Discourse Community Research Assignment The Prompt Investigate a literacy-based community of your choice. Study the literacy practices of this community and determine:
ANWERING THE QUESTIONS BELOW THIS
1. Is it a discourse community?
2. How does it satisfy each of Swales’ requirements? If it does not satisfy each requirement, why not?
Basically, any community that are easy and try to fulfill the highlighted requirements.
How do I do this assignment? To begin this assignment, think about some of the literacies you are familiar with. Do these literacies have communities associated with them, either on a large scale (political organizations, a career field, a business industry) or on a small scale (your local Boy/Girls Scouts, a restaurant you work at, a club or a team that you meet with regularly)? Choose one of these literacy-based communities to focus on. Then, do some research on how this group communicates with each other. These are the “literacy practices” you are looking for — does this group publish or post material for their community? Is there an email newsletter? Do they meet regularly? Can you find a peer-reviewed article about their literacy practices? Etc. Finally, compare your research to Swales’ six required qualities of a discourse community and answer the questions, “Is it a discourse community?” and “How does it satisfy each of Swales’ requirements?”
My Requirements Use one scholarly, peer-reviewed source related to a literacy or a specific discourse community. Provide specific evidence of your chosen community’s literacy practices. Don’t just tell me how they communicate with each other – tell me what they actually talk about. Write at least 1250 words (approx. 5 pages double-spaced).
The Discourse Community “Checklist” English studies scholar John Swales came up with six requirements for a literacy-based community to be considered a “discourse community.” By observing how a discourse community fulfills each of these requirements, we can learn a lot about how that discourse community functions. The following is Dan Melzer’s paraphrases of each of Swales’ requirements:
MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THESE DONE BEFORE SENDING IT
1. A broadly agreed upon set of common public goals
2. Mechanisms of intercommunication among members
3. Use of these communication mechanisms to provide information and feedback
4. One or more genres that help further the goals of the discourse community
5. A specific lexis (specialized language)
6. A threshold level of expert members
Let’s break those down… Try to read this part if you remember/ explaining each of the 6 items above this
1. A broadly agreed upon set of common public goals – The word “public” here just means that we can easily identify the goals of this community. – “Broadly agreed upon” = most members of this community agree that these are the goals – The question to be answered for this requirement is, “Does this community have specific goals that each member is trying to achieve? Or, are there goals for the community as a whole to achieve that everyone is working towards together?”
2. Mechanisms of intercommunication among members – “Mechanisms of intercommunication” = a way of communicating – This can be anything from texts, emails, letters, apps, videos, podcasts, printed sheets of paper – anything that allows people to communicate with each other. – The question to be answered for this requirement is, “Are the members of this community capable of communicating with each other? What, specifically, do they use to communicate?”
3. Use of these communication mechanisms to provide information and feedback – “Information” and “feedback” sound very specific, but they’re not – this just means sending and receiving communication of any kind. – As simple as it seems, this requirement is actually very important; Swales writes, “The discourse community survives by providing information and feedback” and “the discourse creates the community” (Swales, 212). – The question to be answered for this requirement is, “Given a way of communicating with each other (#2), do these people actually communicate with each other?”
4. One or more genres that help further the goals of the discourse community – This is the tricky one we sort of skipped past in class. A “genre” can mean a lot of different things, in the way that Swales is using it; but generally, he is talking about the kind of things that the discourse community regularly produces. – In the Branick article “Coaches Can Read, Too,” he lists three different documents produced by football coaches: playbook, playing calling sheet, and scorecard. These are three “genres” produced by this community that help football coaches do their job. – The question to be answered for this requirement is, “What different kinds of things does this community produce?”
5. A specific lexis (specialized language) – This is exactly what we talked about when we brainstormed literacies in class – L1C4, the yellow lot, etc. – The question to be answered for this requirement is, “Are there particular terms or phrases used in this community that are not used, or not used in the same way, in other communities?”
6. A threshold level of expert members – This requirement is referring to expertise in this discourse community. A discourse community should have at least one person who is seen as an expert in the literacy on which the discourse community is based, or someone who is seen as an authority figure over the discourse community itself. – The question to be answered for this requirement is, “Are there a limited number of people who have more knowledge or authority than others in this community?”
What do I do with this “checklist?” Use this list to research your discourse community. When you research your chosen discourse community, you will need to give specific descriiptions of how your discourse community fulfills each of these requirements. Some of you may start by jumping into research on this community; some of you may want to start by looking at the checklist and the questions that need to be answered to satisfy each requirement. Use this document to help you figure out how to approach researching your chosen discourse community!
