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Discourse Community
Jonathan Ramirez
9-22-17
Discourse Community Research
Jonathan Ramirez
(RWS 1301) University of Texas at El Paso
Rhetoric communities have been around since the 1920s. A rhetoric community is a
group based on sharing knowledge and improvement in writing and research skills based on
physical observation. This research paper will follow with the claim of RWS 1301 being a
discoursed community. This community will be supported by Swales (1990) to allow the claim
to be confirmed.
Swales composes there has to be six items in order to classify a discourse community.
These six elements consist of common public goals, intercommunication system, looped
fall under these six elements in which all elements have to be met. Having read Swales (1990)
the author mentioned a variety of different groups, from adversarial groups to non-adversarial
depending on how you want to classify them. The community still has the same goal as the rest
The goal for this community is to share the knowledge of rhetoric writing throughout
society. One common way that it is expressed in this community is through a professor or the
NFG (2016) class book. With this knowledge being shared upon pupils, doors open towards
more universal communications which can be shared upon any community in order to enhance
there ability to communicate with other groups as well. Not all discourse communities follow
the same practices, but they do have the same main goal of sharing knowledge.
Rws 1301 has a presentation project towards the ending the of the semester. This will
consist of groups that will be working as one small discourse community to create a
presentation based on their major and research topic. For example, if the group has weather as
a topic and be majoring in occupational therapy they would be able to practice swales six
elements in their research on order to combine the two topics together. A primary source like
the book: Small Groups in Therapy Settings- Barbara W. Posthuma, would be used for research
by the group in order to gain more knowledge on how both topics contribute with eachother.
This community consist of genres, in which it focuses in making extensive research and
writing skills. This research and writing skills can then be shared upon classmates, to help
enhance ones potential writing skills. Swales states that genres in communities are only created
due to the need of having repetition of something for the need of the people. In a classroom
community one example would be this report itself, which is a common practice in order to
enhance the writers ability to build a report. This report will go through numerous steps in
order to reach its final draft. This allows for the practice of rhetoric upon the report, in which
makes this part of the communitys genre. This knowledge will then be passed or used by the
reader or writer for future reference. Our current textbook is also a genre we use to improve
our understanding in building a report. The textbook is built in its own genre to help the writer
take proper steps towards making research and elaborates in detail how to properly compose a
written article.
An Email has set up our looped intercommunication. It is a source our classroom
community uses to get in connection with our professor. To share data and have inner
within the community helps achieve the primary goal of knowledge sharing. It is a major key
point because it minimizes miscommunication within the community. Within itself having this
looped intercommunication meets the criteria of making the classroom a discourse community
because we also collaborate in group assignments to help each other have a better
use in the classroom. Blackboard contains files such as assignments, these introduces that
communication between professor and student to share the practice of rhetoric. This is an
online webpage were professor and students can view there classroom activity and email.
the observation and the feedback of the community. This gives any group the ability to become
a discoursed community as long as their source of communication remains open. One example
this class has is inputting assignments into blackboard so we can have feedback from the
professor. This will allow the practice of communication to become better and more universal
The composition book falls into all of swales categories, only due to the amount of data
it has. An interesting element self-sustaining hierarchy. Since 1920, rhetoric has been a
consecutive hierarchy in its ways of teaching, a composition has had its involvement since the
first articles have initiated, without the writing source there would be a missing piece in
rhetoric. This writing source helps the writer express his idea in his writing. This the initiates the
process of rhetoric to be checked, in which then shows the writers weak points which can then
be improved. The composition provides proof of the hierarchy sustaining- itself through the
This community has a specialized vocabulary. Key terms used in the lectures and by the
considered at most expert, a great range of vocabulary comes from the same context as the
textbook. This allows for the same knowledge to be spread around the community. Not all
communities use the same special vocabulary. As stated in Swales Most commonly, however,
the inbuilt dynamic towards an increasingly shared and specialized terminology is realized
states on how each different group has learned to adjust within itself and its own terms.
Research in this community shows this community has the acquired elements to qualify
as a discourse community. The materials used in this community seems to have more than one
elements have a connection which allows linkage between the elements. This provides support
on how this discourse community continues to be a cycle of knowledge being shared upon the
group.
Resources
Barbara W. Posthuma. (1998). Small groups in therapy settings: Process and leadership. A
College-Hill Publication
The Norton Field Guide to Writing with Readings (2016 MLA update) Richard Bullock +
Maureen daly Goggin
RWS 1301 Personal Composition Class book