Writing Project 1:

Reflection/Cover Letter

April 18, 2018

Dear Masha,
When it came to writing this paper, my approaches primarily involved creating a basic
structure based off the readings we had. The most important stage for me when writing paper
was reading Swales multiple times to ensure I had a grasp on the concepts he discussed. Once
this was achieved, the next stage was simply connecting the dots between the working draft
prompt, the discourse community of my choice, and the ideas outlined by Swales and Dirk. The
reasons I felt these were so important were because they set the structure for my essay and its
flow.
Regarding the three choices I made, these were primarily centered around structure and
genre choices. In my personal opinion, an essays flow and structure is of the highest importance,
and so, as stated previously, I based the structure of my essay on a combination of the prompt
and how Swales himself outlined the traits of a discourse community. The second choice I made
was to ensure my genres directly related and fit the description of Swales. This choice was
simply done to create a cleaner flow in my essay and a sense of symmetry between the classes
content and the prompt of the paper which borrows heavily off his concept of discourse
communities. Lastly, a personal choice of mine in essays is to be concise with my wording while
still maintaining a certain element of eloquence, which in my opinion creates a more complex
and nuanced essay.
As can be seen, I based my views heavily off of Swales. While Dirk offered a much more
digestible approach to genres and their importance, Swales was capable of dissecting discourse
communities very deeply and allowing for a more nuanced analysis of them.
If I had more time, I would create a longer essay that incorporates more of the concepts
discussed by Dirk. I would also spend some more time on my introduction and thesis, as I felt
that due to the open ended nature of the prompt I was not able to directly answer a specific
question. Due to my academic background I am not used to creating essays from open ended
prompts.
I would enjoy feedback on my structure and grammar. These two have always been my
weakest points as I have a tendency to merely write and map out my thoughts and arguments and
not format them into proper grammar or sentence structures.
Sincerely,
Felipe Peres
Felipe Peres

Masha Fedorova

Writing 2

Writing Project 1

As society reaches its apex of communication and interaction, many scholars attempt to

understand the nature and underlying mechanisms of the communities created and how they

interactand their interactions. A fundamental principle that came from this and allowed such

developments to occur is based on the formation of discourse communities, a term coined by Commented [MOU1]: This sentence sounds a bit awkward
and unnecessary complicated. Perhaps, it will be better to
say something like: In the last thirty years, scholars, in
linguist John Swales. A discourse community is a group or community of individuals who that particular John Swales, have introduced terms like
“discourse communities” to learn more about writing
share sets of basic values and ideals and have methods of communicating that allow them for the practices of different groups.
Commented [MOU2]: “Who” is used only when we talk
evolving and furtherto analyzesis of said values and ideals. A discourse community I am part of about people. In this case, you’re talking about groups and
communities.
is the League of Legends gaming community, which in and of itself contains millions of players

and thousands of forums and video content. The LoL discourse community demonstrates the

principles of what makes a discourse community through its use of the in-game client, forums,

video content, and direct messages as genres that allow for further interaction and development

of the game and its player base through their facilitation of communication and content

production.

To fully understand the League of Legends discourse community, an exposition of the

qualities that make it a discourse community must take place. In his book Genre Analysis,

Swales lists a series of traits that all discourse communities share. Beginning with the first listed

trait, the LoL community has many broadly set goals. The primary goal is centered around the
actual victory and winning of the game. Given the context of the 5v5 arena-based model of the

MOBA gaming genre, League of Legends players must beat the opposing team. With that being

the common goal, players are encouraged to talk via in game chat, direct messages, voice chat,

and pings to maximize communication and teamwork. As a result, the very framework of League

of Legends promotes the common goal of victory. The community also is very vocal and present

in the creation of new content and patches to balance the game, thus making the betterment and

evolution of the game another primary objective. Commented [MOU3]: This sentence seems to be an
afterthought. Like as if you were writing about one topic
and then you remembered something and added it at the
The next criteria Swales presents is the presence of underlying mechanisms of end. What if you move this sentence in a different
paragraph? Or create a paragraph revolving around this
idea?
communication. As discussed previously, League of Legends itself has many in client and in-

game mechanisms that allow its player base to communicate as effectively as possible. Outside

of the actual client and game itself lies even more mechanisms, as the Iinternet hosts many

websites such as Reddit, YouTube, and Twitch which allow the player base to not only create

forums to communicate but also to establish video and streaming content, thus furthering the Commented [MOU4]: Due to the fact that you’re using the
“not only/but also” construction with the verb, you will
need to use a verb in the second part of the construction.
extent to which communication takes place. This ultimately ties in with the following two

criteria, which discusses how the discourse community utilizes these mechanisms to provide

feedback and information to further its goals. As is evident, the presence of these mechanisms is

exactly to provide feedback and information about the game, as most of these mechanisms are

simply naturally oriented towards giving the players a sense of direct communication and

betterment with one another.

