Discourse Community Final

7/28/2019 Discourse Community Final

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Ayumu Oda

Prof. Kuryloski

AWD330105/12/2013

Electric Engineers in Discourse Community

Nothing can be created without the most fundamental value of a certain product

{Very confusing}. In other words, for electrical engineering, no technical device can be

produced without the circuit designs that allow all the devices to receive energy and turn that

device on. Although there are other essential steps that are necessary to build any technical

devices, we as a group of people in the field of electrical engineering believe that without a

strong base, no true progress is possible. Compared to other types of engineering, electrical

engineering is broad but integrated. Electrical engineers pursue the same interests and common

goals while sharing and communicating feedback and information regarding these interests. This

essay will illustrate three separate documents written by different authors and yet their related

subject matter, purpose, tone and writing style will unify them in the same discourse community.

In order to communicate about their initial goal how to improve efficiency of the devices

more effectively, the authors utilize rhetorical strategies that can strengthen their arguments such

as informative tone, a range of sophisticated to technical diction, and a variety of graphs and

charts.

Before discussing about the three documents, I will briefly explain my own approach to

the discourse community of electrical engineering. While I was working at the Philips Color

Kinetics Corporation for my co-op, I found a number of engineers who value the same ideas as

me. For instance, although there was a wide variety of engineers in the company, each sub-

community had the same main goal{not sure if this is exactly what you meant, but if it is thisis a lot more clear}: to minimize the loss and to increase the efficiency. By increasing efficiency,


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engineers are able to create the products that are less wasteful of energy use and last longer.

From my experience at the Philips, I believe that the idea of efficiency gives the engineers in the

community a common problem through which they are all connected. The members of the

electrical engineering discourse community have to be able to communicate properly through

their community because of their overarching goals, intense terminology, and many modes of

communication ensure efficient and clear networking.

The first article originated from a collection of research papers titled Optical and

Quantum Electronics: Band gap engineering approaches to increase InGan/GaN LED

efficiency by M. Auf der Maur, K. Lorenz, and A. Di Carlo. The article describes in detail how

to increase the efficiency of the light-emitting diodes (LED) by using band gap engineering

approaches. According to this document, in TheEuropean Union, electric lighting uses 20% of

the electric power, and increasing the efficiency for lighting system is important for saving

energy and also for reducing the cost of the electricity bill for customers [1]. Both the article and

the book itself represent the collaboration of experts from different countries and backgrounds in

the same electrical engineering discourse community. The main authors M. Auf and A. Di Carlo

are from the department of electrical engineering from University of Rome in Italy, and K.

Lorenz is from Instituto Technologico e Nuclear from Portugal.

The document follows the format of a lab report that the authors write in the 3rd

person

voice and is divided into the following sections abstract, introduction, simulation/ results,

conclusion, and references {not good to put a list into the topi sentance...}. The writing is very

organized, and the overall tone is not opinionated but informative. For example, authors

writeThe simulation results also indicate beneficial influence of grading on peak wavelength

stability versus current density (without considering thermal effects, though), as shown in Fig.5


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[1]. The document does not include authors opinions or thoughts as we can see from the quote

above, but it gives information with evidence and results based on his experiments.

In this document, everything is written in a formal language that in other words, the

authors do not use any colloquial language but professional by using technical terminologies to

discuss the procedures and results they gained after a myriad of strictly operated labs {too wordy,

remove half of this sentance}. For example, [removed] the title of the article is very specific and

straightforward. It clearly depicts the three authors interest and goal, which is to increase the

efficiency of LED, just like how other sub-groups of the electrical engineering community try to

increase the efficiency that creates lasting and less wasteful products.

The report starts with the abstract to talk briefly about the summary of the authors

argument and introduces methods of how to increase efficiency in introduction. In the middle of

the paper, they talk about how to simulate the results that authors got from tiberCAD software

[1]. The author(s?) used tiberCAD software to analyze complex data and to show the audience

the graph of results so that audience can understand entire concepts without creating any

confusion. Most of the statements made during simulation are supported with images of different

types of graphs such as bar graph, linear graph, dot graph, etc. The authors successfully convey

and summarize the information they gathered in the concluding section.

Electrical engineers need more direct and professionalized ways of communication.

Sometimes, the [delete] common ways of communication such as oral conversation, texts, or e-

mails are not enough to explain and analyze complex ideas; therefore, people in this particular

discourse community can successfully share and communicate their information and facts based

on experiments via formally written language such as lab reports, research paper, or journals.

However, considering the terminologies and equations they used, this document is not only for


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the experts of electrical engineering, but also for the novices of the same field. Swales John, a

genre analysis, wrote the essay called Approaching the Concept of Discourse Community for

the Educational Resources Information Center. According to his essay, survival of the

community depends on a reasonable ratio between experts and novices [4]. Since the discourse

community should include both expertise and beginners of a certain field to maintain a healthy

community, the audience of the document can certainly be any member of the electronic

engineering discourse community.

The document will be used as a reference for other electrical engineers who work on

LED products or study LEDs. Often engineers do not comment on reports or give feedback

directly, but instead, they use these as their reference source to improve or find the better way to

increase LED efficiency and publish new documents related to the original report. The first

document references all characteristics of discourse community as Swales John explains. As

mentioned before, using a specific method like visualization of the data and its analysis about

increasing the efficiency and saving energy, the authors well-established the commonality of

public interests for electrical engineering,

The second article Intelligent Household LED Lighting System Considering Energy

Efficiency and User Satisfaction by a group of Ph.D. candidates from Korean University

analyzes how LED lighting system can save energy. At the same time, the document also

analyzes how existing control systems for LED light can waste the energy. The existing lighting

system control can only support on and off or dimming control. The author mentions [delete]

how total energy consumption can be reduced through light control based on users living

pattern. For instance, the author proposes that the system utilizes multi sensors and wireless

communication technology to control an LED light according to the users satisfaction to


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maximize the utilization of LED and to save energy by reducing the energy waste from lighting

control system. The paper is written in the form ofa research paperintroducing works related

to existing intelligent lighting control system and problems of the existing system. Then the

authors solve those problems and explain their test results to prove their approach to solve the

problem.

