Summary: "The Concept of Discourse Community" by John Swales

Summary:

In this article, John Swales talks about the concepts and the differences between the discourse and the speech communities. His goal is to clarify the differences between them and identify a need for a discourse community. The first difference between the two is the medium: speech communities rely on the vocal interactions between the participants while discourse communities rely on the writing (470). The second difference is that speech communities are sociolinguistic while discourse communities are sociorhetorical. That means that speech communities are determined by a social group, and in contrast, a discourse community is determined by a group of people with a common goal or interest. The final difference is that a speech community is centripetal (people are absorbed into the general fabric) and a discourse community is centrifugal (people tend to be separated by into occupation or special-interest groups). In a speech community, people are admitted by birth or accident, while in a discourse community, people are admitted by persuasion, training, or qualification. There are six characteristics of a discourse community: "a discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals, has mechanisms of intercommunication among
its members, uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to 14 provide information and feedback, utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims, has acquired some 16 specific lexis in addition to owning genres, has a threshold level of members with a suitable 17 degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise" (472-473). Swales argues that a discourse community is convenient because it does not include the same tensions as a speech community, liberating the writer and giving him or her freedoms.

AW2:

Dear student,

A discourse community is a group of people with a common interest or goal and achieves this through communication. In this community, there is a common theme and language that the individuals must follow if they want to participate. Discourse communities can be both professional and unprofessional. A discourse community I partake in is the Athens High School Archery team. In this community, we communicate through facebook, emails, and text messages. We share information on how to improve our skills and abilities, regulations and rules that have changed, and how to hold fundraisers for our trip to the national and state tournaments. This is a discourse community because we have a common interest and goal, and we preserve this community through communication. Without it, it would not exist.

Sincerely,
William Vu.