Before we can set these two topics to duke it out, we have to understand their differences. So set aside your pitchforks and celebratory banners, and lets dissect these topics.
DICOURSING THE DISCOURSE COMMUNITY
What is a discourse community (dc)? according to swales, a discourse community, in other words, is like a revolving door, when one member leaves, another is recruited and initiated into the community. He also explains how to identify a discourse community. He explains essentially, one of the markers of a dc is that the ‘cluster of ideas’ is a result of the community. Which, now that I think about it, makes sense. For example, I like to believe that I am apart of a theater discourse community. In high school I was surrounded by others who were versed in the dc as I was. When it came time to rehearse scenes for class, my scene partner and I would come up with different blocking or staging for said scene. Both members of the dc gave different perspectives on how to stage the scene, a consequence of being in the theater dc, not a requirement. We came into theater knowing next to nothing, then graduating with almost near expert level knowledge.
SPEAKING ON THE SPEECH COMMUNITY
Swales’ definition could not get any clearer than the name of the actual community. What sets a discourse community apart from a speech community is, that a speech community, is mainly about speech. A group that share attitudes about how certain language is used. An example Swales used was NYC. Believe or not, New York City is not just pizza and rats the size of footballs, they also have a shared understanding of how each borough speaks. For example, because there are different cultures in New York, there are constant borrowing from each other languages. A specific example can be a young Hispanic girl using the word ‘club-nugget’. Club-nugget refers to someone who is clumsy, it also has Yiddish roots.
But how will you know you’re apart of discourse community vs. speech community? Well, it should have the following characteristics, has a set of public objectives that are widely shared, has communication channels for its members to use, largely uses its participation capabilities to offer information and comments, uses and, as a result, has one or more categories in the communication of its objectives, The discourse community now uses some unique jargon, and finally, A discourse community has a minimum number of people who have the necessary level of appropriate material and conceptual skill. It’s quite a checklist, but one that can really highlight and help decipher a speech community vs a discourse community.
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