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Discourse Community Knowledge

  

The discourse community knowledge domain is the largest, and it subsumes the other four; this means it affects them in various ways, as you’ll come to understand.

Introduction to Discourse

When it comes to being an effective writer of texts, understanding discourse is important. So, what is discourse? James Paul Gee in the article “Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction” distinguishes between language and discourse. He claims that simply getting the grammar of language right in what we say and write is not enough. That it’s not just what we say but how we say it. He uses the following example:

If I enter my neighborhood bar and say to my tattooed drinking buddy, as I sit down, “May I have a match please?” my grammar is perfect, but what I have said is wrong nonetheless. . .If I enter my neighborhood bar and say to my drinking buddy, as I sit down, “Gime a match, wouldya?,” while placing a napkin on the bar stool to avoid getting my newly pressed designer jeans dirty, I have said the right thing, but my ‘saying-doing’ combination is none-the-less wrong. (5)

TRY THIS to understand the concept of discourse. Why is Gee getting it wrong in both examples at his neighborhood bar? Have you ever been in a situation when you said the right thing but the wrong way, or you said the right thing but did the wrong thing at the same time? What about with writing?

Gee adds that at “any moment we are using language we must say or write the right thing in the right way while playing the right social role and (appearing) to hold the right values, beliefs, and attitudes. Thus, what is important is not language, and surely not grammar, but saying (writing)-doing-being-valuing-believing combinations” (6). Gee calls these combinations Discourses—with a capital D.

Based on what Gee is saying, what do you think discourse (with a lower-case “d”) is? You could think of discourse as beyond only language and wording and grammar issues, the way Rodney Jones in his book Discourse Analysis explains the concept of discourse: “the ways sentences and utterances are put together to make texts and interactions and how those texts and interactions fit into our social world” (2).

In short, discourse is language with a purpose—language in action. You could even think of discourse as communication.

As a writer, why should you care about discourse? For Gee, writing cannot be separated from discourse; it cannot be learned outside of discourse.

In his article, Gee goes on to distinguish between primary (our original and home-based) and secondary (beyond home, social) Discourses and then dominant and nondominant. Gee claims that acquiring secondary dominant discourses can bring “social goods” like money, prestige, and status. He then goes into much detail theorizing the extent to which people are able to acquire and be fluent in secondary discourses. What this boils down to is that language, and writing specifically, is studied and learned within sometimes colliding Discourses, through what Gee calls “apprenticeships” in “social practices” (13).

In short, language and writing cannot be studied apart from discourse and their function is social. This is where the idea of community comes in.

Introduction to Discourse Community

Now that you have an understanding of discourse, you may think of a discourse community simply as a group that uses discourse. A number of scholars in the fields of linguistics and composition studies use various terms and definitions for the concept of discourse community. For example, Anne Beaufort defines discourse community as “a social group that communicates at least in part via written texts and shares common goals, values, and writing standards, a specialized vocabulary and specialized genres” (179). James E. Porter defines the term discourse community in this way: “a group of individuals bound by a common interest who communicate through approved channels and whose discourse is regulated” (38-39). John M. Swales identifies “six defining characteristics” that a discourse community possesses:

  • common goals
  • intercommunication among members
  • ways for members to participate to provide information and feedback
  • types of writing, known as genres, to communicate
  • a specific vocabulary known as a lexis
  • a “threshold level of members” from novices to experts who have content and discourse expertise. (24-27)

TRY THIS to understand the concept of discourse community. List all of the possible discourse communities you know about (maybe you’re even part of): institutions, classes, workplaces, places of worship, teams, clubs, businesses, etc. Choose three from your list and apply Swales’ “six defining characteristics” to each of them, listing examples from each discourse community to fit each characteristic. Do they each still count as discourse communities? Why or why not?

In college and your future profession you will be exposed to and participate in a number of discourse communities. These include academic and professional disciplines or fields. As part of your general education curriculum in college you will be introduced to a variety of academic discourse communities—to name only a few--in the humanities (such as history and philosophy), the biological and physical sciences (such as environmental science and chemistry), and the social and behavioral sciences (such as psychology and sociology). In addition to your general education curriculum, you may choose to major in any of these disciplines or specialize in a professional field like business, hospitality, healthcare, law, or education—to, again, name only a few. As you take classes in each of these academic and professional disciplines and fields, you will not only study their subjects or content, but how each as a discourse community uses language and other means to make sense of and take action in the world. Understanding each academic discipline or field as a discourse community will help you face important choices as a writer from which vocabulary and terms to use, to structuring and formatting your writing projects, through every seemingly big and small decision in between.

Read more about the relationship between academic discourse communities and professions in Open English @ SLCC.