Running head: DISCOURSE COMMUNITY ETHNOGRAPHY 1

Abstract
This paper discusses the meaning of discourse community proposed by John Swales (1990) and
examines the music department at the University of Texas at El Paso as well as Jose Alderete
Middle School eighth grade class. It explores six elements that make up a discourse community
according to Swales (1990), and uses those six elements to compare in contrast with the music
department. The purpose of this paper is to learn more about the music community and how
their share of set goals dictates how writing is produced and how they communicate. Using
interviews from experts and beginners within these music departments, observing an eighth
grade class, and reading artifacts I collected from the class, I connect what I learned and
analyzed their communication.



























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Discourse Community Ethnography

Ever since I can remember I wanted to learn how to play the guitar. When I turned ten I
began getting lessons. I never thought I would love the instrument so much that I would
consider majoring in music during college. Now that I am a freshman in college, I have had the
opportunity to major in music. Although I am still unsure of what I want to do, this paper has
given me an insight in the music arena at the University of Texas at El Paso as well a lower level
area at Alderete middle school. Focusing on the guitar department at my university and a middle
school band class I observed, is how I began conducting my study. My goal was to learn more
about these communities, with questions such as, what kind of writing takes place in these
communities? What are the mechanisms for intercommunication they use? Or simply how do
they communicate within each other? The primary purpose was to be able to find out how the
goals and the level of expertise of a music department, determine how writing occurs. By
looking at communities with different levels of beginners and experts, I was able to get sense of
how the ratio of beginners to experts, also influences how and why writing is produced. John
Swales (1990) wrote an article of what makes up a discourse community, which I will discuss
later in this paper. I used his meaning of discourse communities, as way to see if I could
consider the music department a discourse community. I will discuss how I conducted my
method, how I analyzed my method, and what results and final conclusions I came to in my
study.
After reading John Swales (1990) article on discourse communities, I learned that there
are six defining characteristics that make up a discourse community. These characteristics are:
have a balance between experts and beginners, have a common set of goals, have a specific lexis,
utilize one or more genre, have mechanisms of intercommunication, and use those mechanism of
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intercommunication to provide feedback. What Swales (1990) proposes in his article, helped me
view the music department at my university as a discourse community, therefor, providing me
with a better understanding of how to learn more about the music department, and the writing
that takes place there.
My method throughout this paper was based on interviews from students and teachers in
music, and from observing an eighth grade band class. I recorded my interviews so that I would
be able to hear them again and take note of what they said. I was limited in the interviews I
conducted because most professors were unable to be interviewed. However, I was able to
interview Jessica Rodriguez, a student majoring in music education who can be considered a
beginner within this community, and Larry Adame, a middle school music teacher who also
majored in music education and considered to be an expert in this community. During my
interviews I asked about eight questions, some of the questions I asked were: What kind of
writing takes place in your music community? Are there certain structures you need to follow
when you write? etc. I was also able to get written artifacts from the teacher of the eighth grade
band class, which helped me see another way of communication that takes place here, as well as
the kinds of texts produced in this community. Keeping the six characteristics in mind from
Swales (1990), I analyzed what learned from my interviews and from my observation of the
eighth grade class. My limitations were staying within the guitar program at my university as
well as the music education program in the work arena. This helped me get an inside look into
the music community at my university and in a public school.
Through the interview alone I was able to identify the six characteristics Swales (1990)
proposes. Beginners to experts seemed to be an obvious one. In this case, Jessica is a beginner
at the university level, and her professors are the experts. After listening to the recording of my
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interview with the student majoring in music, I gained an aspect of a beginner at the university.
Jessica informed me about how writing takes place in her major as well as how most the
communication is done within the music community. Both the student and the professors have a
common share of set goals. The students are required to play in recitals for the university and
one of the goals that both the professors and students share here, is to give the best performance
their audience will enjoy. Both of them want to communicate to the audience through the music
what they have been practicing. It was awesome to see how much music in itself is used as their
communication in the music department.
The recitals they perform and classroom space can both be considered mechanisms of
intercommunication here. Classroom space is an important mechanism of intercommunication
because this is when feedback to the student is offered, and where information about music is
offered. Recitals is also a mechanism in the music department because it requires the students
and professors, to come together and perform/test the music they worked on in class. Providing
feedback was another characteristic Swales (1990) proposes. A classroom setting allows the
student to ask questions about the information being discussed and the professor is able to
answer those questions, therefor, producing feedback. In my interview, Jessica said most
professors will answer any questions during class and they also allow the student to visit their
