Swales, Discourse Community

1. John Swales attempts to establish the true definition of a discourse

community in his article. Swales argues that there are many
differences in speech and discourse communities and that there are
six defining characteristics for a group to be a discourse community.

A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common

public goals.
A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication
among their members.
A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms
primarily to provide information and feedback.
A discourse community utilizes and possesses one or more
genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims.
In addition to owning genres, a discourse community has
acquired some specific lexis.
A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a
suitable degree of relevant content and discoursed expertise.

With this he like to establish that goals can be published in

documents or be implicit; high level or abstract. 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
ratio between experts and newcomers. In summary what Swales
tries to endorse is that our discourse communities are defined by
our surroundings.
2. We think it is a valid point, moving among different cultures and
groups really expresses how goals and little things like terminology
change a lot. Also depending on what the common experience
shared between people is their relationships and discourse
communities are built upon that firm foundation.
3. Swale is thinking on terms that arent relevant to living outside of
academia. For instance, in many communities and neighborhoods
outside of cities there is no common goal and more of a live and
let live attitude among people. We might consider my neighbors to
be part of my discourse community but we do not think we share
common goals in life.
4. Hes talking to people who do not know much about the subject.
They arent educated on discourse communities and arent
understand what he is trying to explain.
Straub, Responding Really Responding to Other Students Writing
1. An accessible How to book from Straub describing how to
workshop upon a students paper and provide good feedback to

someone. This includes making subject matter neatly compressed

into complements with minimal insults toward their work.