Importance Of Discourse Analysis

Discourse communities are all around us—we all belong to a discourse community. A discourse community is a body of persons who share common and unique modes of communication or discourse (“Discourse Community”). In order for a community to identify as a discourse community, the community must possess six defining qualities that categorize it as a discourse community. As defined by John Swales, a researcher and professor of linguistics, discourse communities “have a broadly set of common public goals, mechanisms of intercommunication among its members, participatory mechanisms to provide information and feedback, one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims, an acquired lexis, and a threshold level of members with a

As philosopher John Locke once stated, “All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.”. It is clear that Locke valued the unity of citizens over the arguments that occur between them. Opposed to Locke, another famous philosopher by the name of Thomas Hobbes believes that only violence is caused without proper discourse in a society. A group of individuals must collaborate in a time of need to create a successful and well functioning society. Though debating and critical thinking are also important when building up a society, unity and participation of citizens is what makes it a reality. Although the ideological perspective of the source is one of a pro social and political standpoint, it can only partially be embraced. The

A discourse community is said to be resistant to internal criticism and self-scrutiny because all ideas that severely contrast the values and beliefs within the community are defined as being on the outside, as demonstrated in the texts. “The Discourse itself defines what counts as acceptable criticism” (Gee 162). All of the articles use similar rhetorical strategies by describing a problem in shared thinking; the common conception that the

The heuristic that is used for this research guide to identify a discourse communities is the six characteristics that John Swales identifies in “The

Nevertheless, discourse plays a crucial role in the rhetorical analysis process, as Grant Davie explains, the process goes from establishing the subject to identifying where discourse comes from and finally evaluating its importance and point. Moreover, the chamber of commerce is trying to get primarily affluent individuals to move down to Winter Park, Florida. Moreover, to persuade them that living in Winter Park is everyone’s stereotypical American

Life is like a massive highway that have infinite routes anyone can choose take to reach some type of designated goal. Those various routes lead to distinct exits, where one can discover a group or groups that share similarities dealing with viewpoints, beliefs, or understanding towards a particular goal. These groups can be identified as discourse communities. According to, “The Concept of Discourse Community,” in the textbook, Writing About Writing, John Swales stressed that in order to be classified as a discourse community the group has to have all six defining characteristics. Swales emphasized, “A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals, mechanisms of intercommunication among its members, uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback, utilities and hence processes one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims, acquires specific lexis, and has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discourse expertise” (Swales, 221-222). Keeping this key detail in mind, there is numerous type of discourse out there.

1. What is the discourse community you are studying? The discourse community that I chose was bearded dragons and other animals of similar characteristics. a. What academic majors, departments, and disciplines is it related to?

Present a clear picture of your discourse community. Who are its members? What specialized language/texts/rituals are associated with it? Why should it be studied at all? You should have discussed these ideas in your research proposal. Here is where you realize them with materials you gathered from your discourse community.

William Jennings Bryan once says, “Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved.” Our future is depended on what we choose to be and how to get to it. We must stand up and get involve or communicate with the field before giving an ultimate decision. In this assignment, I will investigate the discourse community that I hope to join professionally and understand the broad view of the types of work along with its opportunities.

The next characteristic in Swales’ criteria of a discourse community is the use of genres, and it is these genres that articulate the operations of the discourse community. At Frisch’s Big Boy, new employees are constantly being hired. Before one can begin working at Big Boy, they must watch the several long training videos. These videos are a convenient way to educate the new employees about the operations of the restaurant. In a sense, before an employee can become a part of the discourse community at Frisch’s, they must first watch these videos and learn the ways of the restaurant. Many people know about these types of training videos due to the fact that many restaurants use them, and I was in search of another genre. In my interview with Stephen, I found that another genre at Frisch’s does exist, and is the monthly invoice that tells how each individual has been doing in the past month. Stephen told me that this invoice informs the employee of several things ranging from how much

Swales’ second defining characteristic of a discourse group stresses the significance of communication; simply put, “A

John Swales (1990), professor of linguistics, defines a discourse community as an exclusive group of people brought together by a common goal. According to John Swales (1990), every discourse community has six characteristics that makes them a discourse community. Overall the group must have a shared goal, in which they communicate with each other through different genres and lexis they have developed; genres are different types of communication that the group employ and lexis is the specialized language utilized by that particular discourse community. They also tend to have a hierarchy within the group and require individual group members to truly participate to be counted as a part of the discourse community. (p. 471-73)

My discourse community is SESHOLLOWATERBOYZ or S.H.W.B. that is four friends Bones, Xavier Wulf, Chris Travis, and Eddy Baker, and their fans. I’m in the fans section of the discourse community, but the artists consider all real fans a part of S.H.W.B. Which is why I don’t classify my discourse community as “Fans of S.H.W.B.” Bones older brother Elliott also deserves to be mentioned, because he is the man behind the scenes and has set up tours for S.H.W.B. and is the closest thing to a manager they have. My discourse community is really cool to the people in it.

Discourses are the “social and cultural practices through which individuals and groups use language to establish their identities…they provide ways of being, thinking, acting and using language so that people can identify themselves in social and cultural networks” Discourses affect peoples views on all things, for example, two different

The theories that used in the study were theories of representation and Critical Discourse Analysis.