Professional Discourse Community Analysis

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.

Stevens Institute of Technology is a technically oriented university with a diverse set of majors not limited to just engineering. From engineering students to history majors, Stevens makes sure to highlight the importance of understanding technology in today’s world. Computer science is one of the more prominent majors outside of the field of engineering and the Stevens freshmen in computer science have created a discourse community for all those taking entry level computer science courses. According to American Linguist John Swales, a discourse community is defined by a group of people with a means of entry maintained by following set goals and rules, as well as, communicating using genres and lexis unique to the community. It’s unsurprising

But down to its most fundamental level, patients’ needs is nothing more than the presence of someone that could offer them the great comfort they long for. Nonetheless, it is sad to see that this humanistic aspect is fading away and being corroded by the rapidly modernizing health care settings.

Patients seek medical attention for preventative measures, as well as, diagnostic measures. Patients must have a trusting rapport with their collaborative medical team, as the nurses and the doctors are the people who they trust their lives with. Patients do not always present to hospitals, urgent cares, walk-in clinics, or even doctor’s offices only when they are sick; patients visit to ensure their good health will continue, treatment regimens are of benefit, changes that may be needed in regimen. When someone thinks of a patient they may think of some of these characteristics: illness, disease, hospital, medications, health, and prevention.

In his article “The Concept of Discourse Community,” Professor John Swales defines what a discourse community is, following with a list of six different points that a group must align with in order to qualify as a discourse community. These parameters are as follows: “a broadly agreed set of common public goals,” “mechanisms of intercommunication among its members,” the use of “participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback”, use or possession of “one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims”, “some specific lexis”, and “a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise” (471-473).

In his article "The Concept of Discourse Community," John Swales reports that a certain group of people can be described as a discourse community if that group could share some characteristics. In order to figure out whether or not those characteristics apply to a certain group of people, a methodology, which is a closer study of the behaviors and activities of the group, must be conducted throughout observations and interviews with some of the members. This paper conveys a study of a group of workers in Dayton Towers Luxury Apartments, and then relates, if possible, the results to the standards of discourse community that Swales describes in his article, followed by some explanations of what was learned from this experience.

There are a number of things that I still need to do to revise my draft of the Discourse Community paper. First, I must check whether I have answered all the research questions required. I also must make sure I have completed all the activities that are also mandatory for this paper. For instance, I have to figure out where I will include the thirty-minute interview of the International Relations professor that I am going to conduct on Friday. Including the interview will allow me to properly answer the following questions that concern how research is conducted, what is the writing style like, and elaborate others. The more proof or evidence I have, the better my argument will me.

Patients become frustrated, irritable and angry that they are sick. A common response is,” Why me?”

As an incoming freshman at the University of Texas at Arlington I can say I have been in several organizations that have challenged my social skills. However, they were nothing compared to the discourse community I was a member of. It will be proven time and time again that I indeed was not only a member but also a valuable asset to this community. Let us ponder for a moment on what a discourse community actually is. It consists of many components involving but not limited to ethos, pathos, and logos. All three of which I possess and have mastered in my arts. You must realize what the set boundaries are for it to be included as such. Must sports be included even though it is more physical than conversely active? What about Student Government? Yes, we had conversations and planned events at meetings but our relationship with each other was only to a certain extent. Although my participation in sports and student government contributed to my When I think of a discourse community, automatically I associate it with the experience in my high school band. Our close knit community very well made me the person I am today.

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.

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.

One of the broadest disciplines in academia is Sociology since there are numerous branches that can be studied. The wide range of topics in this field are mainly organized through written work which allows those in this discourse community to stay connected. In the book titled Discourse Communities: The Rhetoric of Disciplines, Gary D. Schmidt and William J. Vande Kopple, explain that discourse communities are a group of people who share ways in how they present claims, organize, analyze and communicate in their discipline. This is significant to note because each discipline consists of different audiences that can comprehend jargon and methodology differently depending on their discourse community. In most academic disciplines the difference

When one has authority in a discourse community they need to know how to use it appropriately. In Wardle’s reading she gives an example of this about a guy named Alan joining a discourse community within his workplace. As we know, Alan was a computer support specialist in the humanities department, who was young and just out of college. Alan left his first job because he thought that he was not granted any responsibility (291). He then found another job within the university working on computers. Right off the start Alan was making decisions as being the only computer specialist within the start of his new position. As Wardle states, Alan did not have to necessarily prove his knowledge like most people who start a job (292). The first mistake

In order to implement an effective Professional Learning Community (PLC) for the development of a Google-Based School, the team must create an environment conducive to their needs and how they best work in a group setting. In order for the Professional Learning Community to be effective in the implementation of a school-wide initiative, the members of the community must have confidence that they are the main group leading to change in the school (Wood, 2007). Creating a functional team involves key factors involving the team characteristic, recognizing positive and negative forces relating to these characteristics, and overcoming the negative forces in a systematic manner (Mealiea, & Baltazar, 2005). Moreover, importance for creating an effective Professional learning community focuses on open sharing, developing skills, identifying and utilizing resources, and forming frames of reference (Spanneut, 2010). Each of these characteristics falls into the overall systematic creation of the learning community that works to increase student learning by creating and achieving specific goals and through setting ground rules, goal setting and analysis, and delegation of tasks in order to prepare to implement the Google-Based School initiative.

Furthermore, compassion and empathy-related courses should be taught as part of nursing and medical students’ curriculum because it results in a lower chance of healthcare errors. Generally, patients want their provider to connect and engage with them personally and emotionally, but as nurses and doctors acquire their license or certification to practice medicine, they are not taught to be compassionate rather they are generally objective and unemotional. However, this personal and empathetic connection between patients and their provider is extremely important because patients tend to feel that sigh of relief when providers connect with them on a personal level, which in hand results in fewer healthcare mistakes. Moreover, not only does compassionate