Edgar Ortega

Discourse Community
9/5/16
Planet Fitness as a Discourse Community

Introduction

Body building and working out has cleared over the world, as a large
number of men and ladies are pushing themselves to be in shape, in
instances, look muscular and vascular, making them fall in part of the body
building community. This community can be traced back as early as the
Greek era and has evolved as the centuries passed. There are many ways
people fit in this community and something essential to the body building
community would be the gymnasium. Visiting a number of them along with
observations, gave me a better perspective on how the body building
community works, and how much more than just working out it takes to be
fit. Making connections with swales six characteristics for a discourse
community along with James Porters definition made the gymnasium meet
all of the requirements of a discourse community.
Literature Review

A discourse community can be defined as a group of people who

broadly agree a set of common public goals as states by John Swales in the
article The Concepts of Discourse Community (p.470-473). According to
Swales this concept consists of 6 characteristics, that all communities must

Edgar Ortega
Discourse Community
9/5/16
achieve, before being considered discourse communities. Swales explains
these as the following. 1. A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of
common public goals. Meaning that the goals are public as stated by Swales,
for the reason that whoever may try to join one, has to have the same goals
as everyone else. 2. A discourse community has mechanisms of
intercommunication among its members. This means that the communities
have mechanisms that vary from community to community, examples
include meetings, newsletters, conversations, along with many others. 3. A
discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide
information and feedback. This allows appropriate goal communications for
what the community wants to do. 4. A discourse community utilizes and
hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its
aims. As said by Swales, these involve appropriacy of topics, the form,
function, and positioning of discoursal elements, and roles texts that are
used to associate effectively and appropriately within the community. 5. In
addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired some
specific lexis. Swales explained this by communities using lexical items
known to be wider in special technical ways. 6. A discourse community has a
threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and
discoursal expertise. Discourse communities have tiers of membership. This
in instances divides the community between who is in charge, for example
the experts, and moving down the threshold line depending on the
community.

Edgar Ortega
Discourse Community
9/5/16
Although Swales might have already established these characteristics,
James Porter also has his definition on what a discourse community is. As
opposed to Swales definition, Porter explains it in a different manner Porter
as found in the article Intertextuality and the Discourse Community (p. 3447), simply believes that A discourse community is a group of individuals
bound by a common interest who communicate through approve channels
and whose discourse is regulated. Similar to Swales, however Swales says
there has to be a set of common goals, while Porter says that there only has
to be common interest. Porter also explains that discourse community shares
assumptions about what objects are appropriate for examination and
discussion, what operating functions are performed on those objects what
constitutes evidence and validity and what formal conventions are
followed. This ties Swales third, fourth, and fifth, characteristics. Both
Swales and Porters opinions in what a discourse community is, explain what
a discourse community is, and helps the audience have a broader
perspective of the definition.

Methods

Upon doing my research on the gymnasiums as a discourse

community, I managed to attend 2 different locations that fell into this
community. The first one was a gymnasium called Planet Fitness and the

Edgar Ortega
Discourse Community
9/5/16
second was a supplement store, where people of the gymnasium and
workout community go to in case they want more out of their workouts. The
gym I visited was Planet Fitness, this is a nationwide gym chain that can be
found all throughout the U.S. Having 5 locations in El Paso alone made this
one of the main places to visit. This gym consisted of having all the
necessary equipment for anyone who wants to workout available. From free
weights to cardio, this was a genre I found at this particular gym. The staff
guided me throughout the different sections of the gym, example machines
that workout a specific part of the body, for example the chest. This was yet
another genre I found, the different machines that are in the gym. How the
gym was divided or separated into different sections made the gym feel as
the place to go and workout on anything anyone may desire at any given day
since its open all 7 days, varying hours depending on holidays as explained
by one of the staff members. The second place was a supplement store
called Supplement Express. I found this as another genre of the gymnasium
community since it provided a wide range of supplements for those people
that like to work out, making it an extension of just simply going to the gym
to workout. Visiting both places gave me a better understanding about this
community, and how much more there is to it than a place that has workout
equipment and the people who attend them.

Discussion

Edgar Ortega
Discourse Community
9/5/16
As explained by both Swales and Porter the different characteristics
that a discourse community has to achieve make them an essential
requirement they need to qualify as one. The reason I picked Planet Fitness
as a discourse community was because it did qualify as one. People who
attend planet Fitness and the gym itself share a common goal, which is as
observed in my visit, to be fit, healthy, and by some look muscular. This was
one of the most common goals. People in Planet Fitness use the gym to work
out on whatever they desire. Some have a goal to have a good condition,
while others want to look big and muscular. The equipment found in the gym
is a mechanism that people use to their benefit. The observations I did found
the second and third characteristic as stated by Swales, these include the
way people in Planet Fitness communicate and how there are different
mechanisms to do so. Paying a monthly charge which is explained in the gym
contract is part of the second characteristic which is the communication
between its members. Another form of communication I managed to see was
advertisements that were played on the televisions found in the gym. Posters
and flyers are also found in the gym itself which advertise the plans and how
much it is to join the gym. The genres are broad in Planet fitness, cardio,
weight lifting, tanning beds, along with others are part of these. Why these
fall into genres was easy for me to identify. People go for different reasons to
planet Fitness which they then pick whichever of the genres listed above,
and do it till they believe they reached their daily goal. The fifth and sixth
characteristics were also present in Planet Fitness. Different words are used

Edgar Ortega
Discourse Community
9/5/16
in the gym as a lexis. These included terms such as, tanning, what people do
to look darker, reps, which is short for repetitions, sets, which are the amount
of times one does an exercise for, along with cardio, which is working out on
ones conditioning, along with many others. Finally, the threshold that Planet
Fitness has is there are people who are in higher positions than others. My
observations identified these as the gym manager who is in charge of the
whole gym and its operations. Then there are the personal trainers, which
are people with certifications to train members of the gym achieve their
fitness goals. Staff members who operate the gym from lighting,
organization, and equipment, and handle the membership subscriptions. The
final would be the gym janitors who keep the gym clean and presentable for
all members.

Conclusion

To conclude, I found the visit to Planet Fitness very informative, and

gave me better knowledge to what both Swales, and Porter said about
Discourse Communities and their characteristics that make them what they
are. Analyzing everything in detail, and braking down components of the
place made me understand more and more, as I started looking for all 6
characteristics. From the equipment, in the gym, people who work there, to
members that are part of it, made it easier for me to go through my

Edgar Ortega
Discourse Community
9/5/16
research. I would have never known why a gym, something common that has
been present for a long time, is a discourse community if I had not visited
and put the characteristics into play. I not only learned that Planet Fitness is
a discourse community, but that many places are capable of being one or
already are one if I start comparing the characteristics that Swales
established.

Edgar Ortega
Discourse Community
9/5/16
References

Planet Fitness: Proud home of the Judgement Free Zone. Retrieved

September 08, 2016, from http://www.planetfitness.com/gyms/el-paso-farfar-east-tx-584

Porter, J. E. (1986). Rhetoric review (1st ed., Vol. 5). Taylor & Francis.

Swales, John. ''The Concept of Discourse Community." Genre Analysis:

English in Academic and Research Settings. Boston: Cambridge UP, 1990.2132. Print.

What is a Discourse Community? Retrieved September 08, 2016, from

https://webcourses.ucf.edu/courses/984277/pages/what-is-a-discoursecommunity