The excerpt “The Concept of Discourse Community” from John Swales’ book Genre Analysis, dives into the main points of what defines a discourse community as well as examples of what one can look like. One point that Swales mentions is that “individuals will vary in the number of discourse communities they belong to and hence in the number of genres they command.” This line in particular stuck out to me. After gaining an understanding of what constitutes a discourse community, I believe that the more discourse communities you are involved in, the more knowledge you have about the world.
Although Swales provided a very elusive example of a discourse community that he is a part of, one that may not seem to provide much weight in the context of knowledge about the world, he is still gaining knowledge from being in that discourse community. While this idea may seem obvious once you are aware of what a discourse community is, I don’t think that people realize this much. Everyone is a part of at least one discourse community, but many people are involved in multiple. I am someone who has participated in several clubs and organizations throughout high school and in college now as well, and before learning about discourse communities, I never would have put myself as someone who is knowledgeable about a lot of things. However, when you look at it from the standpoint of the variety of discourse communities I am a part of, it is much easier to see that I have a widespread knowledge of many different things.
A lot of this is due to the requirements that it takes to be in a discourse community. If it weren’t for the communication forms needed, the goal of the community, the vocabulary you acquire, and the expertise you can achieve, there would be no knowledge gained. However, all discourse communities require an individual to improve in their knowledge of a certain area, whether it be of little or great significance. While the rules and regulations for a discourse community can be argued, it is undoubtedly true that you are gaining insight when you become part of one.
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