SWALES AND DISCOURSE COMMUNITIES

A discourse community is a large group of people who have a common interest and share the same beliefs and intentions regarding this interest.  Whether it's a formal occupation or a social group, all discourse communities follow a set of rules theorised by John Swales. 

The 6 characteristics of discourse communities are:

1. “A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals.”
Do all the members of the group have the same goal/s?


2. “A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members.”
Can all the group members communicate through the same method? EG: face to face/written

3. “A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback.”
Does the communication provide information and feedback?

4. “A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims.”
Are there other genres related to the group? EG: recipe books, textbooks, medical journals?

5. “In addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired a specific lexis.”
Is there subject-specific lexis?

6. “A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise”

Is there a hierarchy of members?