2017

Discourse Community
Jonathan Ramirez

University of Texas at el Paso (RWS 1301)

9-22-17
 Discourse Community Research
Jonathan Ramirez
(RWS 1301) University of Texas at El Paso

Rhetoric communities have been around since the 1920s. A rhetoric community is a

group based on sharing knowledge and improvement in writing and research skills based on

physical observation. This research paper will follow with the claim of RWS 1301 being a

discoursed community. This community will be supported by Swales (1990) to allow the claim

to be confirmed.

Swales composes there has to be six items in order to classify a discourse community.

These six elements consist of common public goals, intercommunication system, looped

intercommunication, genres, special vocabulary and self-sustaining hierarchy. A group has to

fall under these six elements in which all elements have to be met. Having read Swales (1990)

the author mentioned a variety of different groups, from adversarial groups to non-adversarial

depending on how you want to classify them. The community still has the same goal as the rest

and which is to have the spread of knowledge.

The goal for this community is to share the knowledge of rhetoric writing throughout

society. One common way that it is expressed in this community is through a professor or the

NFG (2016) class book. With this knowledge being shared upon pupils, doors open towards

more universal communications which can be shared upon any community in order to enhance
there ability to communicate with other groups as well. Not all discourse communities follow

the same practices, but they do have the same main goal of sharing knowledge.

Rws 1301 has a presentation project towards the ending the of the semester. This will

consist of groups that will be working as one small discourse community to create a

presentation based on their major and research topic. For example, if the group has weather as

a topic and be majoring in occupational therapy they would be able to practice swales six

elements in their research on order to combine the two topics together. A primary source like

the book: Small Groups in Therapy Settings- Barbara W. Posthuma, would be used for research

by the group in order to gain more knowledge on how both topics contribute with eachother.

This community consist of genres, in which it focuses in making extensive research and

writing skills. This research and writing skills can then be shared upon classmates, to help

enhance ones potential writing skills. Swales states that genres in communities are only created

due to the need of having repetition of something for the need of the people. In a classroom

community one example would be this report itself, which is a common practice in order to

enhance the writers ability to build a report. This report will go through numerous steps in

order to reach its final draft. This allows for the practice of rhetoric upon the report, in which

makes this part of the communitys genre. This knowledge will then be passed or used by the

reader or writer for future reference. Our current textbook is also a genre we use to improve

our understanding in building a report. The textbook is built in its own genre to help the writer

take proper steps towards making research and elaborates in detail how to properly compose a

written article.
 An Email has set up our looped intercommunication. It is a source our classroom

community uses to get in connection with our professor. To share data and have inner

communication within a community is important. The analyzation and common interactions

within the community helps achieve the primary goal of knowledge sharing. It is a major key

point because it minimizes miscommunication within the community. Within itself having this

looped intercommunication meets the criteria of making the classroom a discourse community

because we also collaborate in group assignments to help each other have a better

understanding in composing a report. Blackboard would be another example of mechanism we

use in the classroom. Blackboard contains files such as assignments, these introduces that

communication between professor and student to share the practice of rhetoric. This is an

online webpage were professor and students can view there classroom activity and email.

The community shares an intercommunication mechanism, this mechanism allows for

the observation and the feedback of the community. This gives any group the ability to become

a discoursed community as long as their source of communication remains open. One example

this class has is inputting assignments into blackboard so we can have feedback from the

professor. This will allow the practice of communication to become better and more universal

for knowledge expansion.

The composition book falls into all of swales categories, only due to the amount of data

it has. An interesting element self-sustaining hierarchy. Since 1920, rhetoric has been a

consecutive hierarchy in its ways of teaching, a composition has had its involvement since the

first articles have initiated, without the writing source there would be a missing piece in

rhetoric. This writing source helps the writer express his idea in his writing. This the initiates the
process of rhetoric to be checked, in which then shows the writers weak points which can then

be improved. The composition provides proof of the hierarchy sustaining- itself through the

beginning of the community. It is a form of a written source that is commonly used.

This community has a specialized vocabulary. Key terms used in the lectures and by the

textbook show a universal way of expressing writing. In a community were a professor is

considered at most expert, a great range of vocabulary comes from the same context as the

textbook. This allows for the same knowledge to be spread around the community. Not all

communities use the same special vocabulary. As stated in Swales Most commonly, however,

the inbuilt dynamic towards an increasingly shared and specialized terminology is realized

through the development of community-specific abbreviations and acronyms(p.473), this just

states on how each different group has learned to adjust within itself and its own terms.

Research in this community shows this community has the acquired elements to qualify

as a discourse community. The materials used in this community seems to have more than one

element that allows it to be a discourse community. It is in understanding that Swales six

elements have a connection which allows linkage between the elements. This provides support

on how this discourse community continues to be a cycle of knowledge being shared upon the

group.
 Resources
Barbara W. Posthuma. (1998). Small groups in therapy settings: Process and leadership. A
College-Hill Publication
The Norton Field Guide to Writing with Readings (2016 MLA update) Richard Bullock +
Maureen daly Goggin
RWS 1301 Personal Composition Class book