Understanding Discourse Community And Its Importance
Most writers understand the concept of audience and why it is important to understand who their audience is when composing. Yet simply understanding the "who" of your audience is only the beginning for experienced writers. Effective writing, writing that works and delivers the intended message and effect, must fit within the discourse community it is destined to serve.
- Teaching writing online
- Teaching writing style
What is a discourse community?
You already belong to several discourse communities as a result of your family, ethnic, and religious background as well as your personal interests and activities. Students enter the larger discourse community of the instituion they attend as well as numerous smaller discourse communities within that institution including specific classrooms, clubs and organizations, and majors and programs.Workers enter the larger discourse community of their employer and depending on the size and focus of the institution may also enter smaller discourse communities within it as well. For example, in a hospital a nurse might belong to the discourse community of the hospital, the nursing staff, and the Emergency Department.
So why is it important for writers to consider discourse community?
When you participate in a discourse community you must understand what language is used, how language is used, what knowledge is generally possessed within the community, and what motivated and interests the community. Understanding discourse community extends beyond simply knowng your audience and purpose -- it means understanding what words to use, how to frame those words into units (sentences, paragraphs, etc.), and what information is already possessed by community members.
Once you understand the concept of discourse community and begin to apply it to your writing you will immediately see a rise in the effectiveness of your writing. Then you can begin to make informed decisions about every aspect of your writing from the word choice, grammar, and sentence/paragraph construction to tone and level of formality.
What is discourse?
Discourse (L. discursus, "running to and from") means either "written or spoken communication or debate" or "a formal discussion or debate."Compact Oxford Dictionary, Thesaurus and Wordpower Guide 2001, Oxford University Press, New York The term is often used in semantics and discourse analysis.
In semantics, discourses are linguistic units composed of several sentences; in other words, conversations, arguments, or speeches. In discourse analysis, which came to prominence in the late 1960s, the word "discourse" is often used as shorthand for "discursive formation" meaning large heterogeneous discursive entities.
In the work of Michel Foucault, and social theorists inspired by him, discourse has a special meaning. It is "an entity of sequences of signs in that they are enouncements (enoncés)" (Foucault 1969: 141). An enouncement (often translated as "statement") is not a unity of signs, but an abstract matter that enables signs to assign specific repeatable relations to objects, subjects and other enouncements (Ibid: 140). Thus, a discourse constitute sequences of such relations to objects, subjects and other enouncements. A discursive formation is defined as the regularities that produces such discourses. Foucault used the concept discursive formation in relation to his analysis of large bodies of knowledge, such as political economy and natural history.(Foucault: 1970)
Studies of discourse have been carried out within a variety of traditions that investigate the relations between language, structure and agency, including feminist studies, anthropology, ethnography, cultural studies, literary theory and the history of ideas. Within these fields, the notion of "discourse" is itself subject to discourse, that is, debated on the basis of specialized knowledge. Discourse can be observed in the use of spoken, written and signed language and multimodal/multimedia forms of communication, and is not found only in "non-fictional" or verbal materials.
What is a community?
In biological terms, a community is a group of interacting organisms sharing an environment.
In human communities, intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs, risks, and a number of other conditions may be present and common, affecting the identity of the participants and their degree of cohesiveness.
In sociology, the concept of community has caused infinite debate, and sociologists are yet to reach agreement on a definition of the term. There were ninety-four discrete definitions of the term by the mid-1950s. Traditionally a "community" has been defined as a group of interacting people living in a common location. The word is often used to refer to a group that is organized around common values and social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household. The word can also refer to the national community or global community.
The word "community" is derived from the Old French communité which is derived from the Latin communitas, a broad term for fellowship or organised society. "community, n." OED Online. July 2009. Oxford University Press .
Since the advent of the Internet, the concept of community no longer has geographical limitations, as people can now virtually gather in an online community and share common interests regardless of physical location.
What is a discourse community?
The term discourse community links the terms discourse, a concept describing all forms of communication that contribute to a particular, institutionalized way of thinking; and community, which in this case refers to the people who use, and therefore help create, a particular discourse.
