After reading The Concept of Discourse Communities by John Swales I believe that I have a better understanding of what a discourse community is and the concepts of discourse community. A discourse community is a group of people who share a common goal and use language and communication to achieve the goal. In this community they build a communication method to help members be on the same page which aids in accomplishing the goal. One of the characteristics of a discourse community mentioned by Swales is genres, genres are used to define the group. When I think about the word genre I think about the word type, so having a genre in a discourse community makes sense to me. Genres are created by recurring rhetorical needs (Swales).
The Author talks about genres being something that can be recognized by members who aren’t in the discourse, however within the group some adjustments are made to the genres that allows genres look different across different groups. Swales talks about a speech community and a discourse community, and I was having a hard time distinguishing between the two groups. My understanding is that a speech community is people who share the same language and examines how language shapes society, whereas a discourse community share a common goal or interest.
To be a member of a discourse community not only do the members have to share a common goal or interest but also have a standard of knowledge needed to be a member. For example, if the discourse community is based on scientific research by marine biologists on turtles and their life span; one would have to exhibit a level of knowledge to be accepted in the community.
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