Examples Of Discourse Community
As hard as it is to really admit that our society is broken up into small groups. These individual groups can be classified as a discourse community. For example, a youth choir at church, a football team, and Girl Scouts are all classified as a discourse community. What is this so called discourse community? Well, a discourse community is a group of people who all share a set of common goals with each other. Although, there are numerous of discourse communities, they all use different languages to communicate with the members that are within the group. McCarthy states that “community members share characteristic “ways of speaking” that is, accepted linguistic, intellectual, and social conventions which have developed over time and govern spoken
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interaction” (McCarthy 233). The type of language you use can have a heavy impact on your discourse community’s ability to communicate with each other. John Swales, “a professor of Linguistics and Codirector of Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English”, wrote “The Concept of Discourse Community” (Swales 215). In this reading, Swales explains his six characteristics of identifying a discourse community. Swales’s first characteristic of identifying a discourse community is that a group of people generally have the same goal that impacts the larger groups outside themselves (Swales 220). When you have a group, everyone should share the same ideas, if not then that is not the right group you should be in. Next, Swales’s argues that the group has the ability to communicate with itself (Swales 221). In any type of group or organization, the group members need to send messages to one another, even though they may might have the chance to see each other face to face all the time. Swales’s next characteristic is that a group uses the events, meetings, and email lists to give out information and to give feedback to one another (Swales 221). When a group meet, they receive new information that they never had before. Then Swales goes on to say that the group uses all kinds of text and methods of communication to talk about its goal (Swales 221). The next characteristic that Swales includes is that the group has its own language to talk to each other (Swales 222). More than likely, a group will adapt certain words or phrases only the group members know of. Finally, the last characteristic that Swales states that the group has experts who will ultimately leave the group and it has beginners who will learn from the experts (Swales 222). For example, if an older member of a group retires from the group, then the younger group member will take over and be the one in charge. The discourse community I chose to research for my paper is the youth choir/ youth department at my church. I chose this discourse community, because I am already a part of it and it would be easier for me to conduct interview since I would meet with them at least twice a week. What makes this specific group a discourse community is that we all are a group of young people, who has come together to achieve one goal. This discourse community is unique because not every can sing and wants to be a part of this group. What matters to the group is that at choir rehearsal, we want very one to have their right note and keep it. I gathered my information about my discourse community by taking a note book with me to the meetings and listening to the conversation. I met with my discourse community every Wednesday at six thirty and every Sunday at eleven o’ clock at church. This group exist because the young people of the church is given a chance to show ministry to the people in the church. The shared goal that we have with one another is that we are trying to become better Christians and to use our voice for ministry. On every Wednesday we have to come to choir rehearsal to practice on new songs, old songs, and to meet, but we only sing every second and fourth Sunday out of the year. The group does not really meet outside the group unless it is for a personal reason. For means of communication, we text each, most likely the president will send a mass to everyone if he needs to get information to us, and we do have meetings to discuss new and old business. The purpose of us receiving text messages and having meetings is so everyone in the discourse community is up to date on everything that is going on in the group. In our group, the text messages and conversations at meetings can be considered a genre of this discourse community. An example of specialized language the members use is diaphragm. Sometimes Erwin, the choir director, might say “sing from your diaphragm”, so the right note will come out. I do not think there are really any experts in this discourse community, but if I had to really choose, it would be the members who have been in the youth choir for a long time and the ones who have retired from the youth choir. In our case the novices of the youth choir are the new members we have to join, we actually received two new members to join our discourse community. The novices learn the appropriate language, genres, and knowledge of the group by coming to choir rehearsal on Wednesday’s nights.
Unfortunately, we do have conflicts within the discourse community.
