Running head: DISCOURSE COMMUNITIES 1

Discovering Environments of Discourse Communities

Lucero, Andrea

University of Texas at El Paso

RWS 1301 TR 9:00 AM

Professor Vierra
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Abstract

This paper is going to discuss discourse communities and give multiple definitions. It will

talk about whether discourse communities are applied in our classroom. It will list the six

characteristics Swales mentions in his article. Then it will define each characteristic with logical

background information and sources. Also, it will give real life examples that are used in

classrooms to engage in discourse communities.

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Introduction

According to Swales, a discourse community is a group of people who share common

goals and use different communication skills to achieve them. Swales defines discourse

community as a group of individuals that communicate to develop the same set of goals, and

proposes six defining characteristics that will help identify what a discourse community looks

like. Each of the six characteristics are different from one another, but they all provide ways of

understanding what a discourse community is. Discourse communities and education tie together

by using the six characteristics to help in the classroom. RWS 1301 passes the Swales test;

meeting the necessary characteristics to be considered a discourse community. This paper will

discuss why RWS 1301 is a discourse community by explaining each characteristic and how it

applies to our classroom.

Looped Intercommunication

According to Swales (p 472), looped intercommunication is when you are provided with

information and give feedback to that person and/or when you yourself provide information to

others and receive feedback. Looped intercommunication does not have to be used in just a

school environment, in can be used in a work environment, even in a grocery store, it is

important to know this characteristic so we can be able to work with others and communicate

with them in a professional manner. With looped intercommunication we have the advantage of

being able to talk with others, express our feeling and thoughts with them, allow others to

express their ideas, thought, and feelings with us, and we are also able to get along with one

another in a well-rounded society. Some examples of looped intercommunication within our

classroom are replying to discussion boards, academic discussions (verbal/nonverbal), and

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communication with group activities. Replying to discussion boards makes us think critically

about the prompt and how we are going to organize our thoughts, helps give feedback to the

person who wrote the discussion and helps them to expand on their ideas as well as gives the

reader information on a topic they weren’t aware of. Academic discussions give students

knowledge which is taught by the professor, then we show the professor what knowledge we

obtained by quizzes, test or even aloud responses, this also benefits the professor because it

shows what the professor is doing is affective. Communication in groups gives knowledge from

our peers and helps us see different point of views also we use our peer’s information and ideas

to better our own. With looped intercommunication we can expand our ideas and knowledge to

use not only in class but carry them outside the classroom as well.

Intercommunication Mechanisms

According to Swales, intercommunication mechanisms is a way of interpreting and

responding to similar purposes and being able to communicate in any form. It is a working

towards the same goal through communication with others. Communication takes place regularly

but the mechanisms of the communication vary according to the group or the community, which

of course is a discourse community. A class being one of the discourse communities, meets the

Swales six characteristics defining it, in a class there are common public goals between the

teacher and the students goal being that the students should understand at the end. Phones and

computers being examples of mechanisms in a class, we write blogs and respond to

emails participate in group and class discussions in the Internet and in a class, is briefings by the

teacher, slide presentations, articles assigned for the class, class presentations, research reports

are other mechanisms. All of this has one motive and goal through the communication

also dialogs and personal narratives can be part of the communication mechanism
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Common Goals

Common Goals, according to Staff (2008) " The goals must be shared, not the fact that

the discourse community treats a particular subject matter." Sometimes Common Goals can be

done by studying the same subjects but the Goals in mind can be different. Common Goals

change depending on the reason why several things are getting done. (p.1) Three examples of

common public goals can be a religion because it brings people together with certain values and

spreads faith. Another example can be a sorority that participate in philanthropy and grow

together with sister hood. One last example is a honor society simply because they all seem to

maintain a good standing with grades and volunteer. According to Gilstein Julia, "John

Swales was the first to expand its definition in his 1990 book Genre Analysis. The book

describes a discourse community as distinct from a speech community. Discourse communities,

while sharing common goals, do not need to be of the same ethnic or geographic group. Speech

communities do, with members near each other. According to Swales, objectives of a discourse

community are often established prior to any socialization or group solidarity, and the discourses

are often focused on special interests. The interests of speech communities are much more

general."

