Hannah Williams

ENC 1101
Professor Wolcott
November 20,2014

Discourse Community Final Draft

The book that has been used through this course, "Writing About Writing", by Wardle and
Downs was written in order to help those that struggle with writing become better writers. The
purpose of this book is not to show you step by step on how to write but to help you understand
that once you change what you know about writing you can then change the way you write.
(Writing About Writing Intro) The last section for the semester is the Discourse Community; the
articles that we have read for this section gave great examples on what discourse communities
are and how we cna use in our personal and future professional careers should we choose so. By
definition a Discourse Community is one in which a group of people share common goals and
use communication to achieve them. (Swales) The writers that wrote the articles within this
book are considered a discourse community themselves because in the introduction it was stated
that every article came from research and studies. The goal for all of the authors was the hope
that there articles could help aspiring writers but also those who are considered experts and still
use help when writing and can use this book as a refresher. They believe that by sharing this
information and having teachers teach this it will help their students others become better writers
and better able to read. There were three authors used in this section but there were two that I
believe made it more simple for me to understand this section those being John Swales and

James Paul Gee because I believe that there two ideas on discourse communities tie into one
another.
John Swales, a professor of linguinstics at the University of Michigan wrote the article "The
Concepts of Discourse Community", and it entails the description about a speech and discourse
community. He states that "a Speech Community typically inherits its membership by birth,
accident, or adoption; a Discourse community recruits its members by persuasion, training, or
qualification". (Swales) Swales also states that there are six criteria to meeting a discourse
community those being: Common goals, intercommunication among members, participation,
more than one genre to further aims, a specific lexis, and there must be novices and experts
because the members are always changing. When describing these characteristics, Swales notes
several things. Goals can be published in documents or be implicit. Communication can be
through text or confrontation. Information exchange is relative to the common goals. Discourse
communities develop around the genres upon which it establishes itself. Lexis is essentially a
compilation of vocabulary, so each community has its own terminology specific to that group.
There should be a reasonable difference between experts and newcomers. Although Swales
gives the criteria for defining a discourse community he did not say what needed to be done in
order to be accepted in a particular community.
James Paul Gee, a researcher who has worked in psycholinguistics, discourse analysis,
sociolinguistics, bilingual education, and literacy wrote the article Literacy, Discourse, and
Linguistics, and he states that the focus of literacy studies or applied linguistics should not be
language, or literacy, but social practices. (Gee) I interpret this as him saying there are social
situations where formal and informal language must be used. In his article he uses the example
of two different women in an interview and one of them uses a more lax tone and dialect, where

the other is more organized and put together. "At any moment we are using language we must
say or write the right thing in the right way while playing the right social role and to hold right
values, beliefs, and attitudes. Thus, what is important is not language, and surely not grammar,
but saying (writing)-doing-being-valuing-believing combinations". (Gee) Gee says that "a
Discourse is like an "identity kit", we all have one." I believe this to be exceptionally true
because when I am around friends I am more relaxed and not have to worry about being formal;
different to when I am speaking with an professor, I have to address them in a certain way and be
more structured and organized. Gee implies that a Discourse cannot be learned but aquired
through social interaction and becoming familiar with it. Gee goes into further explanation on
Discourse and says that we have a Primary and Secondary Discourse. The Primary Discourse
comes from our family and it affects what we think of the world and our views. The Secondary
Discourse comes from our social interactions with friends and institutions where we study or
work. I feel that Swales and Gee tie into one another because Swales definition of a discourse
lies more with Gee's definition of a Secondary Discourse, that being picking up the discourse
through friends and social interaction. I feel that they both did well in defining and describing
Discourse Communities. The best part though is that they are both two different terms, Swales
(discourse) and Gee's (Discourse).
I feel that I can directly relate this information to my major because with Biology there are
numerous amounts of people I am going to interact with whether they are my mentor or a patient.
I remember that in my junior year of high school I volunteered at the hospital where I live in the
Women's Center because I want to specialize in obstetrics-gynecology in my future career.
There were so many people that I met while volunteering those being the patients, nurses, and
doctors. While volunteering I noticed that the nurses were very relaxed and informal with one

another and they often talked about their families and any issues they were having but once a
doctor or patient came around their dialect and attitued changed. I feel that this relates directly
with Gee and there being times where dialect needs to change. Seeing this first hand lets me
know that there are certain occasions where I do not have to always be formal when working and
can take a little breather to talk about almost anything when I can. In my community which will
be medicine the lexis that will be used is one which pertains to that community. A medical
facility is an discourse community. Every medical discourse community has a set of rules, codes,
and standards to follow. These are things that need to be memorized and become accustomed to
much like what Gee stated about the Second Discourse Community. The medical community
ties directly into Swales's six criteria because the common goal of all doctors is to save lives and
try to keep people from being in pain and hela them. The intercommunication is that there are
discussions and meetings held that will discussed at a later date. There are numerous journals
and textbooks that can exchange knowledge with everyone which pertains to the participatory
and infromation aspect. The medical community has a common interst in the human body,
which is the genre. Terminology is always changing so it is imperative to keep abreast of new
articles or research. Finally, if you don't have prior knowledge and training you cannot enter the
medical community. (Rachel Strand and Amanda Taylor) Gee believes though that if you do not
have all of the knowledge needed you cannot be a part of it. Even after I go through all of the
necessary steps that are required to enter into a hospital I would still need to become accustomed
to my surroundings and learn the terms that are used by co-workers day to day for effective and
thorough comunication.

Works Cited
Swales, John. The Concept of Discourse Community. Genre Analysis: English in Academic
and Research Settings. Boston: Cambridge UP, 1990. 21-32. Print.
Gee, James. Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction. Writing About Writing: A
College Reader. Ed. John E. Sullivan III. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 481-495. Print.
http://wiki.sdstate.edu/