Usually, these conflicts are small. For example, when we had a meeting on October 11, 2015, Erwin felt like our voices were not being heard, because we had to pick a different date for our lock in and they was trying to pick the activities for us to do there. It was a big problem with the date that we had originally had chosen, so my mother, the youth director, had suggested that we do a one day event instead of the overnight, and Erwin’s whole body language changed. As a youth, I see his frustration, because we had started planning this a while ago, and now we have to reschedule the date we had our minds set on. Another conflict that we had earlier in the day was between my brother Darrell, Erwin, and Erica. It was our Sunday to sing, so we was in the choir and my brother was really complaining about how his stomach was hurting badly, so my brother stopped singing and had a mad look on his face. I told him to go in the audience so he would not get in trouble for not singing, but Darrell said “No, I’m staying up here”, so I left the situation alone. Erwin, on the other hand, did not hold anything back and began to tell him his favorite saying, “Get up and sing, you owe GOD more”. I guess Erwin and Erica thought he was playing about him having a bad stomach ache, so Erica said, “You too old to be playing in the choir and I hurt sometimes too”. At this point my brother Darrell, had gotten very upset. The text messages and the meetings we have with each other help us work toward our goal most effectively, because the text messages help us know when we have to meet and what time the meeting will start, and the meetings help us to become more knowledgeable about new information, such as programs and events. In this discourse community, none of the members have speaking or writing difficulties within the group, because the group mostly sing and verbally communicate with one another. The person that has
authority in this discourse community is my mother Anita Bramlett-Baker. She has the authority over this discourse community because she is the youth director, and she is in charge of all the youth and what they do relates to the church. When the old youth director stepped down, my mother was nominated to become the new youth director, so she had a choice to accept it or decline it. Luckily, my mother did accept this task because there really was not anyone who would do this huge job. The authority is demonstrated in oral language when my mother gets up in front of everyone to make an announcement and speaks very clear, bold, and to the point.
By reading this essay you can have a better understanding of how and what a discourse community works and functions. As you look around in this world, you will find some many different groups and organizations who are built upon common principles. By looking at Swales’s six characteristics you will get to see how to discover and become knowledgeable of different types of discourse communities. Although, there are so many different types of discourse communities, they all can relate to Swales’s characteristics. The type of language you use in your discourse community can have a heavy impact on your group’s ability to communicate with each other. Also, you will see what type of discourse community I chose and why I chose this particular group to observe.
interaction” (McCarthy 233). The type of language you use can have a heavy impact on your discourse community’s ability to communicate with each other. John Swales, “a professor of Linguistics and Codirector of Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English”, wrote “The Concept of Discourse Community” (Swales 215). In this reading, Swales explains his six characteristics of identifying a discourse community. Swales’s first characteristic of identifying a discourse community is that a group of people generally have the same goal that impacts the larger groups outside themselves (Swales 220). When you have a group, everyone should share the same ideas, if not then that is not the right group you should be in. Next, Swales’s argues that the group has the ability to communicate with itself (Swales 221). In any type of group or organization, the group members need to send messages to one another, even though they may might have the chance to see each other face to face all the time. Swales’s next characteristic is that a group uses the events, meetings, and email lists to give out information and to give feedback to one another (Swales 221). When a group meet, they receive new information that they never had before. Then Swales goes on to say that the group uses all kinds of text and methods of communication to talk about its goal (Swales 221). The next characteristic that Swales includes is that the group has its own language to talk to each other (Swales 222). More than likely, a group will adapt certain words or phrases only the group members know of. Finally, the last characteristic that Swales states that the group has experts who will ultimately leave the group and it has beginners who will learn from the experts (Swales 222). For example, if an older member of a group retires from the group, then the younger group member will take over and be the one in charge. The discourse community I chose to research for my paper is the youth choir/ youth department at my church. I chose this discourse community, because I am already a part of it and it would be easier for me to conduct interview since I would meet with them at least twice a week. What makes this specific group a discourse community is that we all