My Discourse Community: Theta Chi Fraternity

A discourse community comprises of a group of people sharing a common and distinct mode of communication or discourse, especially within a particular domain of intellectual or social activity (Oxforddictionaries, 2017). Some of the discourse communities I consider to be a part of, include an Indian joint family, my peer group, high school education in India, the Apple community and education at Pace university.

Gee defines Discourses as a way of being in the world; they are forms of life which integrate words, acts, values, beliefs, attitudes and social identities as well as gestures, glances, body positions, and clothes. (Gee 278) I decided to do my paper on The World Overcomers Church because I wanted to learn how a church is considered a discourse community. According to Swale’s there are six characteristics that make up a discourse community. They are common goals, mechanisms of intercommunication among members, participatory mechanisms to provide information and feedback, utilizing one or more genres in communication, a specific lexis, and a threshold level of members with a degree of relevant content and discourse expertise. (Swale 321) I had to go to the church to observe to understand how it is considered a discourse community. The churches goal is to obtain happiness, values, beliefs of ethnic and morals to trust in god and have faith.

To be a part of a discourse community, one must be credible, possess factual knowledge and draw on the values of its members to be accepted into the community. At the same time, a person must learn typical ways people in that community communicate and argue. They share a certain genre—type of writing. Members of discourse communities provide information and feedback that are imperative in order for that discourse community to grow. In the following paper, I will discuss three discourse communities and a genre that they typically use: people who read Nutritional Facts religiously, college students, and industrial organizational psychologists.

The discourse community I have chosen is within my sorority, Delta Delta Delta (Tri Delta). There are many stereotypes associated with Tri Delta, and that is the most irritating thing about being in a sorority. Anyone from my high school would insist that I am not a sorority girl if someone were to ask them. When I started my fall semester, I was not expecting to rush because once again again, I am not the “sorority type”. Greek life at Boise State is unlike any other campus. Some may think that being in a sorority is all about social standing, parties, and being better than the people around you. In reality, it is the exact opposite. For the rest of this paper, I am going to prove to you why Tri Delta is a discourse community.

In class, we have discussed rhetoric, discourse communities, and the importance of properly conveying a point. While my professor, Mr. Larry D. Huff, does not seem to believe in the “rhetorical triangle,” we have had successful discussions on the ways we can prove a point using ethos, pathos, and logos. I successfully joined a discourse community and learned its respective ethos, pathos and logos. My sophomore year of high school, I auditioned and was accepted to the theatre department of The High School for Performing and Visual Arts and joined a discourse community which changed my life. The bumper sticker stretches across the entire back window of my car. Regardless, I am proud to have it for what it represents. This essay will explain the importance behind my sticker.

Now that the people are connected to the internet globally, a lot of discourse community has sprung up online, in school, church or temples, and offices. For those who do not know much about discourse community; it's where people who have common goals meet and use their intelligence to achieve these goals. I would like to prove that my school experience was like being in a discourse community. Furthermore, I would like to explain how being in a classroom helped me in my communication, learning new skills and gaining creditbility. According to the Indian Board of Education, Wisdom High International School was of a paramount status, and I was proud to be in it.

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

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.

A discourse community is defined as a group of people involved in and communicating about a particular topic, issue, or in a particular field. We all belong to multiple discourse communities.To earn a position of a discourse community one must possess accurate knowledge, establish reliability of members to be accepted and learn to persuade other members of the community. The discourse community that I identify with personally and the profession I plan to pursue is the world of film production. However, there are many jobs that need to be done on a film set leading to there being multiple discourse communities within the film industry, what I want to focus on specifically is the DP, otherwise known as the “director of photography”. According to “The Concept of Discourse Community,” by educator and researcher John Swales, a discourse community is defined by six characteristics.

Music has always been a thing that has interested me. The idea of people putting their talents together to create something has always amazed me. Being in a discourse community like music is always going to be difficult starting out. Working with others was never my strong suit, and all of the preparation and studying stressed me out. It sucks to try very hard and have it all result in nothing. It is the idea of perfection that everyone strives for. In my case, it is a group effort of the people involved in my discourse community to achieve our shared goal. We strive to please ourselves and others listening by giving a solid performance. My music class is a discourse community that shares a passion of music and a similar goal. We assist

A discourse community is a group of people or communicators who share the same common goals or interests and use different forms of communication to achieve these goals. Some of these forms of communication may range from reading, writing, the use of technology such as blogging and emailing, and even visual art such as painting and drawing. As an English major focusing on the aspect of creative writing, the discourse community I so happened to be associated with is of the English subject. The discourse community of the English literature is made up of many people, genres of literature, and even terms. The discourse community of English literature can be traced back to as early as the year C.658 with the development of Anglo-Saxon literature. Some influential eras of English literature include : Romanticism, Victorian literature, Medieval Theater, Poetry, and the Elizabethan Period. Of course with every discourse community there are a vast number of people who help to make it up. In the discourse community of English some of these people include author and playwright William Shakespeare, author Mark Twain, author and poet Jane Austen , and a slew of famous African-American authors some including Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Lorraine Hansberry, and poet Maya Angelou.

The discourse communities that the audience is in would be the academic and professional. The intended audience is a little broader than the discourse communities,

A discourse community is a group of people who share a set of discourses, understood as basic values and assumptions, and ways of communicating about those goals. John Swales defines a discourse community as "groups that have goals or purposes, and use communication to achieve these goals." The community I choose to identify with is special education. Special education teachers, or aids, really dedicate themselves and their time to others who need special assistance or treatment. The California Department of Education supports high quality educational programs for California’s big student population. According to the ideas from the federal government, the variety of the education working environment is one of the fastest growing areas of the American economy. The importance in understanding this career includes emotional, and physical growth of each student. Working with students who have disabilities can be very rewarding, but it is sometimes emotionally demanding and physically draining. Before stepping into the job of becoming a special education teacher, it is important to understand the patience that is needed in order to work with special children.

Prior to entering this English class, I never knew there was a such thing as a discourse community. Reading assigned articles and doing research of my own, I discovered that I too was a part of many discourse communities. While in high school, I was a part of many student and national organizations, as well as schoolwide clubs, and teams. Although they had different purposes, the organizations, clubs, and teams that I was a part of had the same type of layout. They all had a common goal, participatory mechanisms, information exchange, specific genres of the community, specialized terminology, and levels of expertise. There is in one in particular that I have been involved in for most of my life, the dance community, that has not been recognized for its worth.

John Swales (1990) claims that “there are six qualities that makes up the core of a discourse community” (Swales, 1990, p. 220). First, “a discourse community has standard public objectives that they strive to achieve” (Swales, 1990, p. 220). Members of a discourse community all share the same common goals they are anticipating to attain, and they do not have individuals with separate goals.