Discourse Community Ethnography:

Alzheimers Association
Paul LePrade
RWS 1301
Athena Dueck
10/24/2014

Athena Dueck
10/24/2014
RWS 1301

The concept of a discourse community can be discouraging just by the sound of it.
Beyond the sound of it, a discourse community can be a difficult concept to grasp if you dont
have the proper sources to explain it to you. Such as Porter, and Swales with their respective
writings regarding the subject. I chose to describe the inner workings and the concepts of the
Alzheimers Association because for one, I am currently volunteering with them, as well as the
fact that I believe not enough people are informed about the mission and the actions of the
association itself. In order to inform how the Alzheimers Association is indeed a discourse
community, I am going to review Porter and Swales writings to deduce what a discourse
community is, as well as perform the Swales test to check and see if my discourse community
meets all the criteria, including Aristotles rhetoric appeals. As Swales (2014.) tells us, 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 controversial tendencies. (p. 218).
John Swales focused very heavily on the six criteria a group should meet in order to be
classified as a discourse community. In Swales writing, he focuses on six characteristics of a
discourse community in question has a broadly agreed upon set of rules, they have mechanisms
of intercommunication between its members. The group must use participatory mechanisms to
provide information and feedback. They must use one or more type of media in the
communicative furtherance of their aims. This group must have a language of their own, or a
specific lexis or jargon. And lastly, they must have a threshold number of members with a

Athena Dueck
10/24/2014
RWS 1301

suitable degree of relevant content and experience. John Swales made those six criteria very well
known. Given these criteria, and taking into consideration Swales (2014.) himself how he said
that with these guidelines dot a discourse community its almost as if weve created a false
impression that such [discourse communities] are only to be associated with intellectual
paradigms or scholarly cliques. (p.222), almost anything can be considered a discourse
community.
In Porters reading, he tells us about the concepts our culture holds true about writing as
well as the concepts of intertextuality. Porter argues that the ideas we currently hold true as to
how to write, dont take into consideration the logistics of writing itself. Porter is also interested
in knowing why and what exactly plagiarism is, considering there are traces of already spent
ideas in every writing. Porter also claims that if plagiarism is the use of someone elses ideas,
then isnt everything technically considered plagiarism? I do agree with Porter and his line of
thoughts. I really do think he makes very valid points as far as trying to answer his own
questions and definitions of plagiarism. Porter gives us a closer look as to what intertextuality is
and the nearly impossible task of writing a one-hundred percent original piece of work.
While volunteering at the Alzheimers Association, I kept in mind the six criteria Swales
said necessary to be classified as a discourse community. In doing so, I realized that the
Alzheimers Association has a lot of the qualifications needed to be considered a discourse
community. The Alzheimers Association does have an agreed upon set of public goals. We
often volunteered and set up tables to spread awareness of the degenerative disease. The

Athena Dueck
10/24/2014
RWS 1301

Alzheimers Association also aims to provide support for those affected by Alzheimers, whether
it be because they themselves have it, or because someone they know does. They provide support
groups and they fundraise to find a cure, or to at least do more research to find out how to make
the disease progress at a slower rate.
The Alzheimers community does have mechanisms of intercommunication. All of the
members of the association are in contact with each other. Now, they dont have a group text
going on or anything, but they do keep in touch to make sure the association progresses and stays
a float. The Alzheimers Association does communicate with both their colleagues as well as
people affected by Alzheimers.
The Alzheimers Association works using all of its mechanisms. Mechanisms being the
people who are a part of the association itself. When people claim to be a part of a community,
its because they are a part of the association, you cant claim to be a part of the community if all
you did was sign up. With the Alzheimers Association, there are various ways you can be an
active member of the community. There is volunteering in the office, and out of the office,
whether its fundraising or spreading awareness. There are also support groups that you can help
out at.
I didnt really notice any exclusive forms of communications. However, in order to
further their aims, the discourse community does provide a variety of texts, whether its in
brochures, magazines, and sometimes even in the newspaper. On top of that they do have their
own website to provide information to the general public about what Alzheimers is, ways to
cope, and what their mission is.

