Blog #5 -- Discourse Communities

When first trying to learn the concept of a discourse community in class, I was pretty confused. I saw we didn't haaave to read Swales article, so I didn't…

But once I read back on my notes and the slides, I think I can kind of piece together what a discourse community is.

From my understanding, a simplified version of Swales six characteristics of a discourse community is:

1. A group of people with common goals
2. The members have ways to communicate with each other
3. Feedback and/or information is given back to the members of the group
4. They use different types of communication to the public
5. Have their own jargon/lingo/slang amongst them
6. The group has positions of higher power and/or knowledge

An example I can think of is a sorority or fraternity. Although I’m not in Greek life, my boyfriend is and from what I know, I think these characteristics can apply:

1. Each sorority/fraternity has a goal to raise funds for a specific service organization
2. Members have various ways to communicate, such as weekly meetings, Facebook, text messages
3. Information in given back to inform them of future events, parties, etc. as well as feedback if everyone is pulling their weight and participating
4. There are different types of communication to the public to relay information including booths, advertising signs or messages for a fundraiser, or a website
5. They use their own terminology to identify different things as well as slang words that they all pick up on from being around each other
6. There are different committees and chair positions that one can occupy that can also possess a level of authority

In class, it was stated that a discourse community is NOT a group of friends, and NOT social, but FUNCTIONAL!! Obviously members of Greek Life are friends and are very social and almost always stay friends for life, which then contradicts our definition. However, I still think they can be considered a discourse community, just maybe a social discourse community??

I'm awkwardly in the front haha

Now that I think of it, I probably should’ve given an example of a discourse community that I’m in… Well I’ll do that real quick right now!

Over the summer I did an internship with one of my Computer Science teachers who has his own Research Lab-- Edwards Lab -- / group of people that all research all different types of biological things with the help of computer technology (it’s called Bioinformatics.) Instead of the internship just ending when school started, I am now getting school credit and am now more of a permanent member of the group. The members of the lab are like a discourse community! --

1. Although they are many different goals, everyone has a project, or multiple, they are working on to get published in an academic journal and make some sort of scientific discovery (or a step closer to one)
2. We all communicate with each other through an email group to inform everyone of meetings coming up, do we all want to go bowling on Friday, or send in your profile picture for the website (which I still haven’t done yet)
3. Information/feedback is given back to us by each other on codes, ideas, etc. to help everyone work effectively and efficiently
4.  We have a lab website for everyone to see that explains what we do, if you want to use any of the software code members have written, or our contact information
5. There’s so many terms used, both from biology and computer science, that an average person would have no idea what we’re talking about, as well as the different coding languages everyone may or may not know
6. Well the boss of Edwards Lab is Rob Edwards obviously, but at the first meeting we designated different people to different jobs. One was who’s going to be in charge of giving people a door code so they can access the room or who makes sure everyone cleans every once in a while

Again, I think this is a discourse community, but a social one because we’re all friends!

Okay well hopefully I explained everything correctly!

It's too hot and I need a break from homework…

--Victoria