Running head: U.S. Consulate in Cd.

Juarez 1

Discourse Communities; U.S. Consulate General

Luis A. Arnal Ortiz
The University of Texas at El Paso

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Introduction
Joining discourse communities is something most of us have experienced at one moment
in our lives, whether it is by being part of a sports team at school or participating in the local
clubs around our community. Every discourse community will have many characteristics that
will set them apart from each other as they possess unique lexis among themselves and their
communication strategies are not all the same. I picked up an interest in studying, what I believe,
a very unique community, the U.S Consulate General in Cd. Juarez; the reason why I chose this
group specifically, its because of the differences that exist in each one of these U.S. Consulates
located all throughout the world, each one of them has their own set of unique characteristics that
sets them apart from each other. Whether it is the communication system/language to even the
genre each one of them possess. In the study I conducted, I analyzed this community in detail to
discover how its members communicated among themselves, what type of platforms where used
to send out a message, what was their specific lexis, the information and feedback that was sent
between leaders and subordinates and lastly discover the level of members with a suitable degree
of relevant content and discoursal expertise. (Swales, 1990, pp.220-222). I personally belong to
many discourse communities, some of them being The University of Texas at El Paso, the
college of engineering in the Engineering Leadership program and my religion Roman
Catholicism, I was not aware of the latter until I went over the characteristics which make a
discourse community. I was able to use the experience that I possess and the information given to
me, to analyze and understand the aspects of the community I chose.

Literature Review

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In order to have a better understanding of what is a discourse community and how it is
composed we can look at linguistic John Swales, who thoroughly describes the concept of a
discourse community. Swales begins by clarifying the many definitions and concepts that have
been given to what a discourse community means, he acknowledges that there are discourse
communities and that they do share a common goal, however the idea was not well defined back
in 1986, therefore the definition of discourse communities needed to be clarified for future
references. Swales then goes on to comparing speech communities and discourse communities
and compares and contrasts both to identify their similarities and differences. After giving a
thorough definition of what a speech community is, Swales then goes over to defining a
discourse community with a more specific definition which also includes the six characteristics
that make a discourse community. These six characteristics are as follow: 1- A discourse
community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals. (Swales, 1990) This is really
simple as it simply means an objective which the members of this community have towards the
public. 2- A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members.
(Swales. 1990), mechanisms of intercommunications can be anything from e-mails, newsletter,
faxes, letters, texts, etc. 3- A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily
to provide information and feedback. (Swales, 1990) this can be done throughout websites,
FAQs webpage, blogs, etc. 4- A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more
genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims. (Swales, 1990) This is something that
tends to be understood or cause confusion as something very complicated, but to write it in
simpler terms it refers to text, any way by which text can be conveyed to the audience. 5- In
addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired some specific lexis.
(Swales,1990) Lexis, is a term we do not hear quite often, but it refers to a unique set of language

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that is used among its members, doctors use unique terms among themselves and engineers use a
completely different language than doctors, each community has its own lexis. 6- A discourse
community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and
discoursal expertise. (Swales, 1990), within a discourse community exists a type of hierarchy if
you will, there are new comers and others with more experience, as time goes on new comers or
beginners, learn the lexis, genre, and knowledge throughout different ways provided to them.
This is how Swales describes what a discourse community is and what it needs to have in order
to be described or consider as one.

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Methods
In order to find out more about this community I had to go beyond just going through a
website or sending e-mails, so what better way than to ask people who work there and can give
me answers based on personal experience. To begin with, many of my relatives work at the U.S.
Consulate General in Cd. Juarez, including my mother, so I knew the task was going to be a lot
easier and I was going to be able to get more concrete and honest answers. I began by
researching on my own with the resources that were available to the general public, I looked up
information that might be needed in order to fit the definition of a discourse community into this
group, I found out early on that the first characteristic was easily found in the U.S. Consulate
General, this was simply provided to me by their website. I then moved on down the list of the
characteristics to find out the remaining ones. Since I would not be able to know on my own
whether or not they had mechanisms of intercommunication among its members, I went on to
ask my mother if there were any ways in which messages could be sent to almost everyone in the
office and take it even further, to all the employees. She told me there are many ways by which
information is exchange between workers and sometimes sent out by the bosses of each
department. This include e-mails, alert messages and sometimes phone calls if necessary. Most
of the information I gathered was obtained through my relatives as this ensured I could collect
true information about the topic and personal experiences came along the way. One good
example of this is how my mother was able to explain to me how the U.S. Consulate General
does possess a genre and a specific lexis. Genre was simply the different types of outreach they
have with the community as well as press releases and social media, this is how they send out
information to the public or if theyve like to their employees. The specific lexis found in this
community is very unique as it can even be divided into each department of the consulate. Each

