Discourse Communites
Anna Sedgwick
26 June 2013
NS3100 English
Reading Response 5
What is a discourse community? To be completely honest, I have never actually heard of a discourse community before I read this article, so this is quite new to me. According to John Swales, a respected written communication analyst, a discourse community is described as a group of people that have the same goals or purposes, and use communication to achieve these goals. In addition, “A discourse operates within conventions defined by communities, be they academic disciplines or social groups” (Swales, 119). This is not be confused with a speech community, “a community sharing knowledge of rules for the conduct and interpretation of speech” (Swales 121). In determining whether or not a group is a discourse community, there are several certain rules, rather a list of criteria, in which the certain community must comply with in order to be established as a discourse community. After reading what a discourse community actually is, I realized that I am apart of many discourse communities, whether it is involving friends, family, school, or my religion. Discourse communities are not just given to random groups. The community must acquire six different characteristics to be considered a discourse community. Swales describe the six characteristics in his article and they are as follows: 1. “A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals.” 2. “A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members.” 3. “A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback.” 4. “A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims.” 5. “In addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired a specific lexis.” 6. “A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise” (471-473). These characteristics
26 June 2013
NS3100 English
Reading Response 5
What is a discourse community? To be completely honest, I have never actually heard of a discourse community before I read this article, so this is quite new to me. According to John Swales, a respected written communication analyst, a discourse community is described as a group of people that have the same goals or purposes, and use communication to achieve these goals. In addition, “A discourse operates within conventions defined by communities, be they academic disciplines or social groups” (Swales, 119). This is not be confused with a speech community, “a community sharing knowledge of rules for the conduct and interpretation of speech” (Swales 121). In determining whether or not a group is a discourse community, there are several certain rules, rather a list of criteria, in which the certain community must comply with in order to be established as a discourse community. After reading what a discourse community actually is, I realized that I am apart of many discourse communities, whether it is involving friends, family, school, or my religion. Discourse communities are not just given to random groups. The community must acquire six different characteristics to be considered a discourse community. Swales describe the six characteristics in his article and they are as follows: 1. “A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals.” 2. “A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members.” 3. “A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback.” 4. “A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims.” 5. “In addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired a specific lexis.” 6. “A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise” (471-473). These characteristics