DISCOURSE COMMUNITY 2

Running head:DISCOURSE COMMUNITY

Running head:DISCOURSE COMMUNITY

DISCOURSE COMMUNITY 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discourse community

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Communication is considered as the basic foundation for any society. Humans are interactive beings, and they cannot survive or thrive without communicating with each other about matters around them. Humans develop speech as infants, yelling when they need something, smiling when happy, and crying when in pain or disappointed. However, community discourse sums up all the communication between human beings, either voluntarily or obligatory. According to John Swales, through his six discourse characteristics defined discourse community as a group of people of the same background who have common knowledge of a particular topic and values a common way of communication. On the other hand, Porter defines a discourse community as a form of life that integrates attitudes, words, beliefs, acts, values, clothing, gestures, and body positions (Porter, 1986). This essay would like to compare the volleyball lovers’ community and the public accounting discourse community. However, we have to first understand various characteristics of discourse communities, according to Linguist Swales.

Linguist John Swales summarized six characteristics that define a discourse community. One of the notable characteristics is a common set of goals or objectives. Every group has common interests they are focusing on. The second characteristic is the mechanisms used for intercommunication between members of the group. The modes can be through writing or mobile phones and so on. The next characteristic is members’ participatory mechanisms to provide information and feedback (Swales, 1993). It can be through annual meetings, FAQs webpage, and so on. Another one is genres possessed and utilized to communicate their aims. These genres differ from one discourse to the other, and they can include graffiti, blogs, and so on. Also, a discourse should acquire specific lexis, which involves the use of jargon, which cannot be easily understood by people outside the discourse. Finally, a discourse should have a threshold level of members to make it effective. Swales put it that leave by death or other less involuntary ways. There should be a functional ratio between experts and beginners to keep the discourse alive and effective. One of the examples of discourse communities is the volleyball lovers community.

The volleyball lovers community is a group of people who are enthusiastic fans of the volleyball game. The group comprises different categories of people ranging from fans, players, coaches, and referees (Mobley, 2013). Volleyball is an indoor game that comprises six players on each side and two main referees. However, because of its popularity, volleyball involves many fans worldwide. Therefore, this notion makes volleyball lovers a discourse community since many people can participate and get involved in it.

The volleyball lovers community has two common goals. One goal is to achieve high skill levels and the quality of their games. The second goal is to give the new volleyballers a place where they can learn the game and enhance their love for the game by narrating their experiences as active players, fans, coaches, and referees (Mobley, 2013). In the discourse, volleyball lovers use magazines, websites, and social media platforms to further this goal. Volleyball lovers have official websites where they can share important information about the game and major incoming events. On social media pages like Facebook, members can share the stories of their experiences and opinions, and the other volleyball lovers members will be responding and commenting below the post. The social media outlet is the most used mechanism of intercommunication. On many occasions, volleyball lovers have managed to achieve their goal of spreading volleyball creativity and information to all parts of the world. Members of this discourse have subscribed to various social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter. Volleyball lovers use several genres to further their course, depending on individual countries. Some people use graffiti on walls, other use magazines, journals, and blogs. In addition, volleyball lovers have specific lexis, including using words like blocks, dodging, pancake, set, bump, free ball, and spike. Also, volleyball lovers could use phrases like “cut back,” which simply means spiking the ball the opposite way you are facing. Another skill is “sealing the tape,” which means making sure the opponent cannot spike past you (Mobley, 2013). People of all ages can join the volleyball lovers community to make it grow. Different countries create new fan club sites to engage the new fans. The volleyball lovers is a discourse community because it exceeds the six characteristics identified by Swales.

Another discourse community is the public accountants’ discourse community. The public accountants’ discourse community meets all the six characteristics that Swales highlighted. The public accountants’ main goal is to provide their clients with outstanding accounting services and guarantee client satisfaction (Flowerdew et al., 2006). Further. Public accountants communicate with their clients through engagement letters, financial statements, work papers, email correspondence, and tax returns. The public accountants’ discourse community uses international seminars and forums to provide information and feedback. This participatory mechanism is convened annually in a specific country. The discourse uses different genres to further its aims. They mostly use journals and official accounting magazines. Also, accountants have their lexis. They use jargon, which includes terms like footing, PAJ-E, SAL-E, debiting, invoicing, among others. Finally, the public accountants’ discourse community has a membership of twenty-five thousand certified and licensed members. For instance, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants is responsible for licensing and evaluating new accountants. This discourse community has checks and balances in place to ensure that their common goals are met.