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office will use different language to interchange information and communicate among its
members.

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Discussion
After analyzing my community, the U.S. Consulate General in Cd. Juarez, I realized that
it did fit into the six charcateristics of Swales discourse community. The first charcateristic that I
found was that of a broadly agreed set of common public goals, this goals are; to promote the
best communication between the United States of America and Mexico (U.S. Consulate General
Ciudad Juarez, Overview) and they also offer U.S. citizens travel information and basic
information about Chihuahua. As described by Swales, this common public goals are very
general and focus on a large group of members among the community. The second characteristic
found was the mechanisms of intercommunication among its memebers, I was able to obtain this
information by observing how information was passed between all of its members, essentially an
e-mail was not only sent out to one of its memebers, but rather, if the occasion called for it, the
message was sent to all employees so that they were made aware of the situation and in most
occassions this proved to be right as they were all caught up to date. One good example of this, is
how whenever there is an emergency or an accident has happened, most employees, if not all, are
sent a text message or e-mail in regards to what they should do in order to avoid any accidents or
to keep out of dangerous stituations, since one of the main concerns of the U.S. Consulate
General is to maintain every employee safe and out of danger. As any other discourse
community, the U.S. Consulate General provides mechanisms to provide information and
feedback, whether it is to their employees or to the general public, this mechanisms include an
offical website, social media, suggestions boxes and routine evaluations given to employees by
their bossess at different times throughout the year. The official U.S. Embassy & Consulates in
Mexico website provides many options to acquire information about their services and many
departments located within their consulates. The U.S. Consulate General in Cd. Juarez does have

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one or more genres in their communication system, these include press release, outreach to the
community and through social media websites such as facebook, twitter, and youtube. In this
discourse community a specific lexis can be found among its members, from the name of
different forms one must fill out and submit if they request a passport or the different type of
visas that are available, to the name that is given to the main person in charge of that consulate in
this case that being the Consulate General, or the person that follows, Deputy Principal Officer.
Even the departments within the Consulate have a specific lexis used among themselves, the
public affairs office and the human resources office have their own language which sets them
apart from each other. At last, I was almost certain that a type of hierarchy or ladder of success
existed in this community as most jobs there is always someone who is above all. I asked my
mother and relatives how was this hierarchy established and they told me that at the top of the
pyramid was the Consul General, who is in charge of keeping track of every department and
making sure the expectations are being reached. I wondered if anyone could ever get to that
position to which my mother responded: One can only become the Consul General if they are in
the Foreign Service, are a diplomat and a U.S. Citizen among few other requirements. However,
one can certainly climb through the ranks if they have enough experience, expertise and time in
their jobs. After gathering and analyzing all the data and information I had collected I was able to
come to the conclusion that this was indeed a discourse community as it did fit in into the
characteristics that a discourse community has. One could certainly get confused about what is a
discourse community and may believe every organization or team is a discourse community, but
one has to look thoroughly into the community to find out whether it fits Swales six
characteristics of a discourse community.

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References
Swales, J. (1990). The concept of discourse community. In Downs and Wardle (Eds.),
Writing about writing (p. 215-229). Boston, MA: Bedford-St. Martins.
U. (n.d.). U.S. Consulate General Ciudad Juarez, Overview. Retrieved September 11,
2016, from https://mx.usembassy.gov/embassy-consulates/ciudad-juarez/overview/
What is a discourse community? (2013). Retrieved September 12, 2016, from
https://webcourses.ucf.edu/courses/984277/pages/what-is-a-discourse-community