Discourse Community Journal 5

A discourse community that I currently belong to would have to be my sorority. The members all have a common set of goals whether it be academic interest or commitment to community service and philanthropy. This discourse community has mechanisms for communication between its members as well. The Greek alphabet is one example. The letters all have meanings to them and each member understands them. Going off of that the sorority has a genre of communication that is used to further its aims. Again all members are familiar with the genre of communication. This is also an example of acquired specific lexis among the group. The sorority is also a participatory mechanisms such as membership fees. Each member has a responsibility to pay annually even though they are members. Finally there is a threshold of membership. Every year a specified number of girls are chosen to be apart of this discourse community. The members remain active for as long as four years but are still apart of the community until they either die, are not in good standing with the sorority, or disassociate themselves.

Please answer the following three questions based on your understanding after you read Swales's article.Swales argues that it is possible to participate in a discourse community without being assimilated in it. What does this mean?

Swales argues that it is possible to be apart of a discourse community with out being assimilated in it and by that he means they are apart of a community because of a common life style. An example that was used was how coffee shop owners are all apart of a discourse community because they have a lot in common and understand what or how the business or their lives are being run and affected. If I were to personally relate to this argument I would agree because I know if I meet a runner, where ever I may be, I know we automatically have something in common and understand the hard work and effort put into running.

To what extent do discourse communities influence our world view?

I do not really know how to answer this question because im really not sure. My best answer would be that the only affect I see that discourse communities have on the world is that it can bring people together or tear them apart. If you look at the politics aspect of it many people get very defensive about such topics. But, looking at the other side of it, it also brings people together with common goals interest and understandings.Consider a time when you participated in a discourse community but resisted it or were not assimilated into it. What happened?

I had an opportunity to be apart of the theater productions at my high school. I took an intro to theater class. The class was pretty engaging and interesting. I had been in several skits at my church and it was fun learning about theater and acting. I did not pursue theater though because I love running and sports too much to get more involved in theater.