John Swales: A Discourse Community Analysis

Everyone belongs to various communities, but one type of community that many people don’t recognize is discourse communities. Discourse communities may be difficult to identify and pick out, but thankfully, author John Swales outlines the necessary criteria needed to be considered a discourse community. Swales says, “The concept of discourse community is proposed as a more functional and goal-directed grouping than either speech community or speech fellowship” (Swales 211). He then goes on to give us six qualities that describe what a discourse community should have: common public goals, methods of communication, providing information and feedback to one another, discourse expectations, specialized terminology, and a rank and change membership. American linguist
Practice -especially with others- is only going to make everyone a better player. When practicing with others, people can pick up certain things that other players do better than them, learn new playing methods, and get a better understanding of certain shots. Going to lessons can also be super beneficial just by hearing other people's feedback on a swing or just the game in general. Our performance in each of our matches is always analyzed by our coach, who then also gives us his feedback and what he thinks we need to improve on. When he gives us his comments and concerns, it’s usually at a team practice, team meeting, or over a text message. Our team communicates through these practices, meetings, and text messages throughout the whole season, but the team continues to stay in touch the whole year to schedule off-season practices and meetings, or even just to check in with one another. Swales says that “the discourse community has mechanisms for intercommunication between members” (Swales 212). Swales says that “the discourse community has developed and continues to develop discourse expectations” (Swales