Discourse Community At St. Xavier High School

For my analysis of a discourse community that I am a part of, I will be focusing on St. Xavier High School and Jesuit education. St. Xavier is a great example of a discourse community and is backed up by the scholarly articles written by John Swales and Joseph Harris. Joseph Harris focuses his argument about what makes a community a community around writing. Harris proposes that “our aims and intentions in writing are thus not merely personal, idiosyncratic, but reflective of the communities to which we belong” (1989, 12). Harris firmly believes that the communities that we are a part of, shape who we become. We begin to think, speak, and act like the other members of our community. A discourse community must be made up of members with similar
interests, and most importantly similar goals. Once likeminded individuals are paired up and able to communicate and rely on each other for help, each individual is able to transcend what they would be able to do alone and reach new heights. The similar goals that each member of St. Xavier High School have are based in faith, service, and excellence. The tight bond between 1600 students and all of the faculty and administration create a healthy community atmosphere, which makes for an engaged and special discourse community. In order to be classified as a discourse community, St.
Xavier and its members must share similar goals and values. Many of these goals and values are rooted in Jesuit teaching. As stated by the Jesuit Schools Network, one of the main goals of a Jesuit education is to “advocate a faith-justice commitment to the Catholic Church’s option for youth and the poor” (JSN, 1). Jesuits take pride in giving back to the community. St. Xavier embodies this characteristic through their extensive community service out reach. One of the biggest community service events that takes place at St. Xavier is the Annual Canned Food Drive. The St. Xavier website advertises that “The 2016 Canned Food Drive broke all school records this year collecting a grand total of 182,000 pounds of food and items for those in need. St. X helped more than 1,000 families adopted through more than 25 agencies across Greater Cincinnati” (Stxavier.org, 2). In order to collect that much food, it took significant effort from many students, all of which are putting to practice the Jesuit quality of community
service. Another very important part of Jesuit education is academic excellence. The Jesuit Model of Excellence proclaims that “The landmark achievement of the Jesuits was to give order, hierarchy, structure, unity, and methodology to education. This is their great legacy, and learning from it is something extremely beneficial to us in the field of education” (Fr. McMahon, 1). The earliest Jesuits, St. Francis Xavier and St. Ignatius Loyola, made great strides in the realm of education. Excellent education has stayed a top priority amongst Jesuit schools ever since. The teachers create the best possible environment for learning and push the students to perform at their highest possible level. The Jesuit education practices have obviously paid off as St. Xavier’s average ACT score was 8 points higher than the national average in 2015 according to the school profile (Timothy Howe, 2). The common goal of higher education amongst students as well as the Jesuit education employed by the teaching staff results in academically excellent students and higher standardized testing scores.
Linguist, John Swales put together a list of 6 characteristics of what it means to be a discourse community. In this essay I will be addressing four of the most pertinent characteristics to St. Xavier High School and Jesuit education. The first characteristic according to Swales is that “a discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals” (1987, 471). This makes sense to me as a reader because it is fitting that a group of people coming together to form a discourse community should have similar interest and goals. This characteristic is evident in St. Xavier’s community, as well as other Jesuit high schools are the country, as they share a common mission statement. The mission of St. Xavier high school is “to assist young men in their formation as leaders and Men for Others through rigorous college preparation in the Jesuit tradition” (stxavier.org, 1). By looking at the mission statement of St. Xavier high school it is evident that the students as well as faculty and alumni have aspirations to be leaders and Men for Others. The mission statement of the school is featured on the twitter page. ‘Men for Others” is clearly posted in the bio of the twitter page and is a daily reminder of the school’s mission. The mission is held closely by all members of the discourse community and is actually a great Segway into another one of Swale’s characteristics of discourse communities, lexis. Swales states, “[discourse communities] may involve using lexical items known to the wider speech communities in special and technical ways” (1987, 473). This statement means that a discourse community has its own special language. Inside of the discourse community of St. Xavier and Jesuit schools, Men for Others fits right into the category of special and unique lexis. This is a little saying that reminds Jesuit educated students and faculty members of our overall goals. St. Ignatius came up with the saying and it has become the baseline for the purpose of Jesuits everywhere. In regards to lexis, Swales says that the most common form is the “development of community-specific abbreviations and acronyms” (1987, 473). St. Xavier and the Jesuits have one very pertinent acronym that is crucial to the community, AMDG. AMDG stands for the Latin phrase, ad majorem dei gloriem, which means “for the greater glory of God”. A former Jesuit educated student says that doing things for the greater glory of God means “to offer one’s heart and one’s hands, one’s whole self, a suscipe, in desolation and in consolation. To give up even liberty for the sake of the love of the other” (Rebecca Ruiz, 2015, 1). St. Xavier teaches and models the importance of living a selfless life in order to make the world a friendlier place, just as God had envisioned. By living out AMDG, the men of St. Xavier high school are helping each other reach their common goal as a discourse community, being a Man for Others.
As Swales continues to name characteristics of discourse communities, it become more and more obvious that St. Xavier fits the mold. Swales indicates that having mechanisms to support intercommunication is just as vital as the communication itself, but understands that “The participatory mechanisms will vary according to the community” (1987, 472). St. Xavier has many different mechanisms to promote communication between students, faculty, and alumni. One of the most important and convenient modes of communication is the morning announcements. Every morning the school reads a list of announcements of what is going on in the St. Xavier community over the P.A. system. If any clubs or organizations want to spread any news around campus this is a great way to do so. St. Xavier is also very active in the social media realm as they have twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts. The Facebook posts appeal more to alumni, while the twitter feed is filled with news updates and replies from students and student organizations. This picture is directly from the St.
Xavier twitter feed. This twitter feed provides an avenue for students to fully indulge in intercommunication with one another. This tweet is informing the student body of a charitable event going on in the Cincinnati area, and is filled with responses from students about further details. The twitter feed provides a quick and easy way for students to stay active in the communication within the discourse community. While it is important to keep students involved in the communication, it is also important to update alumni on what is going on at the school. Below is a picture of the St. Xavier Facebook feed that primarily keeps alumni updated on recent events. In this particular post it shares a video of one of the chorus groups singing the National Anthem before a Cincinnati Reds games at Great American Ball Park. Alumni are free to tag friends, as well as comment about St.
Xavier. Swales will add that the mechanisms for communication mean nothing to the members if they are not used to relay information and feedback. Swales’ example is “Individuals might pay an annual subscription to the Acoustical Society of America but if they never open any of its communications they cannot be said to belong to the discourse community” (1987, 472). Swales main point here is that in order to keep the discourse community true to itself and the members on track for the common goal, each member must be active in participating and keep up with recent news and the communication pipelines. St. Xavier keeps all members as active as possible. For the students, they have the above mentioned interactive social media accounts, as well as posters and bulletin boards set up around school. For alumni, they have many catalogs and newsletters that are mailed out each month. These catalogs include everything from sports updates to individual alumni updates. St. Xavier does everything possible to keep members actively engaged in the community, thus fitting into another of Swales’ characteristics.
St. Xavier High School and all of Jesuit education in general creates a special atmosphere for growth and learning. This atmosphere promotes intercommunication and support towards a common goal that I view as unparalleled. The community fits perfectly into the description of what a discourse community ought to be according to both John Swales and Joseph Harris. St. Xavier High School as a Jesuit community has a special bond that I was blessed to be a part of.