistants have a lot more responsibilities than meet the eye. Resident assistants are required to have the skills to be able to create an environment where everyone involved feels included and a sense of belonging. Soria discusses the leadership aspect of being an RA, they discuss how resident assistants are supposed to be known as some of the positive and supporting people on campus. RAs can be seen as an outlet for other possible sources of help or information that a student may be looking for, or someone feels they need. Furthermore, I now have a better understanding of what a discourse community is and how we are surrounded and included in these communities, whether we are aware of it or not. Discourse communities are created through communication whether it be verbal or written, and college residencies operate as a community that uses communication to establish safety and academic success. Having a better understanding of the subject, after reading Melzer and Swales explanations and principles, has allowed me to better identify discourse within my research and translate it into a way that is easy to see and understand for any audience. The main conversation I am having currently is about the importance of understanding discourse communities and how discourse shapes communities among college students. Discourse communities are not only important in college settings but as well as beyond graduation. Schlosberg discusses how different forms of discourse have different effectiveness depending on where we are in the world and what type of information is being shared. As he discussed when going into detail, discourse communities are created among people with similar goals, so your future or current career opportunities will give you a chance to create a discourse community with people who share aspirations. I plan to join the conversation of discourse communities, specifically among resident assistants, through research obtained by firsthand accounts and credible articles that hold information I feel is valuable to the audience. John Swales' ideas and writing have piqued my interest, and he is known as the father of discourse communities. He believed that discourse communities are one of the most important but underdiscussed topics in literature. He gives a differentiator between speech communities and discourse communities which has been helpful in identifying discourse throughout my research. He believed that there is a checklist of qualifications that needs to be passed to be considered a discourse community. I am looking to see if resident assistants do enough in their community to meet the qualifications of a discourse community. I think this will hold value in a conversation among those who understand discourse communities because RAs watch over students who have a common overall goal of graduating. Discourse is seen in many forms, and I believe that a resident assistant is a great example of a leader creating a community for people to feel safe and comfortable.

METHODS:

The information contained in this paper was obtained from a variety of sources to give a credible, diverse array of information to help the audience better understand the discussion. The most credible and valuable information came from my personal interviews. Being able to get a firsthand response from a resident assistant along with other accounts from students living under a resident assistant has allowed me to evaluate how effective discourse is being used throughout their living environment. It was interesting to hear students/residents discuss how effective the different forms of writing are in dispersing information to everyone, and which forms of writing are more effective for different types of information that are being spread. The interview with the resident assistant gave information about what types of discourse are utilized and gave a point of view from the “leader” of a discourse community that is trying to create a sense of belonging. While looking at the UCF housing website and YouTube channel, notice that they provide the details for becoming a resident assistant and allow readers to see the different ways that discourse is being conducted among a group of related people. The videos are also a beneficial way to learn about resident assistants since there are videos of actual resident assistants trying to create discourse. However, while the videos are very helpful and give a beneficial oversight to what it means to be a resident assistant, the personal interviews conducted hold much more value in a conversation with an audience educated on the topic. This evidence is more impactful to the conversation because it is not someone following a script or regurgitating information that they were told to say, all the information is given in real time and it puts the interviewees on the hot seat, revealing more genuine or honest answers. All research was conducted on those living in a residential hall along with a resident assistant to see how different forms of discourse such as flyers and community events create a discourse community among a group of people with similar goals and aspirations. The differences in opinions of students on how effective resident assistants are in spreading information were taken down to be compared to how effective the ra feels about their efforts. Another idea for gathering research was to show face at all the events posted by the residents. While at the events, document how many people are entering and staying for the event vs how many people show up just to show face and say hello vs how many people did not attend. After this we would compare results of each event then see which form of writing was used to promote the event and determine the most effective way to get information across to the students. Ultimately, this did not end up being the main source of data due to the amount of time it would take and the limited number of events being held this far into the semester.

RESULTS

The results of this experiment concluded with different types of discourse being put into different genres of urgency. It was shown that the RA typically will use flyers for information that is important but not as urgent as other info. These flyers would be set up on the walls of the hallway or on each of the residents’ doors. These are generally events that may be happening within the coming weeks, or a reminder to sign up for a mandatory meeting that needs to be done within the near future. Further elaborating into the events being held for residents, according to students who attend frequently, they feel the community events help them to essentially build an identity and help figure out who they are with the possibility of finding something or someone else that they enjoy. Based on the thoughts of a student interviewed, he suggested that if the community events are so beneficial to students, then we should be sending reminders in the group chat as he feels the flyers are often overlooked due to the number of times residents/students may pass by and see them in a day. Students feel that they tend to notice when the group chat is being used and acknowledge that there is more important and urgent information being sent electronically. These messages may include things like an urgent reminder or a debrief of a possible safety concern among students in the building. Due to normality of phones, this makes sense since there is a more probable chance of students reading the message rather than just swiping it away and moving on from it. From the information provided on the UCF housing website and YouTube channel, it was clear to see that they emphasize communication and the responsibilities of being a leader of a community. Overall, discourse is effective in spreading information and creates a sense of community and belonging among students living in the building.