Athena Dueck
10/24/2014
RWS 1301

For the time that Ive spent with my community this far, I have not quite noticed any
specific lexis, or jargon. Everything Ive heard has been pretty straight forward, but then again,
Im not very deep into the inner workings of the group yet. I mainly help with paperwork or
spread awareness. I wouldnt doubt that they have their own vocabulary for their association.
With the Alzheimers Association, as with any discourse community, the staff, and
volunteers come and go. There are new people, as well as the senior staff. As far as I can see,
most of the cycling of new and old members of the community usually happens within the
volunteer area. However; I wouldnt doubt that the paid staff cycles through new and senior
staff. To reiterate, I do see it mostly and have heard via employees, its usually volunteers. Given
that, the volunteers are usually taken under the wings of the senior staff, the new volunteers
usually just learn the jargin, genres, and knowledge through submersion.
Now, Aristotle gave as an idea of what every great piece of rhetoric should have. He
claims that rhetoric is, the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of
persuasion. The Alzheimers Association, although they are not a piece of art, or just one
writing, cannot be considered a piece of rhetoric. But they do, as a discourse community meet
the three criteria provided by Aristotle to fulfill all of the rhetorical appeals.
The Alzheimers Association is indeed credible. Their whole association is a based on
nothing but research towards the cure, or at least the stall in the advancement of the disease. The
Alzheimers Association have a ton of reputable researchers, and with the help of these people
we now know a lot about Alzheimers as well as dementia. We know about the change in the
brain caused by the disease itself. With all of the researchers hard work we now know the
causes of the disease as well as the current drug treatments.

Athena Dueck
10/24/2014
RWS 1301

My discourse community definitely has the emotional appeal down to a tee. The
Alzheimers Association does not necessarily aim to tug at peoples hear strings. We mostly try
to inform the general public about the disease itself, and to support those who are affected by the
disease. The Alzheimers is a very powerful, and depressing disease, and it is hard to go in
without feeling sorry that it even exists. But the people who work there, and try to help families
through it, are some of the strongest people I know.
Looking into Aristotles favorite appeal, well dissect if the Alzheimers Association is
capable of persuasion by reasoning. Though the Alzheimers Association is out there to spread
awareness and help others, our goal is to raise money and further research. The website itself
uses reasoning to persuade people to donate to the association by informing the reader that we
are the largest non-profit organization and we then go on to inform them what it is we fund with
their donation, how we connect and convene, how and who we collaborate with, what we
advocate, and our accomplishments. We persuade the potential donor to donate by reasoning
with them our mission, and how we go about achieving it.
The Alzheimers association, being a group of people with a set of common goals is in
my eyes, a discourse community. They do fulfill each on of Swales and Aristotles criteria. The
one criteria that I had a hard time connecting was only the fact that they have specific jargin.
Throughout my volunteering and writing this paper, a lot of this has stuck with me, more than I
thought would. I like that I can now link things together and that Im now able to classify
specific groups as discourse communities. I think that its also fun to know that everything can
be considered plagiarism, as Porter (2014.) said, we are constrained insofar as we must

Athena Dueck
10/24/2014
RWS 1301

inevitably borrow the traces, codes, and signs which we inherit and which over discourse
community imposes. (p.402).

Athena Dueck
10/24/2014
RWS 1301

References
Aristotle. 1990. Rhetoric. Book 1, Chapter 2. Retrieved from
rhetoric.eserver.org/Aristotle/oneindex.html
Porter, J. 2014. Writing about writing, Vol. 2. Intertextuality in the writing community. Boston.
P.402
Swales, J. 2014. Writing about writing, Vol. 2. The concept of a discourse community. Boston.
P. 218, 222