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JaLea Blasingame

Mrs. Litle

Eng 121.002

17 October 2017

Discourse Communities

John Swales has been known for teaching linguistics to non-native english speakers. His

goal is to help them succeed with their education. Discourse communities have broadly set goals,

that are known to the public. The goals that are made, can be very abstract, or not abstract at all!

The goals can be written in documents, where they will be kept or they may be more implied.

(John Swales 2.3)

John Swales says that A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication

among its members (2.3 par. 2). He uses an example of The Cafe Owner Problem, my

example is going to be being on the rodeo team. This is a discourse community! The Otero

Junior College rodeo team all has the same goals, and that is to get to the College National Finals

Rodeo. We work everyday to hopefully do well at the rodeos that will get us points that bring us

closer to the finals. We all agree that in order to get there we have to work very hard and it takes

a lot of time, and commitment. For those people that do not understand how rodeo and its points

work, I will explain. We have ten rodeos a season, and we compete against other schools in our

region, and the top three out of all the schools go to CNFR (college national finals rodeo). Three

people in every event, from every region in the nation! That is a lot of people. That is even a

discourse community! In rodeo, everyone helps everyone. That is part of being a discourse

community. We all have the same goal and work to get there through communication, with our

peers, coaches, animals, and anything else really!


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In paragraph three, of 2.3 Swales states a discourse community uses its participatory

mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback. This means that if people have the

resources in front of them but never use them, they can not be said to be apart of this community!

With rodeo, an example of this can be, people on the team have a coach, who is there to help us

to get better, and if we do not use her for that, then we are not apart of this community. Thus,

membership implies uptake of the informational opportunities. (John Swales 2.3 Par.3) If we

have the resources in front of us we should definitely use them to improve at whatever the

community we are involved in is.

In John Swales article, he says that A discourse community has a threshold level of

members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise. (2.3 Par. 6) This

means that the members of these communities evolve and new members come. Ways people can

leave the community can be in any way. Swale says ...individuals enter as apprentices and leave

by death or less involuntary ways. (2.3 par.6 ) In order for these communities to stay active and

alive, they must always have new people, and people with more experience to teach the younger

ones. When an experts time is done, they have the older novices that they taught to take their

place. Just like when the sophomores on the rodeo team graduate and move on, the freshmen will

take the role as the older kids on the team to help them improve and act as leaders!

Discourse communities are everywhere! They are anywhere where there is a group of

people who share a common interest in something, or practice certain things. That can be

businesses, sports, magazines, or anything social. Throughout my life I have been involved in

multiple discourse communities. In rodeo, there are multiple different discourse communities,

from junior rodeos, when the kids are younger, on to high school rodeos that we start in 9th

grade and continue at that level with the same people until we graduate. Then, a lot of people are
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done after that because they want to either go to a trade school where rodeo is not offered, or

they want to just got to school and focus on their education. For people who want to continue to

rodeo, like myself, the next step is college rodeo. This is a super tough thing where only the best

of the best can come and compete, but we are around people with a common interest in mind.

After college, or even during college if there is the time, some people might pro-rodeo. This is

the top of the line and by far the hardest. All the way up to the professional rodeos, we are

around people that have the same mindset, and that want the same ending goal. To me, this is

one of the best discourse communities to be apart of!

Discourse communities are important for people to be apart of, because they help us grow

and learn about leadership. We as people want to be the best we can be all the time, and the best

way to do that is be around other people who also want to be the best and have the same ending

goal. It takes a lot of time and determination to be the best, that is why if we are around people

who can help us get there is can be a lot easier! I have definitely learned that it is not easy to be

the best, especially when I got out of highschool, and started being around new people. I have

really had to put my pride aside and learn to listen and learn from the people in my community,

whether it be in rodeo, volleyball, or just life in general! I never knew about Discourse

Communities until I read this article and I am super glad I did! I hope that some people look up

to me as a novice in some areas!

Sources Cites:

Swales, John. The concept of Discourse Community. Genre Analysis: English in Academic

and Research Settings. Boston: Cambridge UP, 1990. 21-32. Print.

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