C-CS

discourse community
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Working Definition:

A discourse community is a group of people who share cultural codes and contexts

Disciplinary Definitions:

John M. Swales (English Language Institute, The University of Michigan)

2a. (1989) A discourse Community -

1) has a broadly agreed set of common public goals;

2) mechanisms of intercommunication among its members;

3) uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback;

4) utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims;

5) has acquired some specific lexis;

6) has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise.

2b. (1992)

1) A discourse community has a discoverable set of goals.

These may be publicly and explicitly formulated and either generally or partially assented to by the members; they may be consensual; or they may be separate but contiguous (Old Guard and Young Turks; researchers and practitioners, as in the just-holding-together American Psychological Association).

2) A d.c. has mechanisms of intercommunication among members. There is no change here. Without mechanisms there is no community.

3) A d.c. uses its participatory mechanisms for a range of purposes: to provide performance-enhancing information and feedback; to channel innovation; to maintain the

value and belief systems of the community; and to enhance

its professional space.

4) A d.c. utilizes an evolving selection of genres in the furtherance of its set of goals and as instantiation of its participatory mechanisms.

5) A d.c. has acquired and continues to search for d.c.-specific terminology.

6.) A d.c. has an explicit or implicit hierarchical structure which manages the processes of entry into and advancement within the discourse community.

From: "The Concept of Discourse Community: Dog, Cash cow, Problem child or Star?" (handout at a talk at U of Toledo)

John Swales

Swales describes a discourse community as a group of people who attempt to reach a "broadly agreed set" of goals by the use of a common terminology in speaking or writing.

[Swales, John. Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings, 1990.]

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