I think it is crazy how many discourses we are apart of without even realizing. In section 2.2 of Swales “The Concept of Discourse Community”, it is mentioned how New York City is one community not a collection of speakers living side by side. Most if not everything you do belongs to a very specific discourse community. You don’t even think that much about it because it is a part of your everyday life. You are just so used to it being what it is, that when you actually think about it you realize how unique and special it is. It is so unique and special that people outside of these groups won’t have any idea what you’re talking about. It is like the experiences people with siblings share and how single children just don’t understand it. Despite how different everyone who has siblings are, if you have at least one other person you grew up with you will understand it to some level.
There are a lot of specifics that go into a discord versus just a shared experience with people around you, but it is still amazing to think about how many things we are a part of without realizing. The specific place you work at is a discourse that is unique to that place. Even if you go somewhere with the same company, it’s going to be very different. Different bosses, coworkers, slightly different ways of doing things, and more. Your specific class is a discourse, because a different section is completely different. It might be the same subject, but different students make the class so unique it becomes a discourse only the students and the specific teacher take part in. None of this is really thought of, you just go to school or work as normal. However, once you step out of those discourse communities, you will realize how different something is. Even if that place is within the same town.
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