Hetherington 1 Mikayla Hetherington Dr.

Guenzel English 1101-1107 16 November 2013 Paper Draft 3

Dear future female Computer Science student: I am now almost through my first semester of college. To you, that may not seem like a lot, but I have learned so much in such a short amount of time. I came in thinking that choosing
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a career field of computer science, I would be focusing my attention on mathematics, not writing or any type of sciences. As I began my classesespecially my first computer programming classI began to realize that writing is the basis of what you have to do in computer programming. However, writing code is different than anything else. It has its own special language, or discourse, as well as its own lexis and constraints; thats what makes it so exciting. Being a female in this industry has its own differences as well. I am writing you this letter so you know what you are up for, not to scare you, just so you know what to expect. I am going to tell you what I have begun to learn throughout this process so far. Being a female computer science major means that lots of people are going to tell you that you cant do it, that its not for you, but who are they to decide that. Fortunately, you will have other people by your side helping you along the way. I have noticed that within the college of computer science, everyone is very nice and helpful. If you walk into the Harris Engineering building and go to the second floor, you could knock on anybodys door and ask them a question and they will be eager to help you. The social

Hetherington 2 aspect of this major is very crucial. It is not the same as memorizing all the answers that are in a book right in front of you. It is not like math where all you have to do is type the problem in google and it will solve it for you. This is something that you have to come up with the answers on your own, but sometimes you cant. The older and more experienced people at the college of computer science around UCF are always willing to help you or point you into the direction of someone who will. You are part of a community now, and soon you will learn the rules and the language of the land with the help of the people around you. This community of computer science students, and more particularly the women computer science majors, can be classified as a Discourse according to James Paul Gees Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics. This is something that you must have access to in order to be a part of it (484). Taking classes on how to write code will give you an insight into the community that only the current members understand. If anyone else were to look at the computer language you were writing in, they would have no idea what it meant. That is something Gee would consider a discourse; it is the language of the Discourse. Since being a woman in this field is not as common, UCF always has something going on to make you feel like you belong to the Discourse. I get emails every week from the Women of CECS inviting me to different events, breakfasts, and lunch with all the girls of my major. It is a good way to meet girls who will be taking the same classes as you. You can study with them and ask them questions and get to know the older and more experienced women in the field. It is sometimes overwhelming being with a bunch of guys, so knowing the girls helps the process out a lot. I tend to get together with several girls with my major and discuss certain projects and study for upcoming exams. If you

Hetherington 3 dont know what some of the lexis, or terminology, is in what you are doing, there is always someone there to help you out. Computer programming has many new terms that you will need to understand in order to write your code. It is the discourse of the Discourse. You will come to find that this particular style of writing comes with a lot of thought and logic. You will need to capitalize words as well as use punctuation. Unlike being in an English class, one punctuation mistake does not mean you will get one point deducted, it means that your entire project will not work. While using this style of writing, you must be very careful of your mistakes. The challenges that this writing throws at you is what makes it so interesting. Like most things, writing code has its own constraints. You must be able to think logically in order to solve the problems. However, if logic is not your forte, it can be taught to you by taking a few math classes. The thing that gets tricky is each problem can be solved, or written, in many different ways. That means when you start to write your code, usually only very experienced people will be able to help you and figure out your thought processes. Even people who have been doing it for ten years take a while to understand your specific logic on the topic. That is where your teachers office hours will come in handy. Make sure to stop by there and have them check if you are on the right track or not. You wouldnt want to finish a project and have it not run in the desired way. Like anything, practice makes perfect though. The more you practice writing your language, the better you will be. Just like learning Spanish when all you know is English, the more you practice, the more fluent you will be in it and understand the process and the formatting of the code. To make a computer program, you cannot just put a bunch of words and symbols down onto a page because the computer will not be able to recognize what you mean. This language

Hetherington 4 has a certain genre that needs to be followed. There is a certain structure consisting of indentations and almost every symbol that your computer is capable of printing out. You must use these indentations and symbols in very specific locations so that your program will run properly. Computer programming is a language or discourse, and because of that, it will require you learning how to speak and write it. Thankfully for you, you will be joining a Discourse community with a bunch of other men and women who have been in your same position of getting started and introduced to this new language. With the help of social events and getting to know people who speak the same language of code, you will learn it more quickly and get help from us whenever you need to. You should be so excited to start this new journey and learn knowledge that only our community knows and understands.