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STUDENT MODEL: DISCOURSE COMMUNITY ETHNOGRAPHY

Running Head: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Discourse Community

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Discourse Community

David F. Gutierrez

The University of Texas at El Paso

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Professor S. Hernandez
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NEONATAL INTENSIVE CARE UNIT DISCOURSE COMMUNITY

John Swales gives us six different characteristics that make up a discourse community, in

this essay I will be discussing how these six characteristics are applied in a fantasy of my choosing

and how they come together to describe a discourse community. The fantasy world of my choosing

is Naruto, in this fantasy world everyone wants to become a ninja, therefor the villagers begin their

training at a young age to become the best ninja they can possibly be. I will go on to describe how

in this world individuals have broadly agreed on a set of goals. How they have a mechanism of

intercommunication among them. How they provide information and feedback. Utilize one or

more genres to enhance the communication of its aims. Their specific lexis and the threshold level

of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discourse expertise.

First characteristic listed by Swales is agreed set of goals. Naruto is a fantasy world in

which becoming a ninja is their primary goal. Kids are put into training school to be taught how to

use their special abilities but, even though becoming a ninja is the villagers primary goal here.

There comes a time in which their entire world faces a possibility of being completely destroyed

by a legendary evil ninja that is unbeatable. When all the villagers, even from far apart villages,

realize this is what they are facing, they all come together to defeat the evil Madara which is the

evil ninja. This becomes the villagers common public goal, covering Swales first characteristic of

a discourse community.

Swales second characteristic is intercommunication, in this fantasy there are no forms of

technology, making communication more complicated. In order to communicate, this world uses

messengers in the form of ninjas who specialize in traveling long distances in a short amount of

time: these ninjas may also use teleportation techniques if available in their perspective village.
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Another way the villagers communicate is by going to school, whether they are students or

teachers, they communicate among them to know what is going on around their village such as the

threat of the evil ninja when he made his first appearance.

The way this world shares and intakes information and feedback which is the third

characteristic described by Swales is through school, readings and training. In order to become a

ninja, kids have to be taught how to control their chakra, this is a blood type of thing that flows

through their system like blood and allows them to use their special abilities called Justus.

Individuals are also taught how to defend themselves against different kinds of Justus, which differ

in world elements such as fire, land, water, air and a mix of them all and also combat training

which is just martial arts. Ninjas that are advanced learn how to defend themselves against mind

controlling Justus. All this is practiced to become the best ninja the can possibly be, and defeat all

evil. Through training, reading and school this world uses the third characteristic listed by Swales.

The villagers further their aims by passing on information to each other on any occasion

they can, I previously stated there is no form of technology making this the only way people can

communicate. The Kages, which are the leaders of their perspective villages, can also assemble

meetings to discuss greater threats. In this case they come together to form a super army formed

by ninjas from all the different villages with different types of abilities and to come up with a war

plan in order to defeat the evil Madara. This covers Swales characteristic of communicative

furtherance of its aims.

Villagers have their own lexis, this is special terms only their peers can understand and no

on else. These lexis include words like Jutsu, which is the name for their special abilities. With
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different types of abilities there comes some variables for the name like Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, or

Genjutsu. Chakra is another important word for this world, as I explained earlier this is what allows

the characters to perform their special abilities. Sharingan, Byakugan, and Rinnegan are special

eye abilities that have unique names and are only known is this world. Terms like these are only

understood in this world, making this another characteristic that Swales gives us.

The last characteristic listed by Swales is the threshold level of members with a suitable

degree of relevant content and discourse expertise. That is when the different level of ninjas come

in act, there is the recruits which are the kids in the academy. The lowest level of ninja is Genin

which are also known as junior ninja, followed by Chunin these ninjas are qualified to guide other

ninjas such as Genin on missions because of their maturity and leadership, then come the Jonin

which are the elites in their village. These individuals have a great set of skills, and are used as

military captains. The highest a ninja can become is the Kage of their village. This person is the

leader of an entire village because of what they have done for their people, and is acknowledged

as the strongest by all the habitants of the village.

Overall Naruto has all the characteristics listed by Swales. The villagers have a common

goal which is to defeat the evil Madara trying to destroy the world. They also have their own way

to communicate about significant events. Have their own resources to achieve their goals; school

books, and training. They get together to further their aims towards the goal on task which in this

case is the Kages coming together to male war plans. Use their own terminology for special

abilities only they can understand, the same is for the names of their different ranks. All of these

characteristics taken from Naruto come together just like Swales listed them in order to create a
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discourse community which is a group of people with different backgrounds and dont necessarily

have a lot in common but come together because they share a common thing.
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CITATIONS:
- Kishimoto, M (n.d). Naruto [Cartoon].
- Kishimoto, M (n.d). Naruto Shippuden [Cartoon]