After reading Swales’s article “The Concept of Discourse Community,” I was able to understand more explicitly what constitutes a Discourse community. One of the first points that grasped my attention is the difference between speech communities and discourse communities. According to the article, speech communities are absorbed into areas of concentration by birth, accident, or adoption. On the other hand, Discourse communities tend to separate people into specialty-interest groups (Swales.) The article also states that Discourse communities recruit members by relevant qualifications, persuasion, and training. A Discourse community is made up of individuals with the same goals. It is a specific group that is socially synchronized. The six focus points in the article that describe a Discourse community have made me realize that a Discourse community can only be understood from inside that nucleus. An outsider of that Discourse community will never experience being part of that community. A Discourse community will recruit people with the same capacity and ambitions as those already inside. After reading this article I have a better insight into what radicates in a Discourse community. Point number five in the article made me understand that an essential characteristic of a Discourse community is the lexis used amongst the community members. I couldn’t help but think of the Discourse community that I have been part of for years. It wasn’t until I learned about the term Discourse, that I realized that our everyday lives revolved around different Discourse communities. This article has been helpful in understanding the importance of knowing to what Discourse community one belongs.
Medical Discourse community
The Discourse community that I have been part of for years is the medical field community. I have worked in a dental office, pharmacy, and my current job is physical therapy front desk. I have realized that in this Discourse community, there are specific goals that everybody is after. The goal is to gain new patients and within that, new patients mean a busy schedule. Busy schedules mean more work. More work means a demand for more doctors. More doctors with busy schedules mean money from insurance, bingo! More income flows into the medical facility. A great amount of income means success for the whole medical Discourse community. Everybody is happy because the goal is to gain new patients and everybody working in the medical facility has a role in that process. Without a front desk, doctors, and medical staff, would never see patients. A medical Discourse community has its own lexis as well. If I had never been part of this Discourse community I would call my neck, neck. Working in the medical field has influenced me to call my neck cervical spine because I can’t help but hear what medical assistants say or when the doctor asks me for a patient’s diagnosis. I once worked in a retail job as well and the lexis used in retail would never be the same as in the medical field. Therefore, Swales’s article has provided me with a better insight into what it feels like to be part of a Discourse community.
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