CJ Spencer

Professor Hemstrom

UWP 1

12 March 2017

Part 3 DCA

Biochemistry, a community filled with a variety of

potential. This great major can be applied to a wide range of fields and

studies. This discourse community is vast and dense with information

that can be used to approach many careers in life. Here at UC Davis,

there are goals this major follows and lives by to makes everyone

involved prosper, they (we) focus on the molecular structure, dynamic

function, and regulation of the molecules, supramolecular assemblies,

and cells that underlie nearly all biological processes (Davis). We

apply a goal that helps you seek out something bigger than just this

community and how to apply this knowledge to a profession. To keep

up with the ever-expanding knowledge of molecular biology, there are

prerequisites that need to be made in order to be apart of the

community.

First, we need to cite what makes up the biochemistry

community. Using the guidelines based on a reading by Swales, there

are six characteristics that need addressing in order to be a discourse

community (Swales 471). The first characteristic is having a common

public set goal; this includes everyone from students, professors, and
counselors. This community is set on making the connection between

chemistry and biology. Each individual might not have the same job,

but they all have an importance to a goal. For example, a researcher

will discover and learn new techniques, professors and TAs will teach

the new members for careers in the life sciences, and graduate

programs in medicine, pharmacy, health sciences, and biological

sciences. A second characteristic needed to communicate between

these students, professors, and faculty is a mechanism of

intercommunication. Here at UC Davis there are office hours from your

professor if any help from a class is needed. A basic one is just going to

class to learn and taking advantage of emailing. Never be afraid to ask

for help. TAs are a great resource for help. They are usually graduate

students that teach your labs and discussions.

Thirdly, there needs to be a form of information and feedback,

meaning having a form of informational exchange between one

another. Included in this are emails, meetings, scientific journal

articles, lecture notes, and blogs, etc. Theres a webpage that has an

archive of scholarly journals from all over the world in one place for

public consumption (Biochemical). This characteristic can help within

an extended community because biochemistry is used in places such

as crime investigations. They have to write police reports, DNA analysis

reports, and even court related information (Doerning). To apply the

goals we have set there needs to be a way to approach it. We use our
fourth characteristic to put roles into play. A genre involved here is

feedback. A genre is how things get done when language is used to

accomplish them (Swales 472). Grade givebacks for example allows

for reiterating our mistakes and strengths. Another is insight and

discovery. Countries have their form of language and so does

biochemistry. Learning the lexi that is involved with this community is

more or less the most important part of this all. If you cant

understand, a scientific text then there will be no advances. Since it

involves such a broad spectrum of vocabulary, these essential terms

are pivotal. A basic term is knowing the abbreviation for each subject.

Biology stands for BIS; chemistry is CHE; physics is PHY. Thinking with

the bigger picture in mind, know the micro to macro levels of study.

Physics is the smallest, which makes up all matter. Then comes

chemistry, which includes the different types of elements that make up

atoms. Next comes biochemistry. It sits between biology and chemistry

and is the transition between the small atoms and what makes up

living cells. The next step varies depending on the field, but includes

almost anything study you can think of from astronomy to philosophy.

Biology is based off living, dying, and replication, so knowing the

central dogma is an important one. DNA Encodes RNA, RNA Encodes

Protein. The central dogma of molecular biology describes the flow of

genetic information in cells from DNA to messenger RNA (mRNA) to

protein. Next will be the periodic table that many people know of, but
arent fond of the information it withholds. To summarize, it is a table of

the chemical elements arranged in order of atomic number, so that

elements with similar atomic structure and properties are organized

into columns and rows. We build muscles that are made up protein,

which are then made up of an infinite sequence of amino acids. They

are used in every cell of your body made up of organic molecules to

build proteins you need to survive. Most people confuse the difference

between organic chemistry and general chemistry. Organic chemistry

involves the interaction between Carbon, Oxygen, Hydrogen, and

Nitrogen. General chemistry deals with a variety of different concepts.

In a class, you will take as an intro to biology you learn the basis of

how basic energy is formed and transferred, also known as metabolism

of the calvin cycle and krebs cycle. Taught in general chemistry, you

will learn the types of bonds. Covalent bond are electron sharing. Ionic

bonds are electron donating and accepting creating positive and

negative charges. Polar bonds are unevenly distributed bonds.

Hydrogen bonding is when a hydrogen is partially bonded between two

different H20 molecules (H2O---HO-H). most people are aware of how

oranges are more acidic. This relates to the pH, which expresses the

amount of acidity or basicity in a solution, whereas water is neutral at

7.

This level of lexi is directly proportional to how much

knowledge of the subject you have, which is why a level of expertise is

needed to be qualified as a member of the community. As Stated by

Doering, the prerequisites leading up to the class MCB 120L here at UC

Davis is the level needed to have an expertise in this community. This

class is usually available your third year, early 4th year if you are a full

time student. In conclusion, three to four years of college education are

needed to have a grasp on this intricate major.

The community here at UC Davis meets the use of its

characteristics of Swales discourse community. Communication is

center stage in this field of study. Without it, none of the advances

made would be possible. Make sure, to be apart of this. Hard work and

dedication is mandatory, but most importantly a genuine interest of

the community. The interest is the driving force behind the goals of this

community. We strive to seek each new discovery that this major can

conceal. Remember, there are many different fields within

biochemistry that can be obtained. Many people assume biological

science majors usually go into the research field, but there is much

more. A UC Berkeley alumni with a major in biochemistry said he,

wanted to communicate more with people instead of work within

research(Layton). He now works within a biotechnology company in

the sales department. A feature of being apart of this community is

taking advantage of networking. Talk to professors, get ideas from the

career center, major meetings, major advised club and after college,

using Linked-in. This outstanding community can be applied to vast

occupations across the employment spectrum. This makes it a difficult,

but a beneficial community to adjoin.

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 Cover Memo

This part of the discourse community has definitely been

the most informative. I wrote my discourse on my major, which is

biochemistry. It unveils the characteristics that are met to consider it a

discourse community and has resources that I have obtained to back

them up. It was very easy to structure the paper because we just

followed the 6 characteristics. However, it was difficult to piece

together all the resources we had from the lexi table, to the corpus and

interview analysis. The placement was relatively easy but deciding

which one to use was difficult. One thing I am still not sure on is if I

should use my DCA project in a PowerPoint mode of keep it as an

essay. My literacy essay, which I want to use, is already a paper but I

like it a little bit more than m college literacy essay. Mainly it will create

more work if I switch my DCA to a PowerPoint.

I feel I did a good job explaining each characteristic

and giving examples to back them up. I didnt know how to use my lexi

terms because I still might use this project as a PowerPoint where I can

just list the term instead of stating them in sentences. I decided to

leave it in bullets because I do not know how I would use the multiple

terms in a very long paragraph. Overall I feel it is a very informative

part three that incorporated parts one and two quite well.