Dedicated Genres

Dedicated genres is defined by Swales’ “that they are texts recognizable to readers and

writers, and that meet the needs of the rhetorical situations in which they function” (pg. 467). We

have many music genres, history genres and book genres. Genres are usually visible to others.

Most people have used genres when they are going to watch a movie, because some people don’t
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like romance, musicals, or action these are all genres. All types of genres have been around for a

long time now and we have come up with new ones almost every day. People don’t know the

power of genres, some can hurt others. Genres are a huge part of our lives we don’t notice we

use them every day. For example, if someone tells us a hilarious joke; that joke is a genre

because it’s funny. The view of genres has changed when we first started using them. Some

examples of dedicated genres are essays, articles, journals, movies, websites, and blogs.

Scholarly journals are bibliography that uses other sources. An article uses magazines,

newspaper, and publications. Essays give information on a subject from the author's point of

view. Movies are recorded and can be shown on television, theater, and a motion picture. Movies

have genres also like romance, horror, drama, action, and more. Websites is engine that has

many pages that give you information on subject. There are chat groups, personal homepage,

Message boards, and weblogs. Blogs are web page created by a small group or person that is

written in a communication style. Dedicated Genres are different styles of something is

expressed.

Self-sustained Hierarchy

One of the six characteristics Swales give us for discourse community is self- sustaining

hierarchy. Self-sustaining hierarchy, according to Swales (1990) means to be able to maintain

yourself by information people have impart to you. In a discourse community we have two types

of people either the experts or the newcomers (pg.8). In order for a community to have a type of

order there has to be people who can lead them to do the things they have to do since they have

learn from the good things and the bad things. The experts would give the new members

information for them to be successful that would help them out when the experts are gone. An

example within a self-sustaining hierarchy, in terms of this rhetoric course, would be beginning
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as a student. Everyone starts off as a (1) novice. The next example would be a T.A., or

(2) teaching assistant. The people on this level of the hierarchy know enough about the course to

enlighten beginners, helping them move up on expertise. Finally, the last example would be a

(3) professor. The person on this level of the hierarchy is the one who is an expert on the subject,

therefore the one that teaches the T.A's and the novices.

Specialized Vocabulary

One of the characteristics of Discourse Communication is specialized vocabulary.

According to Swales, Specialized vocabulary helps establish a discourse community by using

specific key terms that are exclusive to the group. When referring to the “group”, we are

referring to a set of people who are sharing a common goal who share that mode of

communication. They share that mode of communication in order to properly address and

achieve this “common goal” because otherwise that “group” of people would not be considered a

discourse community. Specialized Vocabulary as described by John Swales (1990), is vocabulary

that outsiders of the discourse community would not understand along with abbreviations and

acronyms special to that discourse community(pg.473). For Instance, the abbreviation used in a

rhetoric and writing class APA which stands for the American Psychological Association or a

type of format used for citation. In a rhetoric classroom there are three types or ways to convince

an audience using either ethics, logic, or emotions, but in the discourse community we use Greek

words to represent terms as ethos, logos, and pathos. These are just some of the many specialized

terms used in this rhetoric classroom that makes it a discourse community.

Conclusion

After describing and going further into detail about Swales six characteristics on

discourse communities, we can clearly see that discourse communities are applied within our
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classroom. Having these characteristics helps keep students engaged and maybe even excited to

learn. Each characteristic plays an individual role on how students these days are obtaining and

applying knowledge. We may not realize that we are using the characteristics but discourse

communities come hand and hand when it comes to our education. Not only are discourse

communities happening within our class but other classes as well.

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