The main idea touched upon in John Swales’ “The Concept of Discourse Community” is the concept that the term “discourse community” doesn’t have solid criteria surrounding it in terms of what is and isn’t; at least to the extent that certain social circles have begun appropriating the term and muddling its true meaning. To nail down a proper definition for what a discourse community is, the article provides these six criteria: a broadly agreed upon set of goals, mechanisms of intercommunication, a mechanism for information and feedback, utilizes genres to further its goals, its specific lexis, and finally a rotating cast of members.
Given these criteria, I finally understand what it is that the article, and by extension our entire class, is getting at. When we were discussing discourse communities in class, “Disneyworld” cast members were mentioned as an example, much to my confusion as I couldn’t relate it more towards something that I could understand. Then I started to relate it to writing a military-centered story, and all of the pieces started to click together. People who served in the Vietnam War would be considered a discourse community. Writing a military-centric novel is something that I’ve always shied away from due to my ignorance of the subject, and I mention this because the provided criteria for what a discourse community is, gives us a guideline for locating and understanding said discourse community. And assists in the earlier classroom topics surrounding the idea of writing to and reaching the proper audience.
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