Many of us were probably unsure of what a discourse community meant or even a speech community meant before reading the article Swales wrote called “The concept of discourse community”. At first it was hard to understand the concept behind it but after reading the article and using the 6 characteristics to be grouped in a discourse community it became clear of what is expected to be considered. The 6 characteristics are public goals, intercommunication, providing feedback and information, genres, lexis, members with appropriate level of expertise.
Swales gives us a great comparison of how discourse communities and speech communities are different. Speech communities group people by birth, accident or adoption and discourse communities do it based on persuasion, training, or being qualified.
Based on this knowledge I believe that it’s only right to be in a discourse community if you can provide evidence of the certain community including all 6 characteristics that Swales suggests. For example some discourse communities can be educators from a certain grade level, online gamer, restaurant hosts/ waitresses, retail employees, fitness trainers and even military members. I believe that many of these people join a discourse community to share common interests/ goals. By being in these communities it allows people to grow and form connections with members. Also, after reading this article it was clear to me that I have been a part of discourse communities and I just wasn’t aware that it was that. For example working at Target, being a part of a gym training group, and even being a KDP member all were discourse communities and at the time I just considered myself part of a group. But it’s more than just a group.
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