Swales

Swales:

Before you read: One time i have felt "out of place" was when I was going through recruitment for sororities. One particular house I went to from the moment I walked in I felt slightly uncomfortable. It wasn't an environment that felt homey to me. And as a talked to the girls in the house I did not find myself relating to them very much. It was not the place for me.

Summary: Swales; The Concept of Discourse Community, is about what a discourse community is. He gives six things that make up a discourse community. 1. a discourse community has common goals. 2. the community has communication among its members. 3. Uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback. 4. possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims. 5. acquired specific texts and 6. has changing membership. He talks about how it doesn't have to be academic to be a discourse community.

Synthesis: The first person to synthesis Swales to is porter. Both porter and Swales talk about discourse communities as a group of people with common interests. Swales goes more in depth by giving specific guidelines for discourse communities. Allen mentions discourse community when she talks about how people are involved in groups with similar interests to them.  And Swales can be linked to Gee as both authors talk about the different language used within a discourse community. Each community has its own niche of language. Swales can also relate to Glenn because glenn is about discourse community and Swales would outline the community that glenn is talking about.

#5.  A discourse community I belong to is my dance studio at home, called Accent Wendys School Of Dance. As a studio our common goal is to grow as dancers and share our passion for dance with younger girls, as well as put on a grand recital at the end of the year. There is intercommunication among its members because students interact with each other and their teachers during lessons and teachers interact with one another. The communication mechanisms are conversations, directions, newsletters sent home to students parents, signs that are posted in the waiting room, along with announcements made during lessons about up and coming things. As teachers we are always trying to improve our knowledge of new dance steps to keep the routines fresh. There are many genres at the studio because there is a wide variety of types of dance to choose from. Ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, pointe, Hawaiian, and tumbling for the younger age groups. There has also been toe jazz, and toe tap. The terminology used in the dance studio are names of the steps being performed, that you would have to be in the discourse community to understand. and lastly having changing of members. While the studio has been running for 50 years I have been a member of the discourse community for 15 years starting when I was three years old. New members are always coming and going. and as girls like me graduate there are always new 3 year olds coming into the beginner classes. since the studio has been around for so long there are even girl that are dancing now who their moms took lessons years and year ago in the same 2 rooms.

#6.  Going to church. I participated in the discourse community of a particular church because that was where my mom forced me to go. I went to sit in the pew and think. It was the best time for day dreaming. eventually I started going to a church that was more my style and enjoyed it a lot more.

I thought reading this was informative and that the things that define a discourse community will be very helpful when starting to think about a discourse community for project #3. Also after answering question #5 i am debating if that would work as a discourse community for my english paper. So I will be brainstorming ideas to go with that. I thought Swales had good ideas about discourse communities that help me understand what a discourse community is.