Discourse communities as explained by John Swales are often confused with speech communities. To understand why that is, it is important to define a speech community as well. A good way of describing it could be, a group that shares knowledge over a form of speech as well as its patterns of use. I think a reason this can be confused with discourse communities is because it does fulfill at least one if not two of the conditions of a discourse community. One is the lexis that is used and the other could potentially be mechanisms of intercommunication among the members involved. In Swales’ article, he uses the example of what I would explain as a stamp enthusiast club. The club holds members from around the globe however and they communicate with one another regardless of personal status. There is a newsletter that fulfills the requirement of feedback mechanisms that naturally uses some of the specific lexis within their community. He shows a clear level of expertise exists among their members and they have the same goal to “foster interest in and knowledge of the stamps of Hong Kong.”https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Concept-of-I-Discourse-Community-Swales-Swales/778e5c87e6041903980d25449c9a2972947a351e
This is not to say that discourse communities are simply hobbies though. They could be a job, or a club but they all incorporate some sort of membership whether it is formal or not. For example, even as part of a fantasy football league even though it may be casual or informal it can be a discourse community. Most have a goal of either wanting to have fun or make someone money at the end of the day. Often they are made to help people keep in touch as well. They use different mechanisms of intercommunication, there is a feedback system not just through the app but also through created polls, a weekly recap, and a biweekly ranking system that can be responded to. Some genres used could be stat sheets or ranking listings. There is specific lexis whether it is through waivers, trades, or about the league as a whole. There almost always is a large group of experts that leads the league as well. As you can see, discourse communities are prevalent and we are all likely a part of one or have been part of one at some point in our lives.
Discourse communities do not have to be part of our identity as a person however, as Swales noted there are plenty of people who are part of discourse communities but do not necessarily assimilate. He used the example of a journalist who can become part of a discourse community sometimes only temporarily so they do not assimilate but they are still a part of the community. I think there are levels to this which Swales also touched on. If you were part of a magazine club as a discourse community that might be very different in its impact on your way of thinking as compared to being part of a religious group as a discourse community. Either way, the membership is the same but its impact and perhaps its length can be on a sort of continuum. For more about discourse communities and why they are good to be a part of, check out, https://eng2020.chrisfriend.us/blog/discourse-communities/concept-of/rosalsar/what-the-hell-is-a-discourse-community/.
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