Similarities

The two discourse communities have some similarities. Both volleyball lovers’ discourse community and public accountants discourse community attract members who share their common goals from different countries (Motta-Roth, 1998). Both discourses focus on bettering the quality of their agendas and objectives by streamlining members’ interests in their respective fields and providing a platform where members can share different productive information. For the volleyball lovers’ discourse, new members are given a platform where they can learn new skills and improve on their ability to win matches. It is similar in the public accountants’ discourse community where members are given a platform where they can sharpen their accounting skills by discussing emerging problems with their fellow experienced members.

Another similarity is both discourse communities have their jargons to facilitate their understanding. They both use specific lexis, which is only understood by their members. There is no age limitation for all the members in these discourses, although members have to be ready to follow the main goals. In both cases, members engage with each other through various communication mechanisms, providing information and feedback. Also, the two discourses are similar because every country has formed individual subgroups of the main discourses. For instance, the volleyball fans have several fan bases in their individual countries who tend to focus more on their local challenges and how they can improve the game quality. Also, the public accountants have smaller local groups in the country like the Ohio public accountants. These local groups do not affect the common goal of the bigger discourse community.

Differences

Volleyball lovers’ discourse community and public accountants discourse community have various differences. One of the differences is that there are no licenses needed for the members to join the discourse in the volleyball lovers’ discourse community. However, in the public accountants’ discourse community, the accountants must be evaluated and licensed for them to join the discourse. The licensing is done by certified accounting bodies that act on the guidelines on the international organization of accountants. For the volleyball lovers’ discourse, members just need to accept the group’s terms and conditions and assure their allegiance to the game.

Another difference is that the public accountants’ discourse community uses official channels to communicate. These channels include convening annual consultative meetings and seminars to discuss matters of concern and also using emails to share information. In contrast, volleyball lovers use unofficial channels to communicate. These channels include webpages, social media outlets like Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter. The volleyball lovers community does not convene international meetings and seminars but rather discuss their issues on the webpage and different social media outlets.

Also, the public accountants’ discourse community uses a formal language to communicate. They use a conventional syllabus and a language that observes grammatical correctness. On the other hand, the volleyball lovers’ discourse community uses informal language, which involves a lot of game jargon phrases that can only be understood by the volleyballers. They do not observe grammatical correctness and mostly use pictures to convey messages due to the language barrier.

It is always good to understand the differences and similarities in different discourse communities. One advantage is to enhance understanding and avoid conflicts. Understanding different discourses help someone easily integrate with different people in the work or social environment. Also, members who want to join a particular discourse community may have an easy time t assess themselves whether they meet the threshold to fit a particular group. For instance, members who want to join the public accountants’ discourse community must first know that they must go through various evaluation processes before being embodied in the discourse. Knowing different discourse communities allows a new member to understand the groups’ common goals, customs, beliefs, and objectives. The potential member is able to appreciate the existence of various people by understanding their way of doing things. People can understand different lexis, ways of communication, and where to use a particular language. Understanding various discourses is essential in corporate social responsibility and integrating with different kinds of people. Finally, it is always good to understand different discourses to increase the chances of increasing individual interests.

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Flowerdew, J., & Wan, A. (2006). Genre analysis of tax computation letters: How and why tax accountants write the way they do. English for specific purposes, 25(2), 133-153.

Mobley, A. (2013). A secret history of volleyball (Doctoral dissertation, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).

Motta-Roth, D. (1998). Discourse analysis and academic. Genre studies in English for academic purposes/Estudios de género en Inglés para propositos academics, 9, 29.

Porter, J. E. (1986). Intertextuality and the discourse community. Rhetoric Review, 5(1), 34-47.

Swales, J. M. (1993). A discourse community and. Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics (GURT) 1992: Language, Communication, and Social Meaning, 316.

 

 

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