are a group of young people, who has come together to achieve one goal. This discourse community is unique because not every can sing and wants to be a part of this group. What matters to the group is that at choir rehearsal, we want very one to have their right note and keep it. I gathered my information about my discourse community by taking a note book with me to the meetings and listening to the conversation. I met with my discourse community every Wednesday at six thirty and every Sunday at eleven o’ clock at church. This group exist because the young people of the church is given a chance to show ministry to the people in the church. The shared goal that we have with one another is that we are trying to become better Christians and to use our voice for ministry. On every Wednesday we have to come to choir rehearsal to practice on new songs, old songs, and to meet, but we only sing every second and fourth Sunday out of the year. The group does not really meet outside the group unless it is for a personal reason. For means of communication, we text each, most likely the president will send a mass to everyone if he needs to get information to us, and we do have meetings to discuss new and old business. The purpose of us receiving text messages and having meetings is so everyone in the discourse community is up to date on everything that is going on in the group. In our group, the text messages and conversations at meetings can be considered a genre of this discourse community. An example of specialized language the members use is diaphragm. Sometimes Erwin, the choir director, might say “sing from your diaphragm”, so the right note will come out. I do not think there are really any experts in this discourse community, but if I had to really choose, it would be the members who have been in the youth choir for a long time and the ones who have retired from the youth choir. In our case the novices of the youth choir are the new members we have to join, we actually received two new members to join our discourse community. The novices learn the appropriate language, genres, and knowledge of the group by coming to choir rehearsal on Wednesday’s nights.
Unfortunately, we do have conflicts within the discourse community.
Usually, these conflicts are small. For example, when we had a meeting on October 11, 2015, Erwin felt like our voices were not being heard, because we had to pick a different date for our lock in and they was trying to pick the activities for us to do there. It was a big problem with the date that we had originally had chosen, so my mother, the youth director, had suggested that we do a one day event instead of the overnight, and Erwin’s whole body language changed. As a youth, I see his frustration, because we had started planning this a while ago, and now we have to reschedule the date we had our minds set on. Another conflict that we had earlier in the day was between my brother Darrell, Erwin, and Erica. It was our Sunday to sing, so we was in the choir and my brother was really complaining about how his stomach was hurting badly, so my brother stopped singing and had a mad look on his face. I told him to go in the audience so he would not get in trouble for not singing, but Darrell said “No, I’m staying up here”, so I left the situation alone. Erwin, on the other hand, did not hold anything back and began to tell him his favorite saying, “Get up and sing, you owe GOD more”. I guess Erwin and Erica thought he was playing about him having a bad stomach ache, so Erica said, “You too old to be playing in the choir and I hurt sometimes too”. At this point my brother Darrell, had gotten very upset. The text messages and the meetings we have with each other help us work toward our goal most effectively, because the text messages help us know when we have to meet and what time the meeting will start, and the meetings help us to become more knowledgeable about new information, such as programs and events. In this discourse community, none of the members have speaking or writing difficulties within the group, because the group mostly sing and verbally communicate with one another. The person that has
authority in this discourse community is my mother Anita Bramlett-Baker. She has the authority over this discourse community because she is the youth director, and she is in charge of all the youth and what they do relates to the church. When the old youth director stepped down, my mother was nominated to become the new youth director, so she had a choice to accept it or decline it. Luckily, my mother did accept this task because there really was not anyone who would do this huge job. The authority is demonstrated in oral language when my mother gets up in front of everyone to make an announcement and speaks very clear, bold, and to the point.
By reading this essay you can have a better understanding of how and what a discourse community works and functions. As you look around in this world, you will find some many different groups and organizations who are built upon common principles. By looking at Swales’s six characteristics you will get to see how to discover and become knowledgeable of different types of discourse communities. Although, there are so many different types of discourse communities, they all can relate to Swales’s characteristics. The type of language you use in your discourse community can have a heavy impact on your group’s ability to communicate with each other. Also, you will see what type of discourse community I chose and why I chose this particular group to observe.