office hours for any extra help they need. Feedback can also be found in a visitation to the
professors office.
The final two important elements Swales (1990) proposes are lexis and genres. Basically
those elements can be considered the unique type of writing structure and language, that is used
by the insiders of the music department. In my interview with Jessica, she talked about music
being the passion that her, her classmates, and professors share in common. She said that you
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can say a lot through your instrument or voice. Music can be considered the main language used
by the insiders in the music department. For example, if a music student sees this, the student
knows to play a note in sharp or flat. Wether you are a trumpet player or guitar player, you read
the same music sheet to produce the same notes. I would say in this community, the lexis is the
music notes. The genre in this case, are all the kinds of writing texts that are distributed in the
classroom space. Jessica referred mainly to the sheets of music she would
receive as homework. These sheets varied from new songs, scales, and chord
variations. She also mentioned having to write essays about music literature. The structure of
these essays were usually in Chicago Format. I learned a lot from Jessica about the music
department at my university, but observing the eighth grade class gave me another view of music
communities.
While students at the university and the eighth grade students both focus on music,
because of the level of expertise, communication is a bit different. After I observed the eighth
grade class and interviewed their teacher, I was quickly able to connect all six characteristics that
I found from the music department at my university, with the eighth grade class. The shared
goals and levels of expertise, were the same as the university. The eighth grade class performs in
recitals at their school as well as football games and city competitions. The teacher and students
look to perform music their audience will enjoy. The lexis is the exact same as the universities
and mechanisms of intercommunication are very similar, both involving classroom space and
recitals.
However, the biggest difference that I saw were involved in the genres and feedback. In
my interview with Larry, he told me that he wants to prepare his students for high school, and his
feedback to his class proved this to be true. In everything he had his class play, he would
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challenge them to play it like a high school band. As I observed his class I noticed that he did
not mind stopping in the middle of a song, if a student had a question. There was immediate
feedback as he would answer those questions. I also noticed the types of genres he used in class.
I collected some of his handouts that you may see in appendix A. These handouts are based on
his material given to the students which involve the lexis in music we discussed earlier, as well
as permission slips and practice records the parents need to sign in order to make sure the
students are putting in enough practice time at home. Larry also has to write out a musical
instrument contract, for both the student and parent to sign. All of the homework and handouts
to the parents help maintain the overall goals for his class. He also provides a music sheet which
shows all the keys there are in music. This type of handout is only used at a beginner level. For
a student like Jessica, she is expected to know all the keys by the time she enters into any music
college courses. Communication is different at a middle school, because being that the eighth
graders are beginners, they need to be taught as if they do not know any music, whereas in
college, they are building on what they already know. Also, in college you are only dealing with
adult students that do not have a practice record that needs to be signed by their parent. That is a
genre only used by the middle school. At the university emailing the professor is a form of
communication between the student and professor, while eighth grade students need to wait until
they have class to communicate with their teacher. Overall both groups focus on music, they
simply have different ways of communication and different level of expertise.
Considering that the music department had all six characteristics that Swales (1990)
proposes, showed me that music is in fact, a discourse community. After analyzing my study, I
realized that the goals of this community and level of expertise between members, regulates how
and why communication occurs. The goals of this community are to perform recitals their
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audience will enjoy and the way this determines their communication within one another, is by
following the music sheet they all share in these performances. This is a strong way of
communication for this community and the notes within the music sheet reenforces their goals of
making music for their audience. I realized that being a beginner in this community will change
the way communication occurs compared to college level communication. Middle school
children do not have as much experience as a college student. The basics of music needs to be
taught to them at a lower level rather than a college level where you are expected to know the
fundamentals. This study gave me the insight I was looking for as well as a new perspective and
appreciation of the music community. I learned just how much music is the core way of
communication and how strong this community becomes when they work together for
performances. Being apart of a discourse community such as this, will really showcase your
passion for music. It is amazing to think that I could be apart of this discourse community.











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References
Swales, J. (2011). The concept of discourse community. D. Downs & E. Wardle (Eds.),
Writing about Writing (466-479). Boston: Bedford St Martins.























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Appendix A
Types of Genres used within middle school class
Music Lexis























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Permission slips/Practice record
Form of Genre






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Music Instrument Contract
Form of Genre