Discourse Community Ethnography

Carolina Alvarado
UTEP










Introduction
The purpose of the following study was for me, as a business student, to have a better
understanding of the types of writing and communication skills I will need in order to be
successful in my major. In order to complete this study, observations of meetings, shadowing
and interviews took place. The collection of artifacts was also necessary in order to comprehend
the essence of this discourse community. The following paper will provide information on the
discourse community, Financial Management Association, of UTEP.












Literature Review
A discourse community can be described as a group in the community which share a
common goal. According to John Swales (1990) not only does a community have to have a
common goal but they must also meet other criteria. Criteria such as: having a deep
understanding of their own language/lexis that someone outside of the community may have
little to no knowledge about, main forms of communication such as meetings, email, and writing,
they must also have mechanisms to provide information and feedback, as well as have a form of
structure within the members that can be compared to a ladder or pyramid. The structure within
the members can be compared to a pyramid because they have a leader, which if the most
knowledgeable, the members in between that may hold positions such as assistants or trainers
and then the new members placed the bottom which will in the future fill the higher positions.
Although Swales (1990) has a strong definition of what a discourse community is, that is not the
only way to define one. A discourse community can also be seen as a community with a common
goals that are reached in different manners by the members in that particular community.
The common point found in the above definitions is that in a discourse community exists
a common goal that should be reached by the community. For example in a swimming team, the
goal is for the team to have the most points at the end of a meet but not everyone in the team will
compete in the same events. Some swimmers may earn the points in long distance while others
earn their points in short distance. However, they all practice the same techniques and amount of
hours during the week. The swim team has the common goal of earning the most points, each
member has their own job to fulfill, the techniques they learn during practices and the routine
workouts they go through in practices is what makes them a discourse community. These
guidelines can be applied to business or other groups in order to classify them as a discourse
community.
Method
In order for me to have a better understanding of the discourse community as a business
major, I decided to study close up an association a play part of, Financial Management
Association (FMA). I began by asking the president for permission to observe the meeting from
outside of the circle as a non-member for one of the meetings. The purpose of observing as a
non-member was for me to have the opportunity to listen to the form of communication in
between the members and concentrate of how things were done not necessarily what the meeting
was about. After obtaining permission to observe the meeting I thought it would help to shadow
the president during the time he prepared for the meetings along with the rest of the officers. In
order to complete the study I also interviewed the president, former president, and the newest
member after myself.
My reasoning behind observing an association rather than a course on my major was that
I want to understand how a business work and not just part of a business. I came to the
conclusion that FMA was my best choice because up until a year ago there really was not much
activity going on in the association. FMA began emerging slowly and has now rapidly expanded
into a successful association. Wanting to understand the process as to how it was done was my
main motivation to go an extra step by interviewing the former president aside from the current
president.
The shadowing of the officers while they prepared for the meeting was not done in
person because they communicate through a group chat online. I was granted permission to be
part of the group chat and read along what each officer brought to the table. This is where I
began to take note. The preparation for the meeting between the officers was done a week before
the meeting which gave each officer enough days to prepare any presentations they may need
(which I also observed).
I prepared for the observation of the meeting by making sure to show up on time with
paper and pencil on hand. During the observation process I took note of the way the information
was presented by the president to the members, the reaction of the members to the information
being presented, if there was specific dress code that was followed and how any confusion was
clarified.
For each interview I prepared a set of different questions for each interviewee. For the
former president I mainly focused on his approach to bring the association from level 0 to a level
of complete recognition which has caused members to have the opportunity to travel to
international conferences in New York City. After having those questions answered I was able to
come up with questions for the current president which mainly consist of what he is doing in
order to maintain the new level of professionalism and recognition that the association now has.
Another important part of the interview was asking the president if he is doing anything to
continue help the association have better communication within itself and the new members.
Finally with that information at hand I was able to come up with questions for the newer
member. The questions for him mainly approach the subject of what he is doing to adapt to this
discourse community and if the older members have a way of making it easier for him to learn
the way the association works.

Discussion
After studying FMA from on outside point of view rather than I member I was able to
realize that it is a discourse community according to John Swales (1990) definition. Although I
saw it as a tiny discourse community which their common goal is to prepare the members for a
bigger discourse community, the business world. It was very interesting to see that although the
title Financial Management Association may lead one to assume that learning to manage
finances is their common goal, it is not.
I learned through the interviews that the older members are the ones that teach the newest
members how to prepare for interviews, teach them on how to keep informed about current
events (in business and government) because that is what is going to help them be successful and
be chosen for competitions. It all seems to be a cycle because the competitions help the older
members think strategically and in the moments, which is what most of them will be doing in
their future jobs. As on overall view of what I learned through this discourse community is that it
is a replica of what the business world is in general and does not concentrate specifically on
finances or economics or marketing.