, 2016

RWS

Jazmin Alvarado

DISCOURSE COMMUNITY
ETHNOGRAPHY

TEXAS HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

INTRODUCTION
April 17 1964
This discourse community ethnography research paper will help you have a better
understanding of the articles Swales and Porter and a better view of the six concept
meanings that are being described in the articles. Linguist John Swales defined discourse
communities as "groups that have goals or purposes, and use communication to achieve these
goals. In simpler terms this is a group that shares discourses and upstands basic values,
assumptions and communicating those goals. My choice in community is the Texas Health and
Human Services on 11295 Edgemere Blvd. of El Paso Tx.
What persuaded me into choosing this business was that my mom has been working for
the Texas health and human services for about 6 to 7 years, over the course of those years she has
been communicating to me what kind of clients she receives old or young and their stories as to
why they need assistance. This community has been running for 52 years and has had a great
impact in the U.S. which shows that they achieve to succeed.
Throughout the years this program has been running to assist clients with government
support. Every client knows that they will be receiving the best of attention and guidance in
receiving food stamps, TANF (welfare), health insurance for pregnant women and children. The
building itself might be a little over whelming. The building is old and nothing fancy but the
employees are very professional and knowledgeable, it can be a little overwhelming especially
for people that are there asking for assistance due to life changing situations but once the client is
able to speak to the case worker the atmosphere changes to a friendly one, with trust and honesty.
They try to make sure that each client leaves the building with a sense of relief at least while they

TEXAS HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

receive some type of supplemental benefit, it is an office that makes a person humble. However,
the employees at the Edgemere office make you feel welcome as they try their best to provide all
types of services to the clients to make them feel of value.
Literature Review
The article The concept of discourse community by John Swales acknowledges how a
discourse community functions and works together as a whole. In this article the author describes
how the six characteristics compose a discourse community. One, the community has agreed in
having a common goal/goals. Two, the community has their methods of intercommunication
among its members. Three, the community uses participation methods primarily to provide
information and feedback. Four, the community utilizes one or more genres in the
communication of carrying-out its aims. Five, in addition to owning genres, the community has
acquired some specific lexis (language). Six, the community has an indispensable level of
members with a sufficient degree of relevance in the content.
Throughout the rest of the article Swales details and explains how the six characteristics apply to
a discourse community, what a discourse community is, and how different but similar a speech
community is to a discourse community. Swales has three principles he goes by when talking/
describing a speech community and how they work and run differently than discourse
communities. Swales says A speech community typically inherits its member- ship by birth,
accident or adoption; a discourse community recruits its members by persuasion, training or
relevant qualification. (Swales, 1990, p.471) The article then goes into detail of the six
characteristics of a discourse community and how they operate in real life situations.

TEXAS HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

The article Intertextuality and the discourse community by James E. Porter focuses on
the discourse community but leans more heavily on intertextually. Which is defined by
relationships being between texts in literature, that can influence, differ or reflect each other.
The article then gives an examination or an analysis of intertextuality, James E. Porter says a
writer is a collector, or in simpler terms an archaeologist, these writers find fragments or collect
fragments of readings, create an order and build a framework from remnants of the past.
Intertextuality is distinguished in two fashions, one Iterability and two presuppositions.
Iterability is described or referred to as repeatability which contain only certain fragments in
texts but also of citations that include explicit allusions, references, quotations of a discourse but
also unannounced sources, influences, clichs, phrases, and traditions. All these outlines are to be
put in effect only if the discourse is composed of traces (help decipher the meaning of texts)
(Porter, 1986, p.35). presuppositions are associated to texts that make assumptions about its
significance, readers, and context (Porter, 1986, p.35). Once upon a time is a great example the
article uses for presupposition, when young children and even adults hear the phrase your brain
automatically indicates the start of a fairytale or made-up story. The article then goes on about
The Declaration of Independence and how Thomas Jefferson was not an original framer or a
creative genius (Porter, 1986, p.36).
Methods
The primary research that I personally have chosen was Texas Health And Human
Services. This community has been running for 52 years since April 17, 1964 and has had an
enormous impact in the U.S. A little background on Texas Health and Human Services, President
Lyndon B. Johnson organized for a permanent food-stamp program on January 31, 1964 but on

TEXAS HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

April 17, 1964 Agriculture Secretary Orville Freeman submitted the legislation and the bill was
later passed by congress.

The location is on 11295 Edgemere Blvd. of El Paso TX, the building is old
and aged from the outside the only charm of the building is the brick wall
that has a sense of protection the rest of the building is nothing fancy.
My observations consisted of myself sitting in an office observing an
employee and supervisor. My fist observation was the ambience of the
employees and how they communicated with each other, their supervisors
and most importantly their clients. While addressing the interviewee Texas
work advisor II Carolina Alvarado she described communication skills with
terminology, what applications are used and how important it is to
communicate to not only her co-workers and supervisors but to the clients as
well. Alvarado stated It is very necessary to communicate with clients, coworkers and higher management, when asked what type of terminology is
used she said Health and Human Services uses programs such as TIERS /
SAVE / Databroker / SOLQ / OAG. She went on describing how clients apply
for the food stamps and what types of important documents are used for
communication clients fill out forms online. Once client is interviewed there
may be a possibility that the caseworker may request verifications thru
several different forms depending on what services the client is applying for
and what verifications the caseworker is requesting. I then asked Mrs.
Alvarado what her goal is as a Texas work advisor II she said As a

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caseworker for the Texas Health and Human services office, it is my goal to
make sure that every indigent individual receives proper services such as
Snap, Medicaid and / or TANF. And what motivtes her to accomplish that
goal Alvarado said, Children with no means for medical services, individuals
with no means to sustain their families financially, motivate me in providing
them with supplement programs until they are able to provide for
themselves.
From there I went on in interviewing supervisor Kevin Cosdigan I asked
are there any important communications skills used and if so what are the
communication methods Cosdigan stated most defiantly, emails are used
on daily basis however the state of Texas use webex (jabber) and skype.
When asked if his job as a supervisor has more responsibility than his social
workers Mr. Cosdigan said as a supervisor it is my responsibility to ensure
that my clerks, work adviser and especially my clients are treated with
respect, the responsibility of a supervisor is to foresee the whole office.
When concluding my interview with Mr. Cosdigan I also asked what his goal
was as a supervisor he stated to serve all Texas residence to the best of our
abilities.
A lot of the documents that were being utilized at the office are online
the only documents that are of importance are the clients applications other
than that most of the documents that are being used are online. my
observations took me about a day I was able to interview the supervisor as
well as a caseworker, I was also able to observe the work place from being in

TEXAS HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

the waiting area to being in an office, and watching what emails, webexing
and phone calls were being transmitted.
Discussion
The way the Texas Health and Human Services incorporated the six characteristics of Swales
was the communication part of the observation. In Texas Health and Human Services without all
the communication skills and terminology the case workers learn there would be chaos, in all of
the six characteristics in Swales this office or should I say department qualifies for all six. They
need communication for the clients, co-workers and supervisors, they all work for one goal, have
their own lexis and have indispensable employees that have sufficient degree in the content.
Conclusion
In conclusion what I learned in this community was that communication is everything, you need
on the daily. I learned that it doesnt matter whether you are a supervisor or a social worker you
all are one and wok for the same goal. I believe that this community applies to all six of the
characteristic of a discourse community, when overserving them they all acted as a team even if
they were across the hall or the building this community worked as a discourse community.

Reference page

(Porter, 1986, p.35)

(Swales, 1990, p.471)

TEXAS HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES