A discourse community is a community in which there is a common set of public goals that join a group of people together. Also, within these groups, there is a unique set of vocabulary amongst members, provided feedback to one another, the implementation of one or more genres, varying forms of effective communication, and a variety of members that have varying levels of knowledge regarding the content of the group. John Swales provides an in-depth analysis as to what he believes a discourse community is and what it entails to be a part of one- he discusses the varying factors of a community and provides his own, unique example of a group that he’s in.
Just four weeks ago I had absolutely no clue what a discourse community was or what it entailed. I had no idea that, throughout my life, I’ve been involved with a multitude of communities and that, depending on the group, I had a vast amount of knowledge that led me to be an expert within the group. This course, along with Swales article, has led me to understand the importance of discourse communities and how they surround me every day, even if I hadn’t realized it before.
Swales goes over the six factors that contribute to a discourse community and how each factor plays a major role in creating and keeping a group together. A discourse community is a sociohistorical group because its ultimate goal is to bring a group of people together in order to pursue certain goals and objectives. This centrifugal group is composed of people from many different backgrounds- it doesn’t matter who the person is or what they do in their life, it’s about the common interests or goals that they share with the people that are in their community. My understanding of a discourse community has deepened and made me think of what communities I’m currently part of and what I mean in terms of that group. Now I think of my job as a discourse community that I’m part of due to my extensive knowledge of my job and the shared objective between me and my fellow employees. I believe that discourse communities are extremely important because it groups together people with common goals and allows them to work together to achieve something and, that something might just turn out to be something great.
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