Recently, there has been a lot of interest in discourse communities. According to James Porter, "a discourse community is a group of people bound by a common interest who communicate through channels and discourse is regulated (Couzelis, Isip, Adkins 12 and Porter 38-39). John Swales, however, states that a community can only be a true discourse community if they meet six requirements: they have to share clearly stated goals; they have to use a mechanism of communication; they offer feedback and information; utilize one or more genres of text, the group uses specific lexis; and they have old members with new ones (Couzelis, Isip, Adkins 12 and Swales 471-473). Under these guidelines, Mike Rose 's mother Rosie is in a discourse community because
Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian philosopher and author, once stated, “The well-being of a community of people working together will be the greater, the less the individual claims for himself the proceeds of his work, the more of these proceeds he makes over to his fellow-workers, the more his own needs are satisfied, not out of his own work but out of the work done by others” (“Recording of Society”). This quote represents the true meaning of a discourse community. A discourse community is a group of social individuals that work together to reach a common goal, understand the same basic values and assumptions, and use a unique kind of communication to reach their set goal or purpose. A good example of a discourse community is the organization
Every field has its own set of specialized unique vocabularies, and for those people who are in the same field, we call them discourse community. According to “ Discourse Community” by Eric Borg, “A discourse community is the discussion and analysis in applied linguistics these groups are gathered into communities.” (1) In other words, a discourse community is a group of people who share commonalities in the same field that they specialize in. Biotechnology Innovation Organization is one of the discourse community that “focuses on biocellular process to develop technologies and products that are beneficial to living things and our planet”(bio.org). To be more specific, this is also a trade association of biotechnology in the world, the members
A few examples of discourse communities who would use diffrent various types of languages within their area of expertise include teachers, doctors, and scientists .How ever those are not the only professional occupations that are identified as a discourse community , the languages that are used towards friends, teachers, and family while doing hobbies or our general daily day lives are different depending on who we
Swales’ definition of a discourse community is a group that has objectives or purposes, and utilize communication to accomplish those objectives. He states that a discourse community is presented as a more practical and purposeful gathering than speech fraternity or speech group. The six essential characteristics that Swales (1990) belief to be the core of a discourse community are its goals, intercommunication, participation, genres, Lexis, and expertise. Swales made his
An important discourse community that was a part of my life was my volleyball team during my four years of high school. I started playing my first year going into high school and continued until I graduated. Until now I wasn’t even aware that would even be considered a discourse community, but it fits all of the qualifications of Swales’ definition of a discourse community.
In Tony Mirabelli’s writing, “Learning to Serve”, Mirabelli completes an ethnographic study of the service industry. Mirabelli writes on a topic he is quite familiar with, being a waiter. Mirabelli discusses the complexity of being a waiter, although most of these complexities are unknown to people outside of the discourse community. Mirabelli uses his ethnographic study to undermine criticism towards waiters. The main critique Mirabelli rebuts in his writing is that being a waiter does not require skill. Mirabelli uses examples from his own experiences, as well as his research to show that this claim is not true. Through his writing, he displays the communication skills and knowledge it takes to be a waiter. Mirabelli is also able to portray
One point Swales brought up was that communication is necessary to fall under the category of a discourse community and that each discourse community must have a unique way of communicating (221). That is a way of saying that each discourse community must have their own language. If a group of people are really part of the discourse community, then they will be able to communicate fluently (Swales 221). Communication and language is a very hot topic in Gee’s article and we see that when he says, “Someone can speak English, but not fluently. However, someone cannot engage in a discourse in a less than fluent matter. You are either in it or you’re not.” (Gee 487). Swales and Gee obviously agree on the idea of communication but surprisingly, Porter does too. Porter writes that, “A “discourse community” is a group of individuals bound by a common interest who communicate through approved channels…” (porter 400) All three of these journalist agree that communication is vital to a discourse
Discourse communities consist of a group of people who link up in order to pursue the same objectives and goals. There are many different examples of these discourse
According to Erik Borg, a “discourse community” is a community where the “members actively share goals and communicate with other members to pursue those goals” (398). A discourse community I took part of was my High School’s Varsity Baseball Team.
Various linguists and/or writers have different opinions in relation to their definitions of a discourse community. Even though it may be different from other authors, I define a discourse community as a group of individuals willing to exchange efforts and some with similar interests with a finality of contributing positively to a given society. For instance, a basketball team, has as focus the conquest of championships, which at the same time will give the fans something to cheer for and will also attract more tourists; thus, helping a given society financially.
Based on Stuart Hall’s (2006) discussion of Foucault’s theory of discourse, a discourse is generally consisting of a group of statements that together offer a way of talking about a par-ticular knowledge on a certain topic. Many individuals can produce it together, in different institutional settings. The discourse thereby enables the construction of a topic in a specific way which at the same time limits other constructions of the same topic. A discourse is made up not only from one but a multiplicity of statements that all share the same style to talk about the same topic. However, it is not a closed off system, it draws statements from and into other discourses. A discourse in this understanding is not based on the classical distinction between thought and action, it “(…) is about the production of knowledge through language. But it is itself produced by a practice: “discursive practice” – the practice of producing meaning” (Hall, 2006:165). It follows that because all social practices involve meaning, all practices necessarily have a discursive side. A discourse is comparable to what sociologists would call an ‘ideology’. It is composed of statements and/or beliefs that shape knowledge in the interest of one particular group. But, according to Foucault (in: Hall, 2006) a discourse is more appro-priate because an ‘ideology’ claims ‘truth’, which in turn can be falsified. But the social, po-litical and moral world seldom allows the formulation of ‘entirely’ true or
In my past years of writing I have seen myself develop into a well disciplined and patient writer. However, I have seen myself significantly improve and mature as a writer over the past few months more than I have in the past four years. I view writing as an open doorway full of ideas, feelings, and thoughts weaved together simply for creating a masterpiece. Before entering college English 1010, high school students are conditioned to write required papers and assignments without having the ability to “put you’re your own opinions and feelings in a paper.” Fortuantly,I have been given the opportunity at The University of Memphis to express myself in writing
Languages and interactions are two principal concepts in present days. Being master in using and perceiving the modern methods of communications at works furnishes us with intellectual tools which we cannot afford to reject. With the expanding of organizations in the world and working internationally the needs of understanding other cultures and new ways of dealing with others become a key aspect of competitive advantages for any organization. Any organization regarding to meet its objectives and goals; assigns some written or not written norms, values, culture and behavioural patterns which should be understood and pursued by all the co-workers. This will create an employer image in labour market locally as well as in the international business market. Moreover, once a person starts working in any organization he or she will acquire a belonging feeling to that specific professional community. This professional community follows set of practices, specific knowledge and common values, hence creates discourse community that plays an essential role. However, spoken and written communication methods at work either among colleagues or between a professional member and lay people possesses unique
The communication is a process which allows people to express their thoughts, feeling and ideas, it occurs between two or more people and it 's an effective way to show our needs, demands, and requests. The communication can consist on various modes like speech, visuals, sign, written forms, behaviour or even cartoons & flyers.