Discourse Community of Law: Appeals Brief
In his article “The Concept of Discourse Community,” John Swales describes a discourse community as a group of people that “have a broadly agreed set of common goals, contain certain mechanisms of intercommunication among its members, have acquired a specific lexis, and have a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content discoursal expertise” (Swales #). An example of such a discourse community is the legal profession. The legal profession has the common goal of understanding and applying general principles to particular factual situations. In doing so, lawyers use language, concepts, and methods that are unique to their community.
In the Swales document we looked at in class, a discourse community has a set of common goals (Discourse Community). In high school basketball, the goal is to win the state championship. Also, a discourse community uses a specific jargon (Discourse Community). We see this in the rules and how some players and coaches communicate. Finally, a discourse community has its new members learn from experienced members (Discourse Community). This is evident when we talk about learning the fundamentals from the coaches. High school basketball can be a very diverse discourse community because while every team has different ways of doing things, they all have the same end goal of being the state champions. Basketball has always
You belong to a discourse community! Whether you know it or not almost everyone belongs to some type of discourse community, but how does it affect you as an individual? From the studies of multiple authors, it has been established what defines a discourse community, what effects intertextuality have on a discourse community and even the overall dynamics, but even with all this research there is still something missing. Elizabeth Wardle, John Swales, and James Porter all make very good discussion points and arguments in their research, but none of these writers stop to examine the effects that these communities could possibly have on the individuals that make the community what it is. Just as it’s the simple stone block that when combined become
Discourse is explained though many mediums and is focused around the social construction of meaning. O’Shaughnessy and Stadler (2012, 172) state that discourse is a:
When I originally wrote my paper, I failed to notice that my discourse community was not explained in much depth as it left out many details that would have helped the audience better understand my community. While rereading my paper, I noticed that I never addressed topics such as the venue of HOBY, how I originally became a member or the process, and how others can also become members. The topics that I failed to address would have most likely been a focal point for my audience when attempting to learn about my discourse community.
In this particular analysis, I will analyze examples of this genre from a graduate seminar, where students are responding not only to the texts but to the ideas and reflections of their peers as well. These examples are all drawn from public blog postings from a single week’s readings, early in the semester, in order to examine the moves made by these students and how, within the framework of a course assignment, they form a discourse community. It should be noted, of course, that one of the samples is my own blog, and that I will therefore be approaching this genre as both a participant a...
Critical Discourse Analysis: a qualitative research method to demonstrate how text producers use language in a way that could be ideologically significant, which could influence a reader’s view of the world.
The United States would not be the country it is today, without the help of its millions of innovators. Innovation has built this country, and given it its strength to continue to thrive and grow. The University of Dayton’s, newly formed, Flyer Innovations Club, is exactly what the University needs to thrive; to continue to improve and grow. Flyer Innovations is a community in and of itself in the community of Dayton. John Swales explains that there are six characteristic that make up a discourse community (53). Each of these characteristics makes the community unique, which gives it the ability to stand out on its own. According to the research of John Swales, through their common goals, methods of communication, unique language, and organization of leadership, Flyer Innovations proves to be the new and promising discourse community at the University of Dayton.
Our discussion about major life events (graduation, weddings, etc.) being a theatrical performance made me realize how prominent aspects of theater are in my own life. The evidence that I looked at to write this paper was the 7 Reasons Why Theater Makes Our Lives Better by Howard Shalwitz. The article stated a lot of strong points about the importance of theater, but my favorite one relates to communication. Theater requires face to face communication and a lot of teamwork in order to work smoothly. In a society where technology takes up a majority of our communication face to face contact is rare. Theater allows people to come together and throw around ideas of every type. Face to face interaction is important for any human being. Another point that really hit home to me was the idea that theater influences the way we think and feel about our own lives and makes us take a hard look at ourselves. The morals and beliefs that are expressed in some performances can make you really think hard about how you portray yourself on a daily
The study, in which we looked upon through our time working within Applied Theatre, is how our role as a facilitator changes, depending on the age, ability and social background of the participants, in an educational environment. I will discuss further how the various aspects of social and political culture vary the way that I have conducted a workshop, and also what I would have to do if I continued my study further.