“A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals” according to Swales (Swales, 471). GAPS stands for Global Alternative Power Solutions. Very suggestive by its long form itself, the common public goal of GAPS community is to develop alternative energy solutions to provide power to remote villages in rural Columbia through collaborations with Columbian universities, communities and industries (Rakheja (interview), 17.03.2013). Being a part of another EPICS group myself, I realize how important it is to achieve the goals by the end of every semester.

GAPS

Every community also has certain aspects that are deemed important and valued. Since it deals with sustainable methods of generating power and electricity, GAPS values planning, innovation, hard-work, knowledge and application of science concepts and software programming skills greatly. The experienced students and the teaching assistant in the group prove very helpful in inculcating these values to the new incoming students in the group. Several processes are carried out to ensure that these values are attained and these processes involve discourse to great extent.

Source:
Swales, John. “The Concept of Discourse Community.” Writing about Writing.
Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 466-480. Print. 5 March 2013.