Running Head: Discourse Communities 1

Discourse Communities
Justin Ruiloba
UTEP
 Discourse Communities 2

Introduction
Pokemon is a world where humans train and capture fictional creatures named Pokemon

to compete in battles to see who is the best trainer. Pokemon first started as a vido game back in

1996 .Where you were a trainer exploring the world trying to catch all the types of pokemon that

you controlld and tried to be the very best trainer. This game was such a major success that it

lead to creating an anime show which focused on a trainer named Ash Ketchum, having many

similarites in the game making it fascinating for the fans who played the game and to engourage

those who watched it to play the game. Since then there has been numerous new games, shows,

and, movies. Each game creating its own new pokemon or versions of the old pokemon.

Today there are over 719 different types of pokemon. Pokemon go is one of the first

sucessful Ar mobile apps. Where pepole would have to walk or drive to different places to

capture pokemon or collect items to capture and battle them at gyms. On top of this you were

able to take pictures of these pokemon in the real life location that you were at. For example, if I

was in the classrooom playing pokemon I could take a picture of the pokemon and it could be on

top of my professor or even sittiing on my clsass mates desk. Pokemon gyms are not regular

gyms in Pokemon Go you must defend a gym for your team and yourself. You benefit from

keeping a gym by getting coins and pride for your team as well as your gamer name displayed

for holding the gym and the pokemon defending it. There is also a Co-op mode to unite all the

teams called raids. At random times a single strong or rare pokemon will take over gyms and

have a time limit for trainers to group together and take it out, because they are so strong you

need to as little as 5 to a maximum of 20 people. Once you defeat the pokemon you get a chance

to catch it. Here in El Paso they have formed many group chats to communicate to locate these

raids around town and defeat them because there is no in game communication feature, it must
 Discourse Communities 3

be done on your own. Therefore, players have created a facebook for the city to be able to

sucessfully complete these raids and communicate amongst one and another. The community I

will be examining to see if it is a discourse comunnity is the North East El Paso Raid group chat

as well as the main El Paso Pokemon Facebook to see if it is defined as a discourse comunnity.

A discourse comunnity is loosely defined as a community that must contain a broad set of

common goals, contains ways of communication between all its members, maintains

participation which gives information and feedback amongst each other, gets things done to

achieve their goal or get closer to achieving their common goal, has specific terms either only

known amongst its members or few people, and has a certain type of level experience or title

formatting that allows people to be in charge and take orders to function.

Literature Review
Discourse communities what is that? That is the purpose of Swales article is to define exactly

what they are. However, discourse communities have been defined many times before but for

Swales he feels that these definitions are to broad or general that if you look pretty much

everything is a discourse community in the way they defined it but swales disagrees. Swales

narrows down discourse communities down to 6 characteristics and as long as it meets these

characteristics he defines them as discourse communities. These six characteristics are: They

must contain a broad set of common goals, contains ways of communication between all its

members, maintains participation which gives information and feedback amongst each other,

gets things done to achieve their goal or get closer to achieving their common goal, has specific
 Discourse Communities 4

terms either only known amongst its members or few people, and has a certain type of level

experience, or title formatting that allows people to be in charge and take orders to function.

Porter defines a discourse community very differently. He explains that a discourse

community is one who has approved channels of communication. He also goes on to say that

they have common goals just like Swales but then says that it can have no clear leadership

different from what swales says. He also says it is regulated which means rules that are followed

and approved.

Methods
For this article I examined a Northeast messenger app and the local Pokemon go
Facebook page.
Discussion
In order for it to be a discourse community according to swales it must have each of his

six characteristics. His first characteristic have broad goals, the Pokmon go community of El

Paso meets this by having the broad goal of trying to catch them all and completing raids by

helping each other out to catch the Pokmon. The second characteristic is that there must be

communication amongst all its member and obviously this is met because not only do they have

Facebook and a messenger app but also meet up in person and communicate that way too. They

raid successfully they get a chance to catch it helping them catch all the Pokmon one at a time

furthermore getting one step closer to the ultimate goal accomplishing one little feat at a time

until they fully succeed. A lexis otherwise know has a specific term only known by its members

must be included in a community as one of swales characteristics for a discourse community. In

Pokmon go community each Pokmon name identifies a different type of Pokmon known only

to pokemon communities. However, that is not the only lexis they also use the word spoofer
 Discourse Communities 5

which means a person who plays the game by using an app to fake his location in order to

capture pokemon and be somewhere he isnt to his benefit in game. As far as level of expertise

or title there is a admin for the Facebook that can block people or messages out as well as kick

people out and there are only about 5 admins making the rest of people below them normal

players. According to Swales this Pokemon go community will succeed and is a discourse

community.

According to Porter this is also a discourse community. As above mentioned it has

messenger and Facebook as well as in person communication, which is approved by the

members of this community. These messages are also approved by these admins who have also

set a list of general rules and if you dont follow them you simply get kicked out the group

allowing the Pokemon go community to qualify as a discourse community under

Porters definition as well.

Conclusion
Pokemon is truly a fascinating world. The players have built a huge fanbase over their

years for the love of Pokemon. I learned that Pokemon go community is not only defined as a

discouurse community by Swales defintion but also defined as a discourrse community by

Porter.This is beause the pkemon community meets all the six charteristics defined by swales

and Porter. Pokemon go community is important that it is a discousre community because now it

is defined and will suceceeed in its goal. I have analyzed this online community from strictly

analying the texts in which they communicate.

 Discourse Communities 6

References

F., F., Woods, C., & S. (2014, October 27). How many Pokemon are there altogether, before and
after Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire? Retrieved October 16, 2017, from
https://pokemondb.net/pokebase/219332/pokemon-there-altogether-before-after-omega-
alpha-sapphire

Frank, A. (2016, February 26). A chronological history of Pokmon games. Retrieved October

16, 2017, from https://www.polygon.com/pokemon/2016/2/26/11120098/pokemon-

games-list-history-timeline-release-datese

James E. Porters Intertextuality and the Discourse Community, 1986. (2009, July 04).

Retrieved October 16, 2017, from

https://discoursecommunities.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/james-e-porters-intertextuality-

and-the-discourse-community-1986/

Swales,John.The Concept of Discourse communtiy.Genere Analysis: English in Academic and

Reasearch Settings. Boston: Cambridge UP, 1990,21 32. Print