Some examples of a discourse community might be those who read and/or contribute to a particular academic journal, or members of an email list for Madonna fans. Each discourse community has its own unwritten rules about what can be said and how it can be said: for instance, the journal will not accept an article with the claim that ?Discourse is the coolest concept?; on the other hand, members of the email list may or may not appreciate a Freudian analysis of Madonna's latest single. Most people move within and between different discourse communities every day.
Since the discourse community itself is intangible, it is easier to imagine discourse communities in terms of the fora in which they operate. The hypothetical journal and email list can each be seen as an example of a forum, or a "concrete, local manifestation of the operation of the discourse community".Porter, J. (1992). Audience and Rhetoric: An Archaeological Composition of the Discourse Community. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
The term was first used by sociolinguist Martin Nystrand in 1982,Nystrand, M. (1982) What Writers Know: The Language, Process, and Structure of Written Discourse. New York: Academic and further developed by American linguist John Swales.Swales, J. M. (1990) Genre Analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Writing about the acquisition of academic writing styles of those who are learning English as an additional language, Swales presents six defining characteristics:
:A discourse community:
:# has a broadly agreed set of common public goals.
:# has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members.
:# uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback.
:# utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims.
:# in addition to owning genres, it has acquired some specific lexis.
:# has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise.
James Porter defined the discourse community as: ?a local and temporary constraining system, defined by a body of texts (or more generally, practices) that are unified by a common focus. A discourse community is a textual system with stated and unstated conventions, a vital history, mechanisms for wielding power, institutional hierarchies, vested interests, and so on.?
Chaim Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyceta offer the following statement on the conditioned nature of all discourse, which has applicability to the concept of discourse community: "All language is the language of community, be this a community bound by biological ties, or by the practice of a common discipline or technique. The terms used, their meaning, their definition, can only be understood in the context of the habits, ways of thought, methods, external circumstances, and tradition known to the users of those terms. A deviation from usage requires justification ..." Perelman, Chaim and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyceta (1969) The New Rhetoric: A Treatise on Argumentation. Trans. John Wilkinson and Purcell Weaver.
"Producing text within a discourse community," according to Patricia Bizzell, "cannot take place unless the writer can define her goals in terms of the community's interpretive conventions."Bizzell, P. (1992) Academic Discourse and Critical Consciousness. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. In other words, one cannot simply produce any text ? it must fit the standards of the discourse community to which it is appealing. If one wants to become a member of a certain discourse community, it requires more than learning the lingo. It requires understanding concepts and expectations set up within that community.
The language used by discourse communities can be described as a register or diatype, and members generally join a discourse community through training or personal persuasion. This is in contrast to the speech community (or the 'native discourse community', to use Patricia Bizzell's term), who speak a language or dialect inherited by birth or adoption.
Want more information about discourse community?
- RiceOWL
- Understanding your Discourse Community
- What is Discourse?
- Brief and Straightforward Guide: What is Discourse?
- Discourse Community
- From ELT Journal
Join our discourse community...
Matt Thompson wrote
Some of the discourse communities I belong in are my family, friends, ethnicity, and church. My family and friends have a relationship with me and we share our respect and common interest with each other. I am a Caucasian and I share that with most of my friends who are the same ethnicity as me. I attend the Church of God and I share the love and willingness to want to do better and be involved with God with my church family.
Posted August 18, 2008
qlcoach wrote...
Nice to hear from you again. Thanks for inteacting at our publishing club. You are a wonderful writer. Please see our debate here: http://www.squidoo.com/book-marketing-eby.
Sincerely: Gary Eby, author and therapist.
Posted August 17, 2008
BigGirlBlue wrote...
This was an interesting lens. I've always been a terrible debater but I like to watch others. :)
Posted May 06, 2008
by rwoman
I have come to terms with my Squidoo addiction at Squidooholic by taking the Squidoo Pledge! But being a Squidooholic can't be all bad as it helped me...
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