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Leandra LaRonde
Professor Olivia Rines
UWRT 1100
22 March 2015
D.I.V.A.S: An Ethnographical Analysis
John Swales defines a discourse community as "groups that have goals or purposes, and
use communication to achieve these goals." The organization D.I.V.A.S. says that it is a

Perhaps mention where this

organization is based out of. Otherwise, great intro.

mentoring organization served to empower middle-school young ladies facing adversity by

building relationships with and increasing their academic excellence, and knowledge with
different topics. Through Swales six characteristics, D.I.V.A.S can be defined as a discourse
community.
This group has many common goals such as empowering women of all ages, helping the
younger generation, community service, improving the resumes of its members, sisterhood,
meeting new people, and connecting with individuals of similar backgrounds. Member Akshita
Paruchuri said that initially I just joined it cause I needed an extra on-campus organization to
be honest but she was also attracted to the fact that it empowers girls at a younger age to
become better people. A founding member of D.I.V.A.S Chanelle Clayton spoke of how the
influence of having a mentor affected her sisters and how she wanted that for the generation of
girls today. A summation of these goals is stated in the groups page on a student organization
site called Orgsync. In my observation of D.I.V.A.S I recognized that within the community
Is this supposed to be committees?

there are sub-communities with their own objectives that contribute to the main goal. There are
four committees in which an e-board member is in charge of such as publicity, community

You mentioned this term a couple

of times, could you explain what this is. You also mentioned
that this group had no specific lexis, would this term be
one?

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service, fundraising, and internal affairs. The publicity committee is in charge of all of the
D.I.V.A.S advertisement from the information tables to the social media posts on sites such as
Instagram and Facebook. The community service committee is in charge of all volunteer
opportunities obtained and created by the D.I.V.A.S. The fundraising committee is in charge of
creating ways for the organization to make money and support itself as well as the mentees and
community. The money from this groups efforts goes toward events such as Speed-dating With
the D.I.V.A.S and Building Your Own Brand with guest speaker Professor Brenda Tindal.
The internal affairs committee is constructed to handle any business that should be dealt with

Perhaps expand on these events?

You could also talk about these in the participatory
characteristic section.

within the club whether that be carpooling issues with the middle school visits or the semiannual
dues paid by all D.I.VA.S members. Each of these committees have their own goals but come
together collectively to achieve the discourse communitys mission.

I thought this paragraph was great

the way you explained what all of the committees did.

The D.I.V.A.S use various forms of communication to connect with other members. One
of their main forms of communication is through email. The secretary sends various emails
throughout the week to keep all members updated on any issues, events, and opportunities that
arise. She also sends lesson plans and monthly calendars. Another form of communication used
is through a phone application called Groupme. With this app members contact each other
through a group chat about anything from official D.I.V.A.S business to social events, pressing
questions, inspirational messages, and any other important matters. Often times when there is a
miscommunication between members like at the speed dating event I observed, the women take
to the group chat to clear things up so everyone has an understanding about what is going on.
Other ways the people of the community contact each other are Orgsync, phone calls and text
messages.

Is this like an argument

miscommunication or a planning miscommunication. For
some reason with it being the speed dating event, a
miscommunication would seem like an argument.

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A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide
information and feedback. (Swales, 221). In John Swales article about discourse communities
he speaks of the way a discourse community uses mechanisms such as money to help and

The example for this characteristic

could use some more work. Also the transition into this was
a little steep.
Such as annual dues (or monthly

improve the organization. Every semester D.I.V.A.S takes up fifteen dollars in dues which goes

or what ever it is)

toward things such as group t-shirts and future events. The aforementioned fundraising
committee is the one in charge of handling these matters.
When asked about the purpose of D.I.V.A.S. President Chanelle Clayton said Our
mission is to just inspire and empower young girls facing adversity so I think were learning
different ways to do that. Its definitely like a teachingI guess a learning experience for me too
just founding the organization seeing it (on) a day-to-day basis. More and more, the members of
D.I.V.A.S are finding ways to communicate their goals to the public. The publicity committee
uses publicity tables that are usually placed in the University of North Carolina at Charlottes
student union to advertise what the organization is about and the things it plans to do. The tables
are also adorned with flyers for members to give out so people can spread the word about
whatever is going on. The social media site Instagram is one of the greatest forms of
communication between this community and the public because it is a site people use very often
and many members use it to post about events and issues D.I.V.A.S wants to raise awareness
about. Most importantly, the organization uses the voices of its members to communicate with
the young women at Ranson Middle School. As mentors, members make personal relationships
with their mentees as well as many of the girls involved in the program so that they feel
comfortable in confiding in them. The mentors not only teach young women but they also learn a
lot about them and about what it is going on in the young minds of today.

I thought this paragraph was very

good but there was a lot of information in it and was on the
long side.

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Although there isnt a specific lexicon attributed to the discourse community, there is one

What about these e-boards and eboard members?

term and phrase that not all understand. D.I.V.A.S stands for Driven Intelligent Virtuous
Ambitious Sisters. The acronym can be used as a way to reference the group as a collective or
members individually. I think that because of the relaxed environment D.I.V.A.S has, it is not
important to have a language or vocabulary that specifically pertains to this group.
In order for D.I.V.A.S to successfully achieve its goals there is a system or ranks to
separate the work and conquer it efficiently. In the group there are seven e-board members that
have job titles that range from head of publicity to treasurer. In each of these jobs the e-board
takes the responsibility of directing a portion of the 65 organization members to complete their
tasks. Because the group was only just founded the 31rst of October 2013 all of the e-board
members are still there minus two members who are no longer with the organization. When

except for

members of the e-board can no longer complete their duties another e-board member is chosen
by way of democracy. Every semester a slew of new members join the group and the scope of
D.I.V.A.S widens more and more past the stereotypical thought that they only serve members of
the black community. People of all kinds are joining D.I.V.A.S because they too want to
empower women and influence other communities. Though D.I.V.A.S is an organization that
still has a long ways to go, there is no doubt that it is indeed a discourse community.
I thought you did an excellent job explaining the community, what it was about, and how they
can be defined as a discourse community. I think all or most of the information was there but
everything seemed kind of jumbled around. There were a couple times you quoted Swales and
didnt cite and there is also no works cited page. Great job though. I dont have anything else to
say other than the comments.

This is a great closing statement.