Discourse Communities

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Discourse Communities
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Defining a Discourse Community

• A cluster of ideas
• A group of people who share certain
  language-using practices
• Writing and knowledge building
• Writing and community building

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Knowledge and the Notion of a Discourse
Community

• The focus on community composition studies shows
  that language use in a group is a form of social
  behavior, that discourse is a means of
  maintaining and extending the groups knowledge
  and of initiating new members into the group, and
  that discourse is epistemic or constitutive of
  the groups knowledge (Swales 468).

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Swales Characteristics of a Discourse Community

• Goals
• Intercommunication
• Participation
• Genres
• Lexis
• Expertise

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• Lets look at each characteristic in more detail.

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1. Goals

• A discourse community has a broadly agreed upon
  set of common public goals.

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Goals of The Plastics?
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2. Intercommunication

• A discourse community has mechanisms of
  communication among its members.
• The communication takes place regularly, but the
  mechanisms can vary according to the community
  (meetings, correspondence, newsletters,
  conversations, Facebook posts, etc.).

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Intercommunication between The Plastics?
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3. Participation

• A discourse community uses its participatory
  mechanisms primarily to provide information and
  feedback. Thus, membership implies uptake of the
  informational opportunities.
• Communication and participation involves the
  exchange of knowledge.

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4. Genres

• A discourse community utilizes and hence
  possesses one or more genres in the communicative
  furtherance of its aims.
• Genres articulate the operations of the
  discourse community.
• Examples include chemistry reports, personal
  narratives, hip hop music, emails, etc.

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Genres of The Plastics?
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5. Lexis

• A discourse community has acquired some specific
  lexis.
• Lexis includes specialized terminology,
  community-specific abbreviations, and
  community-specific acronyms.

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The Lexis of The Plastics?

• Fetch
• Burn book
• The Plastics
• Fugly

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6. Expertise

• A discourse community has a threshold level of
  members with a suitable degree of relevant
  content and discoursal expertise Survival of
  the community depends on a reasonable ratio
  between novices and experts.

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Is it a discourse community?
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The STL Cardinals

• Goals
• Intercommunication
• Participation
• Genres
• Lexis
• Expertise

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A sorority/fraternity

• Goals
• Intercommunication
• Participation
• Genres
• Lexis
• Expertise

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UMSL students

• Goals
• Intercommunication
• Participation
• Genres
• Lexis
• Expertise

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Facebook users

• Goals
• Intercommunication
• Participation
• Genres
• Lexis
• Expertise

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The Harry Potter Fan Club

• Goals
• Intercommunication
• Participation
• Genres
• Lexis
• Expertise

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Republican voters

• Goals
• Intercommunication
• Participation
• Genres
• Lexis
• Expertise

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College Democrats at UMSL

• Goals
• Intercommunication
• Participation
• Genres
• Lexis
• Expertise

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Composition Scholars

• Goals
• Intercommunication
• Participation
• Genres
• Lexis
• Expertise

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Our class

• Goals
• Intercommunication
• Participation
• Genres
• Lexis
• Expertise

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Academia

• Goals
• Intercommunication
• Participation
• Genres
• Lexis
• Expertise

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Discussion

• Swales argues that membership in a discourse
  community does not necessarily involve
  assimilation of world-view. What does this mean?
  Do you agree?