These mechanisms have evolved today to become actual genres within League of

Legends, directly fulfilling Swales 5th and 6th criteria for a discourse community. These genres

have served today to be the reason League of Legends has such a massive and active player base,

as the individuals within this community interact with among themselves and with content
makers to expand upon the game. The creation of these genres has allowed players to develop a

specific lexis that is unique to League of Legends and MOBAs. Acronyms such as ADC and

APC demonstrate and allocation of roles and values to specific positions a player can fulfill

during a game, demonstrating the complexities of the lexis itself.

To finalize the understanding of the LoL discourse community, an analysis of its genres

must take place. As it stands today, League of Legends and its player base is responsible for the

creation of thousands of hours worth of content daily, ranging anywhere from technical aspects

of the game to competitive play and humor. While there are many subgenres within League of

Legends, there are two major genres that content falls into. Among them are [list both].

Primarily, the in-game client is essentially the central nexus where all League of Legends

information and gameplay is held. Players use this genre to organize thoughts, discuss ideas, vent

frustrations, and plan future games, tournaments, or events. The client also hosts a plethora of

links to other websites, displaying the content that Riot and other content creators that play the

game have created. These links ultimately connect virtually every other genre and discourse

communities within the League of Legends sphere of influence, thus making the in-game client

the central node and pillar to the discourse community. Commented [MOU5]: Great sentence

What makes the in-game client so effective in its centralization and functionality is its

format. As stated previously, every content ranging from guides to player- made videos Commented [MOU6]: In this case, “ultimately” is just a
filler. Try to avoid using “filler” words, words that you don’t
actually need to convey your point.
ultimately are formatted in some way or another onto a client that is updated daily. The style

with which this is done is through the formatting of pictures that portray the message of the

content along with a headliner or sentence that captivates the reader. Within the actual

communication system itself, players communicate through a simple text system that doesn’t

have any emojis or features outside of plain text. [Example + citation] Instead, what is typically
encouraged is for the player to use the voice chat system, which is significantly more efficient as

it allows for quicker gameplay and more fluid feedback. [More conventions: how do players

address each other? Are there specific abbreviations that only in-game-client members will

know? What kind of sentences do they write – short/long – and why? What’s the tone –

formal/informal? Why? Etc.]

Possibly the most important aspect about this genre is that it has created a window for

new genres through its large-scale content creation throughout multiple platforms. Riot, League

of Legends developer, has done an amazing job of supporting content creators on YouTube and

Twitch through publication of their works and mention in eSport events. The plethora of AMAs Commented [MOU7]: What’s this? When you use the
abbreviation for the first time in the text, spell out the full
title and then use an abbreviation. For instance: He worked
and other official and unofficial subreddits have allowed for an entire ecosystem of forums and at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). At
UCSB, he taught history.
blogposts about the game, each of which come with their own mini discourse communities. From

an artistic perspective, Riot itself hosted artistic contests and weekly showcases of the player

bases work of arts. Ultimately, this creates the biggest and most important genre of League

which is player and community content creation.

As can be seen, the League of Legends gaming community is an immensely large and

complicated discourse community. Meeting all of Swales criteria, League of Legends has used

logistical mechanisms in an immensely popular game to create genres that have tied together

millions of gamers worldwide. The large-scale multi-platform content creation along with the

games current popularity allows for the understanding of the community, making League of

Legends one of the most important video games in modern day history.

8/10(B)

Felipe,
I enjoyed reading about the League of Legends and its genres because your writing style is very

clear and your essay is well-organized. In terms of grammar, I noticed only a few small mistakes

(see comments on margins).

Here are some general suggestions and specific comments for your WP1:

1. General comment: While reading your work, I noticed that sometimes you tend to use Formatted: List Paragraph, Numbered + Level: 1 +
Numbering Style: 1, 2, 3, … + Start at: 1 + Alignment: Left +
Aligned at: 0.25" + Indent at: 0.5"
sentence/word structures that are too complex and, thus, they are hard to read and

comprehend. During the revision process, read your work out loud and you will be able

to see where these unnecessary complicated constructions are. Replace them with

something more simple.

2. WP1 comment: If you decide to revise WP1 for your portfolio, you will need to write

more about genre conventions of the in-game client chat (see comments)

Otherwise, good job! Formatted: Font: (Default) Times New Roman, 12 pt