Running head: DISCOURSE COMMUNITY ETHNOGRAPHY

Discourse Community Ethnography

Kimberly Escobedo
October 24, 2014

DISCOURSE COMMUNITY ETHOGRAPHY

Introduction
Discourse community is hard to define and get your hands on right away but it
has a specific set of rules and characteristics to allow the term to be narrowed. A precise
set of ideas that a world and community have to have to be considered a discourse
community. Theres no real definition for a discourse community, but as long as it passes
the six characteristics that Swales has came up with than thats when that group of people
will be considered as a discourse community. The six defining characteristics of a
discourse community require a set of common goals; there must also be mechanisms of
communication within the community as well as feedback among members. Genre is the
fourth characteristic, describing the various methods of output. Similarly, lexis is
required, which is seen the way in which they communicate, and lastly the community
threshold level of members must have an accurate knowledge over the group in which
they are in. The organization I am going to be observing to check mark each of the six
characteristics of discourse community will be the Ronald McDonald house. I will put
myself in Swales shoes and examine the organization to figure out if it would pass as a
discourse community. In Aristotle perspective, I will observe and determine the way in
which the community is being persuaded by this organization.

Literature review
Swales entry introduced in the book, Writing about Writing gives us the facts in
what is actually considered a discourse community and what is not. Swales use of
advance terminology makes his explanation of discourse community hard to understand.

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It has plenty of information and detail in what he considers is well organized discourse
community. He even developed the six characteristics that I mentioned before to
distinguish a discourse community. The knowledge that I have gain from Swales will
help me observe if the service learning would be consider a well developed discourse
community in Swales perspective. I will be asking myself the same questions that Swales
would ask himself when determining the eligibility of the service learning as a discourse
community. Porter author of, Intertextuality and the Discourse Community also found
in Writing About Writing, has this idea that every text contains information from a
different text. I consider the statement is trying to convey that everything we write should
always be considered as plagiarism. He states that because he considers no human
creative and unable to came up with an original idea. Porters idea will help me examine
my service learning by questioning where they got there ideas and seeing how they
became this type of organization in order to prove Porters idea is right. Another
literature that I will be focusing on will be the reading of Rhetoric by Aristotle and the
modes of persuasion. The three means of affective persuasion in literature include ethos,
pathos, and logos. I want to see how my organization persuades the community to
volunteer and be part of something big. This also gives us a better understanding on how
they communicate with the community in order to attract attention and reorganization to
their organization. All of these sources will aid me to evaluate my service learning.

Discussion
We need then to clarify, for procedural purposes, what is to be understood by
discourse community and, perhaps in the present circumstances, it is better to offer a set
of criteria sufficiently narrow that it will eliminate many of the marginal, blurred and

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controversial contenders(Swales, 2011, pg.218). Swales explains that we need to take
these six requirements in order to accept them as a discourse community or eliminate the
communities that dont meet them. We will be looking at the Ronald McDonald House
and how it meets the discourse community requirements. First, we will be asking
pertaining to the Ronald McDonald House, what is their goal and if each member shares
that same goal. During my interview with Rachel Garcia volunteer director for the
Ronald McDonald House answered, The goal we have here is to keep the family
together and make the hard situation less dense. When I heard her give that answer I
started observing the House and I realized that it was indeed a shared goal. Everyones
goal is to keep the family together and take off the entire burden off their shoulders. The
Ronald McDonald House has met one of the six characteristics behind a discourse
community. The way in which they communicate would be getting together with one
another and managing the best way to keep the house productive. Now the way they
communicate to the community is by many different ways for example a website,
billboards, and even commercials. The Ronald McDonald I would say has a strong
threshold. In these discourse communities, Leitch states, a speaker must be qualified
to talk; he has to belong to a community of scholarship; and he is required to possess a
prescribed body of knowledge (Porter, 2011, pg.401). The community, members, and
workers have a strong knowledge about the benefits and ultimate goal that the Ronald
McDonald House is trying to achieve. People understand that the Ronald McDonald
House is trying to help families in need and they internally find the organization has a
great cause. The house is not only a shelter to the families that stay there but it becomes
their home in which they feel safe, comforted, and at ease during their time of need. The

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main genre they use to get hold of members is to use their humanity and their emotions in
order to get them involved. They make the community aware that they are not just
providing a home to a needy family but they are helping an ill child. I have revisited the
six characters and I have found that through my observations I would consider the Ronald
McDonald House as a discourse community.
Many of the contexts and knowledge of a similar opportunity come from a
different source where they grab ideas to produce the product. Exactly what Porter
discuses about how nothing is original, everything ties in together. Making a remix to fit
the modern time but everything goes back to time and repeats itself. The Ronald
McDonald House started with a football player whose daughter had cancer and when
being in the hospital saw many families staying in the visiting area and thats when he got
an idea and wanted a shelter for those families, Rachel Garcia had mentioned. The
football players idea was not original how Porter would say, there is many different
ways that families have already been helped before the Ronald McDonald House had
been established. Everything is interconnected with one of another for example; shelter
homes provide the basic needs of a person which includes food, clothing, and a place to
stay. The Ronald McDonald House has the same main purpose to provide the basic needs
of a family who is going through a tough situation. Yet Porter still mentions the
importance of the discourse community in which this football player took an idea and
developed a vision, a vision he wanted others to be influenced by.
The Ronald McDonald foundation has some great ways to persuade and grab the
audience attention without knowing they focus on Aristotle three ways of effective
persuasion. To be able to reason logically, to understand human character and goodness

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in their various forms, and to understand the emotions- that is (Aristotle, 350B.C.E,
part2). The commercial mentioned before confirms the three ways of affective persuasion
for instance the one with the fundraising by collecting the coke tops and the offering of
the Ronald McDonald scholarship. Both of these commercials had a base of knowledge
behind and the goal to grab the audience attention to be part of these two opportunities.
The scholarship commercial targets audience of low income status as well as a parent and
child relationship which all is linked back to their organization. The inner connection of a
teen trying to finance his or her education makes someone else want to help that teen and
become part of an organization that is giving back. The commercial is not only catering
to people in need but to those who are willing to help and the commercial achieves that
because of the human emotion to help others. The coke top fundraiser commercial gives
us the emotion to help our community through a small way like collecting the coke top
and it can ultimately turn into a big difference. The planning behind all of these great
commercials I am sure they had to focus on the audience and how they wanted them to
react through them. The planning process I am sure they used Aristotles three different
ways to persuade the audience to be involved. In which they truly came across those
emotions in which developed the inspiration to be part and take action.

Conclusion
In conclusion, the Ronald McDonald House has passed the test to be considered a
discourse community because through the evaluation and observation using the six
characteristics that Swales developed the organization meets all requirements.
The nature of communication acquires Aristotles ideology in which they use to persuade
the community. The Ronald McDonald House has a mission they are trying to fulfill and

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they utilize Aristotles ideas to help communicate and inspire the community. I declare
and announce that The Ronald McDonald House can now be mentioned as a discourse
community.

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Reference Page Citation

Wardle, E., & Downs, D. (2011). Intertextuality and the Discourse Community. In
Writing about writing: A college reader (p. 395). Boston: Bedford/St. Martins.

Wardle, E., & Downs, D. (2011). The concept of discourse community. In Writing
about writing: A college reader (p. 215). Boston: Bedford/St. Martins.

Aristotle. (350). Rhetoric.