DISCOURSE COMMUNITY

Stephanie Nevarez
University of Texas at El Paso

Many dont understand clearly what a discourse community is. Even some very

well known linguistic researchers like Swales, still dont think that there is a set definition for
discourse community. However, some linguistic researchers have said that the closest they could
get to having a suggestive idea of what discourse community means is, is by abiding by six
rules. The discourse community has to have a set of publicly known common goal(s), engage in
communication among members of the group, people being involved in deciding how something
is done and receiving feedback, moving towards whatever common goal is set in the community,
special way of communicating (Acronyms) and the constant effort of keeping the group
advancing depends on both the ratio of newbies and seniors admitted into the group.

The type of discourse community discussed here will be the online K-Love discourse
community that is a religious based community that focuses not only in growing with God, but
also helping one another along the journey of it all. It uses both means of communication, written
and speech. The community is located worldwide on an app to connect with everyone and also
has a radio show available for everyone within or without the app.
Furthermore, Swales article explains with great detail the difference between a speech
community and a discourse community. He begins by explaining what other researchers believe
is a discourse community. Swales article talks about how not every social group is considered
an actual discourse community. In his research he uncovers the differences of both
sociolinguistics and socioretorical traits playing a role in discourse communities.
Swales says that sociolinguistics speech communities rely on the demand of how much
communicative needs there is in the group. Meanwhile, a sociorhetorical speech community
relies heavily on how functional the means of communication is depending on the goal the group
is trying to accomplish. He specifies how speech communities rely on the medium, which it uses
to communicate, and includes the fact that speech communities are based upon linguistic rules
while discourse communities use six rules to define itself. (Swales)
Similarly, Charles Bazerman also wrote an article about discourse communities. He doesnt
go very much into detail but he gives some of the main arguments that have been debated about
discourse communities. He also includes how researchers have been trying to give a definite
definition to discourse communities and giving an explanation on whether discourse community
is the same as speech community with just the adjustment to the terminology. He found that
some researchers think that the idea suggested by the current definition of discourse community
is too broad and similar to other words already defined, which gives confusion entirely on

whether or not a person is in a discourse community, and it also brings about another question
which is if a discourse community even exist or if it is just a modernization to the term speech
community. Although there is no set definition, for the most part both articles conclude with the
fact that there cant ever really be a set definition to discourse community, only a set of
suggestive ideas. (Swales) It becomes each individuals responsibility to try and follow the set
guidelines to which they define what a discourse community is and whether or not theyre
involved in one.
In spite of this, there is always a discourse community that everyone belongs to, whether it
be for entertainment or for education matters, a discourse community can be thought of as a sort
of Special Interest Group (Swales) or sorority that someone belongs to. The discourse
community going to be discussed, is about K-Love. K-Love is a Christian community that works
worldwide with different people and churches to bring God into peoples lives, which is their
main goal, which is the first rule of a discourse community qualification. Along with bringing
God into peoples lives it also is a community that helps each other along the journey of growing
in life with God involved in it. Anyone is welcome to join at any moment and get involved in the
community, whether it be by simply being part of their community, spreading the word of God or
by donating their time or money to the community to help it grow and reach more people
worldwide.
The way that the intercommunication happens within this discoursed community is by an
app created by K-Love. Intercommunication is the second rule from the six rules, that qualify a
group into being a discourse community. The K-Love app is where you can go and write about
anything, whether it be for a prayer or troubles youve been having, it is open to anyone in the KLove community to see and have. In this app, people can also find useful resources to grow or

help overcome a situation they have. People of the K-Love community have access to respond
back to fellow members, and help advise each other if someone request prayer or feedback upon
their thoughts theyve posted on the app too. In addition, the pastors and helpers that work for KLove host a radio show where they get to share stories, talk about certain topics and also get to
answer phone calls and talk to people of the K-Love community over the phone.
The third rule talks about how members or people in the group get involved in deciding how
things are done and receive feedback, the way that K-Love lets others in the community get
involved in how things are running is by asking their members for their opinion. The members
have the opportunity to call them or email them to input their opinions and thoughts about any
matter they see concern for or just to simply respond to what the K-Love headquarters people
have suggested. Once the K-Love headquarters has come up with solutions or updates on the
proceedings of any given subject, they tend to email members and announce it on air. This is the
most effective way to let everyone know what is going on in both, the app and the K-Love radio
show.
As previously stated, the main goal of the K-Love community is to grow in God and help
spread the word of God. This makes the K-Love community qualify for the fourth rule of a
discourse community, which is getting things done in order to advance towards the main groups
goal. However, this goal is set at each individuals pace, which means that there is no time limit
or rush to get to that goal because ultimately the spiritual growth of each individual of the KLove community depends on the persons effort and want, not to mention it is a life long journey.
The only exception in this community where there is a time limit is when K-Love has their
annual fundraising drive to sustain the radio station and app. This goal is a very small factor of
being involved in K-Love, and the way that the fundraising takes place is by having about a

week of constant reminders and sharing of stories to remind people how much the K-Love radio
helps people grow in God and spread the word of God. They use stories that have been
submitted by former K-Love supporters to motivate everyone else in the community to also give
back to K-Love to help them reach their main goal.

In contrast to the fifth rule of what a discourse

community does, K-Love doesnt have a specific
way of communicating like other discourse
communities that use acronyms or certain scientific
notation to communicate with each other. (Swales, pg.8) They may sometimes refer to each other
as brothers and sisters because they believe that God is their spiritual father, but it is very rare.
Still, the community does have the sixth rule fulfilled because K-Love is sustained and kept
going by everyones constant help of donating, getting involved in activities or campaigns and
also by the people spreading the word of God and K-Love itself. It is very difficult to try and
explain how God lives on through this community because there are many factors that play a role
in the process, from songs and artist that participate in the K-Love radio show, to the people that
donate and help the radio and the app reach more and more people worldwide.
To sum up, it is based off the six rules that Swales provides in his article that K-Love counts
as a discourse community. Having only missed one rule, it still outweighs most of them. The
most beautiful thing about this community is how genuinely kind they are to others in need of
help. It is one of the most amazing things, especially in this generation, to know that there is
people who do things for others without having to get anything back from them. K-Love has led
many people to know God and have their lives change drastically. The members in the K-Love

community are very helpful and kind to one another, always reminding each other that they are
all in the pursuit of the same goal but that they dont have to go through the journey alone.

Citations
Swales, John. ''The Concept of Discourse Community." Genre Analysis: English in Academic

and Research Settings. Boston: Cambridge UP, 1990.21-32. Print

Bazerman, C. (n.d.). Issue Brief: Discourse Communities. Retrieved September 11, 2016,
from http://www.ncte.org/college/briefs/dc