Is RWS 1301 a Discourse Community

Discourse Community Ethnography

James Flournoy

The University of Texas at El Paso

RWS 1301

Dr. Vierra

October 20, 2019

 Is RWS 1301 a Discourse Community

Abstract
The basis of the paper is to dictate whether the class of Rhetoric and Composition is a discourse

community. Looking through the microscope of swales definition of a discourse community, we

meet the criteria that in which qualifies as one. Our class fits within the six-characteristics

described by swales due to the mechanisms generated between us to provide information and

feedback.
 Is RWS 1301 a Discourse Community

Discourse Community Ethnography

Whether its math and science or psychology and philosophy, a discourse community in

possibility maybe present. Most to all education systems can be loosely be defined as a discourse

community because anything in sense can be recognized as productive to society. With this

notion in mind, a discourse community's widely accepted definition formulated by Swales

consists of more characteristics than just its productivity to society. Identifying discourse

community's apart from speech communities holds significance through the lenses of

progression, societal progression is inevitable, but the rate of societal progression can be

accelerated if more involved themselves within discourse community's rather than speech

communities to its positive and much more progressively productive essence due to action not

just speculation. Through inspection of our Rhetoric and Composition classroom from the

perspective of swales six characteristics, this paper will explore and determine whether our

classroom is a true discourse community or merely a speech community.

Literature Review

The notion of a discourse community is that of a group that gathers to pursue a common

goal that in the past wasn’t socially unified in thought, although it may not transpire. In swales

perspective a discourse community must be consistent with six characteristic he developed to

characterize a discourse community. In reference to Swales (1990) these characteristics not only

define a discourse community, but it is what separates them from other communities such as a

speech community. Recruitment into a discourse community is usually done based on persuasion

of individuals whom they think could contribute, or training of those who they think will be able

to help, and or those any of those in which they know can contribute. As stated frequently
 Is RWS 1301 a Discourse Community

through the paper, a discourse community defined by swales is made up of six characteristics

which are widely known to be common public goals, mechanisms of intercommunication among

members, utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of

its aims, uses participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback, and has

acquired some specific lexis. Furthermore, a discourse community must consist of a threshold

level of members with suitable degrees of relevant content and discoursal expertise.

Discourse communities are not only subject to only swales definition and could be defined in

other ways which is evident in Downs (2017) articles. Although the characteristics of each

articles of Discourse community are different both share a basic resemblance and relation in each

characteristic to the other. As similarly said by Downs (2017), the dialect conveyed through text

by the writer should create a bridge between writer and text that in which will give appearance of

the to the purpose to the composition. Which is insinuating that a discourse community must

have specific language that in which is almost identical in meaning to Swales characteristic,

Swales (2011), “In addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired some 16-

specific lexis” (pg.328). Both of which insinuate that the language within a discourse community

must be perceived abstract to those not within the community.

If a discourse community is to be such it must have structure. Just blatant open discussion would

be characterized more a as a speech community rather than a discourse community that consists

of genres in which each hold their own conversation that looks to achieve greater understanding

but interlocks amongst each other. According to Swales (2011), “Thirdly, in terms of the fabric of

society, speech communities are centripetal 9 (they tend to absorb people into that general

fabric), whereas discourse communities are centrifugal (they tend to separate people into

occupational or speciality-interest groups” (pg. 471). Which exhibits the concept and difference
 Is RWS 1301 a Discourse Community

of a discourse community and speech community, as well as forms the notion of genres within a

discourse community due to its centripetal nature. Discourse communities are in essence

specified groups of people that converse with specific directions of communication for the

achievement of a common goal.

Methods

The only research method in the inspection of the our RWS 1301 class was observation,

due to the lack of information provided by the other scholarly sources as well as observation

being an obvious, assessable, and well-informed basis of research. We used the tool of

observation through all of our senses to determine if our class was a discourse community. In

addition, we used the use of artifact's but lack of in my instance led to help in no way to the

conclusion. Lastly the constructing source of the methods of our determination if out class was a

discourse community was research into discourse community done by a few credible publishers.

Discussion

Common Goals
RWS 1301 is a freshman level college class that has a sharp emphasis on rhetoric. Rhetoric is

simple is the use of persuasions or persuasion techniques within writing. Within this class

students and instructors all possesses many common goals, that all of which can be deemed as

productive to society. For one, the most obvious and evident is the graduation of each semester

and inevitable the class for the students. The graduation of the class would be a common goal

between the student of the RWS class due to them all being one credit closer to their degrees and

a beneficial goal to the professor in light of the fact that professor job and desire is to teach and
 Is RWS 1301 a Discourse Community

passing grades have a correlation with internalized information or the learning of the curriculum

by students. Likewise, to Swales (2011), Not shared objective but Commonality of goal is

standard even in the case of the previous encompasses the to be. That in which suggests that a

specific task doesn’t must be shared within all that are in a discourse community, but more so a

goal that in which everyone's works individually and united to achieve. RWS 1301 is a

community that exists to inform and teach students how to better express themselves in writing

through the use of rhetoric techniques.