Discussion

Discourse communities consist of people sharing common goals who can communicate through mechanisms of intercommunication and perform participatory mechanisms. Everyone in the community has a threshold level that they can bring to the conversation with fellow members of their community. These communities may include specialized vocabulary and slang or a specific form of communication that brings them together and separates each other from outsiders. A resident assistant watches over the people in a college dorm who share the goal of graduating college. Resident assistants promote the feeling of safety and want to create a sense of belonging and inclusion among all the students in the building. This is done through community events that are advertised through flyers around the building. The meetings and events setup by resident assistants always have students attending and creating relationships with other people in their building and community. This meets the criteria for the idea of mechanisms of intercommunication required by Swales. The communities created by resident assistants also have participatory mechanisms. Students of the community often provide feedback to each other and to the resident assistants through surveys and direct communication in the group chat. Examples such as reminding someone to get their laundry, asking a neighbor for a ball pump or telling the RA about something dangerous another student is doing. Acts like this are what allows a community to thrive and create specific genres to help reach everyone’s goals. Through my discussion with the resident assistant and students, it was clear that electronically delivered information is more effective at getting a point to the attention of students living in the building. This relates to what Melzer discusses when he talks about how genres succeed when they meet community expectations. Members of the discourse communities created by resident assistants expect there to be digital notifications to remind students of urgent and important information that needs to be distributed. When discussing effectiveness of discourse with the residents, and in this case the receptionists, there seemed to be a difference between what the resident assistant thought was most effective vs. how receptive students are to the RAs intentions. Flyers are often overlooked and blend into the environment after repetitively seeing them. Flyers around the building have been often identified as non-urgent so they are more likely to be ignored rather than a text message that residents expect to be more urgent. Ra’s should be characteristically strong in adaptability, or the ability to adjust to the surrounding environment for everyone’s benefit. Resident priorities are not constant and new methods of communication and community building may need to be implemented to receive the greatest number of receptive students possible. The resident assistant interviewed seemed to be proficient in his ability to adapt, as shown through his strategic genre switching based on urgency of information. While looking at the number of students who interact with each other in the chats was much less than the amount of people who are in the chat. Many students don’t engage with others while some students are constantly communicating with each other in the community group chat. These students also seem to be the same faces that arrive at the community events hosted by the resident assistants. Schlosberg discusses a point that resembles the ideals of uneven participation when talking about “diversity of concerns” in his work done about how different forms of discourse have different effectiveness around the world. This once again prioritizes the idea that different individuals in the same community may still prefer different forms of communication. RAs are put into a situation where they must enforce rules and safety procedures but also want to be friendly and approachable by students living in their community. There is a common trust among the students while still understanding that the resident assistant is in charge and is there to maintain authority. When students have someone that they trust, they may feel more inclined to listen to what information is being shared, especially when the information is being put into a form that is most effective and accepted by the target audience. Ras act as leaders and unknowingly rhetorical mediators.

While these patterns may differ from building to building or different RAs, writing is used among all communities and will continue to change and evolve as society evolves. I am hoping to find more information on the differences among how RAs run their floors and interview a larger sample class of residents over a fixed period. For future research, gather flyers and collect messages and observe the patterns created throughout the fixed period, interview more RAs but from different residential buildings. All minds think differently so it is certain that there will be differences among the communication styles of RAs and different amounts of engagement with digital and physical discourses. Understanding how RAs communicate information is not only essential in understanding how culture is created through discourse but is also important in understanding how discourse communities work and how rhetoric shapes our everyday lives

References

Melzer, Dan. “Understanding Discourse Communities.” Understanding Discourse 

Communities, wac.colostate.edu/docs/books/writingspaces3/melzer.pdf. Accessed 11 

Sept. 2025. 

Soria, K. M., Brazelton, G. B., & Roberts, B. J. (2021). Resident Assistants’ Leadership Efficacy. The Journal of College and University Student Housing, 48(1). https://doi.org/10.71348/001c.137515

Swales, John. The Concept of Discourse Community, 2011, www.mjreiff.com/uploads/3/4/2/1/34215272/swales.pdf

“Resident Assistant.” Resident Assistant • Housing and Residence Life • UCF, UCF Residence and Housing, www.housing.ucf.edu/employment/resident-assistant/. Accessed 14 Oct. 2025.

“Ucfhousing.” YouTube, YouTube, www.youtube.com/@UCFhousing/videos. Accessed 15 Oct. 2025. 

Figueroa, personal communication, November 2, 2025 (Resident Assistant)
Crider, Personal communication, November 5, 2025 (Student in dorm building)

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Research

Major Assignment 1 Rough Draft

Major assignment 1

WHY?

Major Assignment 2 Rough Draft

Major Assignment 2

WHY?

Final Draft

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