Question 1

How many features or criteria does a “discourse community” typically have?

 6

Question 2

The name of the linguist whose ideas about discourse are the basis of the article “Understanding

Discourse communities” is

 John Swales

Question 3

What is a good paraphrase of “a broadly agreed upon set of common of goals” – one of the

feature/ criteria of a discourse community?

 All members want the same thing/ have the same goal, and interact with each other about

that specific goal.

Question 4

What is a good paraphrase of “mechanisms for intercommunication”? - another of the features/

criteria of a discourse community?

 All members have some way or ways to communicate directly with each other about the

community’s goals.
Question 5

The third criteria of a discourse community, according to Melzer, is that members of a discourse

community use the “mechanisms for intercommunication” in the community for what purpose?

 To provide feedback to other members of the discourse community and/ or to provide

important information to other members of the discourse community.

Question 6

The fourth criteria of a discourse community, according to Melzer, is that any discourse

community uses specific genres for communication.

This concept of genre is a challenging one to understand, sometimes. Melzer uses music genre as

an example to explain what “genre” is more broadly. What exactly is a genre according to

Melzer?

 A genre is a style or format of expression – a type of communication or expression that

has specific feature/” rules” associated with it and is a tool for social action within a

community.

Question 7

Melzer states that one of the criteria for discourse community is that it has a specialized Lexis.

What does this mean?

  A specialized lexis means a way of speaking/ communicating/ word usage that member

use to communicate with each other.

Question 8

The final criteria that Melzer discusses is the threshold of membership. Which of the following

best summarizes this criteria of discourse communities?

 A discourse community has a mix of newer members and more experienced members.

The more experienced members are the ones who best know the “norms” of the

community.

Question 9

What does Melzer say about Discourse community in college?

Each academic discipline (i.e. each major, or each academic department) is its own discourse

community.

Question 10

Melzer concludes the essay, in the section “Discourse communities from School to Work and

Beyond” by giving you, the reader, a sense of WHY understanding discourse communities’

matters. In your response here, explain the following 2 things by summarizing Melzer’s final

thoughts:

1. How can understanding the concept of a discourse community help you write more

effectively in college?
 Understanding the concept of a discourse community is an effective approach to writing

in colleges since it helps students in understanding some of the unique features and genre

of writing assignments across different disciplines. Normally, students are not aware of

the existing differences within these disciplines. Melzer reveals that students’ ability to

understand the different disciplines discourse community influences their written

performance. Consequently, keeping up with the ever changing styles within each and

every discipline is a key factor in making their writing purposeful in academic setting.

2. How can understanding the concept of a discourse community help you to (eventually)

write more effectively in your future work space?

Different workplaces have different writing conventions. Understanding the discourse

communities of the disciplines in your major course in college according to Melzer is

important in navigating through the writing conventions existing in work place. This

eases the struggles faced by majority of the people when joining the workplace

community discourse.