Intercommunication
Comparably stated by Swales (2011), A discourse community is composed of mechanisms that

generate intercommunication among it’s participates. To further explain swales is referring to

intercausal dealings among its members concerning anything pertaining to anything of relevance

to the discourse community. Examples of intercommunication by referenced from Swales (2011)

are, “Meetings, telecommunications, correspondence, newsletters, conversations and so forth

(pg. 472). Although as similarly stated by swales, examples may vary depending on the

substances of the discourse or goals of the discourse community. Intercommunication is a

necessary characteristic to a discourse community due to it keeping the progression of the

discourse community constant through the easy access to other member of the community in

addition to the access being more frequent then if a community didn’t have line of

intercommunication. Through this definition and presentation of example I theorize that our

RWS 1301 class can be considered to the characteristic of intercommunication due to such things

as Blackboard and Microsoft OneDrive.

 Is RWS 1301 a Discourse Community

Information and Feedback

The course RWS 1301 has one sole mechanism of uptake which is tuition. We pay tuition to

obtain access to the RWS 1301 community and the information it provides as well as to aid in the

process of the obtainment of the community common goal(s), which in one speculation is the

completion of the course with a passing grade in addition to being well informed in the

substances of the class. Feedback within a the RWS 1301 community takes the form of graded

assignments from the student's perspective and Rhetorically written papers by students from the

teacher's perspective. As stated by Swales (2011), “Individuals might pay an annual subscription

to the Acoustical Society of America but if they never open any of its communications, they

cannot be said to belong to the discourse community, even though they are formally members of

the society (pg. 472). Which supports the notion that the RWS 1301 class a discourse community

due to it consisting of uptake mechanisms, as well as the member of the RWS 1301 community

being obligated to participate in the community due or else they will be kicked out of the

community.

Genres
The essential characteristic of genres, as defined by Swales (2011) and interpreted by me, A

discourse community consists and applies any number of its genres to achieve its objective or

goal. This simply implies that a discourse community must consist of different genres each work

in interlocution to aid in the discourse community's goals. The RWS 1301 class is based in

Genres, if were using genres defined by Swales which is as stated in his text, “genres are how

things get done, when language is used to accomplish them” (pg. 472). Examples of genres in

the RWS 1301 class can be exemplified by the paper's students write on specific subjects or even

the words of aid in the assessment of these papers by the teacher/instructor.

 Is RWS 1301 a Discourse Community

Vocabulary
RWS 1301 is in fact a class of specialized language, which is a prevalent fact in even the name of

the class itself. RWS is an acronym that refers to Rhetoric and Composition. As defined by

Swales, “Most commonly, however, the inbuilt dynamic towards an increasingly shared and

specialized terminology is realized through the development of community-specific

abbreviations and acronyms” (pg. 473). Which supports and implies the fact of RWS 1301 class

consisting of specialized language and through that it becomes one step closer to being able to be

defined as a discourse community. Furthermore, the RWS course formed its own language

altered reference to the process of reflection and how to reflect upon text, which is taught and

known to be by those within the RWS community to be called an ER in acronym formation or

simply an Expository reflection.

Hierarchy
Lastly, Swales final characteristic of a discourse community is known to be a “Hierarchy”, and is

defined as or exemplified as, “Discourse communities have changing memberships; individuals

enter as apprentices and leave by death or in other less involuntary ways. However, survival of

the community depends on a reasonable ratio between novices and experts” (pg. 473). This

characteristic can certainly be reflected in relation in the RWS community, simply due to the

class consisting of those who are students and act as such and those seen as teachers whom also

act as such. A teacher is by the students seen as an expert due to him/her having and relying most

of the information and the students are seen by the teacher or expert as novice as due to their role

of learning and exerting feedback, both of which work in a loop of intercommunication that’s

purpose is to achieve their shared common goals.

 Is RWS 1301 a Discourse Community

Conclusion
Through the examination of our RWS 1301 class and its relation to Swales six characterizes that

determine a discourse community, I concluded based on the evidence the class of RWS 101 is a

discourse community. This decision was made due to the sharp similarities between Swales

characteristics and the characteristics of the class. In support all of Swales characteristics of a

discourse community fit directly in the RWS class in sense and no characteristics were indirectly

insinuated to forcibly relate Swales six characteristics to fit the confines of the RWS class. This

culmination was important to our RWS class due to it insurance that our class is productive to

society, at least from swales perspective.

 Is RWS 1301 a Discourse Community

Swales, J. (2011). The Concept of Discourse Community. [PDF File]

Johns, A. (2017). Discourse Communities and Communities of Practice. [PDF File]