Amber Garvey

ENC1101

Discourse Communities

Our last unit of study this semester in ENC 1101 concerns discourse communities. One
author whose work we have studied in this unit is John Swales, a linguist who has conducted
deep research on discourse analysis. In his article, The Concept of Discourse Community,
Swales introduces the subject by first defining a discourse community as groups that have
goals or purposes, and use communication to achieve these goals. He then expands upon the
topic by highlighting that each set of common goals are unique to each discourse community
and the mechanisms of intercommunication for each group have an acquired specific lexis
among its members that are used to provide information and feedback. (Swales, 221-222).
After studying Swales and other authors such as Tony Mirabelli and James Paul Gee, I have
learned that each person belongs in a particular discourse community based on their lifestyle,
religion, career, etc. Some people can even belong to more than one discourse community
based on divided routines. All discourse communities have their own sets of goals and
languages that sometimes need to be altered in order to be effectively communicated to
people who are not part of that discourse.
Over the course of reviewing the terminology, reading editorials about each unit, and
conducting my own research by presenting final projects, I have come to realize that the
textbook we have used throughout the term is indeed a large discourse community which also
houses smaller, more defined discourse communities concerning each different subject matter.
Writing About Writing, is a discourse community that presents people who study writing. The
textbook is a collection of pieces written by authors, scholars, and researchers posting their
different articles about certain topics they have obtained a great deal of knowledge about. The
book is nothing more than these authors simply communicating with one another about their
theories, research studies, and findings about the topics that they are conveying. They use the
text Writing About Writing as a mechanism to effectively communicate with each other to
achieve their common goal, which is to interconnect with each other about their findings as
well as be used as a tool for college students in introductory English courses. Tony Mirabelli,
who wrote "Learning to Serve: The Language and Literacy of Food Service Workers," explains
that one part of a discourse communitys job is to effectively convey their discourse to others
that are unfamiliar with that discourse. The authors that are take part in the discourse
community in Writing About Writing can relate to the waiter in Mirabellis article because they
need to make sure that they explain concepts and terminology to readers in a simplistic way
that they can understand. In these ways, the book Writing About Writing presents itself as its
very own discourse community.

The information that I have gathered from this unit of ENC 1101 has proven to be useful
to me not only in future situations, but also present settings. Before I was introduced to the
terminology of discourse communities, I did not realize that I was already partaking in many
different types of discourse communities myself. James Paul Gee, a researcher who has studied
many different topics including discourse analysis and literacy, wrote an article titled Literacy,
Discourse, and Linguistics. In this article, Gee describes the difference between primary
discourses (day to day language) and secondary discourses (language used in social
institutions). He also brushes across the theory that one person can be involved in many unique
discourse communities based on the different types of scenarios that one person encounters.
This particularly relates to my life as I balance between being a full-time student at the
University of Central Florida and working part-time as a dog trainer. While I am attending
school, I am taking part of a certain discourse community, the student body. While I am
participating in this discourse, I am fixing myself into a learning environment by absorbing the
information that is taught to me by my professor. In this case, or discourse community, I am
less knowledgeable than my instructor and I am engaging in lectures, labs and homework to
better understand the material and gain the same expertise as him/her. On the other hand,
when I am working, I become part of a contrasting discourse community. Instead of being the
student I usually am at school, I convert into the more knowledgeable teacher. Just like the
waiter in Mirabellis article Learning to Serve: The Language of Food Service Workers, my job
is to effectively explain concepts and terminology in ways that my customers understand.
Terms such as positive and negative reinforcement/ positive and negative punishment are
examples of expressions that are not commonly used in day to day language, therefore I must
be able to clarify what they mean. Even though training dogs is a lot different than lecturing to
a large group of students, the student-teacher model is still utilized in the same way.

Resources:
Gee, James Paul. Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics. Writing About Writing: A College Reader.
Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston/ New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 481-497.
Print.
Mirabelli, Tony. Learning to Serve: The Language of Food Service Workers. Writing About
Writing: A College Reader. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston/ New York:
Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 538-554. Print.
Swales, John. The Concept of Discourse Community. Writing About Writing: A College Reader.
Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston/ New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 466-480.
Print.