Running head: DISCOURSE COMMUITY ESSAY 1

Title: Discourse Community Essay

Name: Gibel Amador

Class: Rhetoric Composition

Discourse community is a term used to specify a group of people sharing a

common goal as well as distinct mode of communication. This information is seen in, the

article over the concepts of discourse community by Swales, John. Swales, goes into

depth of defining, a discourse community and their six characteristics. As a discourse

community, the rhetoric and composition class will be learning to enhance our writing

and literature skills to achieve our goal of education.

The article on Swales is about his work on discourse communities. The thesis for

this Article goes right after his intro and is about his book Genre Analysis, but most

importantly it discusses, discourse community. Swales highlights his claims

and believes a discourse community is to be the center of a set of ideas as well as strongly

argues with it and its differences between speech communities and discourse community.

This can be applied in Rhetoric Composition it is a discourse community that helps us in

our society to learn and identify one another within a particular domain of intellectual,

which is our knowledge of writing.

A secondary source that is also used is, The Norton Field Guide to Writing. The

book contains steps in writing and specialized language that can be used though out our

discourse community. The Norton Field Guide to Writing also provides us with

knowledge that can be applied though out school and life. For example writing will be

needed in every university class as well as seeking for a job and most importantly the

career one desires.

Transferring knowledge is a good source to go back to and re-learn our ideas, for

that reason we use our composition books. As a discourse community, the book can also

be used to educate others. The composition book uses Swales six characteristics ,which
DISCOURSE COMMUNITY ESSAY 3

are common public goals, Intercommunication mechanism, looped communication;

dedicate genres, specialized vocabulary, and self-sustaining hierarchy. It can also be used

as reference source due to it being a primary source. Through our words many future

students can look back at the composition book and get inspirations from it.

Education is the main factor that we all learn here, as a university student, writing

helps us in every class the university has to offer .For example, history class when

writing essays on the past, Psychology for doing research and business for explaining

mathematically projects. We use writing in every aspect there is, making it purposeful

and effective in school. That is why our common goal is to educate our selfs in rhetoric

composition.

Education in Rhetoric and composition benefits our society because education is

power. As students we can share our knowledge to those around us. Academically

writing can help us improve in our career that we can contribute to the society. Sharing

ideas and working in groups improves communication and teamwork skills. Education is

a common good that are society needs to succeed. Every university class here is

educational and education is power to those who are willing to learn.

In Rhetoric and composition we use many practice and ideas as a group

discussion or through emails and feedback. When discussing in groups we are have

different academic levels and hearing an individual give their perspective of the class

helps gain more knowledge and verify our answers. Looped intercommunication helps us

receive feedback as well as grades to see what we need to improve on.

Intercommunication mechanism is what we do as students to enhance in class. For

example communicating with the professor if one does not understand what is presented.
DISCOURSE COMMUNITY ESSAY 4

Genres in this community and specialized language provides primary and

secondary source with academic English to back up our knowledge and provide

resources. Specialize language can be used as a bridge to other classes we take, because

linguistic terms can enhance in writing and courses. A genre that introduced me was the

syllabus because it reviewed what would be learned in the class. A primary and

secondary source also helps us gain more insight to the class and to other classes as well.

Swales last characteristics are self-staining hierarchy that is used to pass on our

knowledge to the next students taking the class. For example passing down my notebook

and textbooks to future students. Students who graduate can also be interviewed for what

they learned this semester in the future. The hierarchy also begins with the teacher for he

or she is the one who teaches every year and learns from the student .For example

teaching methods that can help the next generation of students.

All six characteristics are needed to form a discourse community and the Rhetoric

composition class is a perfect example of one. Swales article provides us with the steps in

which ideas are form into one. The article is a great resource to defining our discourse

communities in our society. As well as Learning will always be a common goal for

everyone in every discourse community.

Rhetoric composition will follow people if they are always willing to write and

use their knowledge and apply it to their everyday life. Writing is a form of

communication that our society needs in order to function. Writing will also enhance our

reading abilities as well as literature skills. Every career need some form of writing and

enhancing out skills now will better us in the course of our lives.
DISCOURSE COMMUNITY ESSAY 5

References
( 2012 , 6) .John Swales Researchomatic .Retrieved 6 , 2012, from

http://www.researchomatic.com/John-Swales-the-Concept-Of-Discourse-Community-

135623.html

Bullock, Richard H., Goggin,Maureen Daly,,. (2016). The norton field guide to writing,

with readings Retrieved from /z-wcorg/