Summary Swales, John M. Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings.

Cambridge [England: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Print. Swales talks about what define a discourse community. He begins by saying that a discourse community cannot be formally defined. It is something that is based on the social view of the people within and around the community. Swales suggests that a instead of defining it everyone that has theories on what a discourse community is should create a specific outline or criteria. However, he than says that maybe there is no need to define a criteria perhaps a discourse community is just a speech community. He than continues to describe what a speech community is and how it might relate to a discourse community. Swales however, believe that despite this evidence that a discourse community is different from a speech community and therefore requires a different criteria. After stating his position he begins enumerating the six characteristics of a discourse community. After listing them he says, that all the characteristics do not need to be present to make something a discourse community.

Analysis 1/23/13

Swales idea of a discourse community can be related to almost any aspect in our society. Today in class we were supposed to think about where we would be in five years. I believe I will be in graduate school studying International Relations. A university can be a discourse community. The university has a common set of goals for itself and for the students it facilitates, they do have a way of communication amongst other universities and faculty, the students academic success and the ranking of the institution become the feedback, different majors and department act as genres, the lexis is the terminology used within each major, and each year new students and faculty come in and old leave this cycle fluctuates. However, I feel that a better example of a discourse community would be our government. We as citizens act as the feedback system that at any moment can revolt. The layout of our constitution is very similar to that of a discourse community. It has genres (Congress/Cabinets/Bi-Cameral), it posses a lexis (Latin phrases/law), our communication is done within the judicial system (protection of citizens) and through the first amendment. The goals of a government can vary and do change and most of the time they are conflicting, but they are set in a formal document. The level of relevance constantly changes. Elections are held and new members are brought in.