Certainly, the way it is written is similar to the first document where they use several

diagrams and graphs to express their ideas with visualization in clear and concise fashion. The

difference between the two is that the second one uses less technical terminology and

mathematical equations than the first. Since the language these authors use is common and

simple for not only electrical engineers but also engineers in general, this document can be a

useful tool for those who pursue interests in learning the efficiency of LED lighting system. They

do not use complicated equations or expressions that many professional electrical engineers use

to explain. For example, they use Lmin = (Lmincon + Lminn-1) /2, Lminincome =Lminn-1, n=n+1,

and timer = T [2]. Although this equation might look complex, any engineer will have

encountered this equation so it will not be a problem for them to understand. Therefore, even

though this journal is from IEEE written by electrical engineers, the audience does not have to be

experts in the electrical engineering field. This journal includes all the characteristics of the?

discourse community that Swales John points out, which is commonality of public interests,

participatory mechanisms, information exchange, discourse expectation, specialized language

and critical mass of expertise [4]. The journal generates interest from engineers, uses graphs,

diagrams, and simulation results from software to depict a clear idea, and uses common

terminology to simplify the complex expression.


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The last article High-Efficiency Asymmetrical Half-Bridge Converter Without

Electrolytic Capacitor for Low-Output-Voltage ACDC LED Drivers by Manuel Arias, Marcos

Fernandez Diaz, Diego G. Lamar, Didier Balocco, Almadidi Aguissa Diallo and Javier

Sebastiann who are general and senior members of IEEE demonstrates the reason LED needs

power supply. In other words, it explains that in order have the high reliability and luminous

efficacy, high brightness LED requires the power supplies that have high reliability and

efficiency. The LED light cannot light delete itself; it needs power supplies that can operate LED

to turn on. The document focuses mostly on what engineers use in power supply Asymmetrical

Half-Bridge (AHB), how AHB works and how efficient it is to drive LEDs based on

experiments they conducted. This collaboration of six authors in the same discourse community

is rhetorically significant regarding their use of language including diction and the following

audience because five of them have Ph.D. in electrical engineering field and the sixth one is the

head of department of electrical engineering. Indeed, their professionalism and expertise in this

particular field proves their complicated use of terminologies, of more sophisticated language

than other documents, and of their expectation for educated audience.

This document is comprised of a varied terminology and complicated equations,

schematics, and diagrams that electrical engineers use such as maximum ripple rejection is

equal to zero and this happens when it satisfies as the equation of This article is more advanced

than the other two articles that it is written for professional electrical engineers. Although it

might be possible for novices in this field to understand this concept, it will take a long time

to do so {confusing and contradictory}.

Moreover, this document also is written in a research paper format so that every

argument appeals to logos and is supported in details using a scope of professional resources.


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And, it uses a software simulation to figure out complex designs accurately and clearly to

express their results to the audience, electrical engineering discourse community. The authors of

this article understand that electrical engineers tend to understand more easily and efficiently

through various simulations rather than stating simple explanations without any proof. Certainly,

it can be not only a great reference to know how AHB works, but also information to understand

why it has better efficiency than other drivers for the other electrical engineers.

The electrical engineering discourse community is a network of electrical engineers who

are continuously communicating to improve their own fields. Just like the three different

documents from different authors, even though electrical engineers from different jobs can work

on different projects, their final goal is the same to create efficient and long lasting product

while saving more energy, and this motivation ties the electrical engineering community

together. Also, although these documents are all related to LED, their backgrounds, writing

styles, uses of language, targeted audience, and complexity of the documents vary. In conclusion,

most documents for electrical engineering are written in either lab report or research paper

formant to keep the technical information more comprehensive and straightforward. In order to

ensure proper communication with the community, electrical engineers tend to use more specific

terminologies and equations that are related to their field to reduce complexity of ideas. When

the ideas become too abstract to be represented with words, they often use software simulation

tools to communicate with other engineers.


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References:

[1] M.Auf der Maur, K. Lorenz, Band gap engineering approaches to increase InGan/GaN LEDefficiency, Optical and Quantum Electronics, January 2012.

[2] Insung Hong, Byongjoo Lee, Jinsung Byun, Seyun Park, Intelligent Household LEDLighting System Considering Energy Efficiency and User Satisfaction,IEEE Transactions on

Consumer Electronics, Vol. 59, No. 1, February 2013.

[3] Manuel Arias, Marcos Fenandez Diaz, Diego G. Lamar, Didier Balocco, Almadidi AguissaDiallo, Javier Sebastian, High-Efficiency Asymmetrical Half-Bridge Converter Without

Electrolytic Capacitor for Low-Output-Voltage ACDC LED Drivers,IEE Transactions on

Power Electronics, Vol.28, No. 5, May 2013.

[4] Swales John, Approaching the Concept of Discourse Community ,Proceedings of the

thirty-eighth Annual Meeting of the Conference on College Composition and Communication ,

1987 Mar. 19-21, Atlanta, Georgia. 1987.

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