Six Discourse Communities

1) “A discourse community has a broadly agreed upon set of common public goals.”

In other words, all discourse communities have a framework of what they’d like to change or accomplish. For example, a student group centered on “going green” has the ultimate goal of inspiring significantly more people on campus to recycle and reduce their carbon footprint than were previously doing so before the group existed.

2) “A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members.”

There exists a means to communicate and keep in touch in all discourse communities. In my above example, this could mean an emailing list that all the members of the group are apart of. It would also mean the meetings this group holds to discuss new topics and ways to further their goal.  

3) “A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback”

A discourse community discusses new information and ideas in its meetings or other instances where the community is able to participate. In my example, the “green group” would utilize meetings to discuss new ideas relevant to “going green” as well as different ideas as per how to spread them throughout their campus and student body.

4) “A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims.”

Discourse communities make use of certain genres, or types of writing, to help communicate its message and, by extension, accomplish its ultimate goal. My “green group” would, in this instance, probably utilize print (posters, flyers, ads) to keep ideas about recycling and using less energy at the forefront of the student bodies’ mind. 

5) “In addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired some specific lexis.”

A discourse community will make use of certain words and phrases specific to its cause and operation. In my “green group”, this could mean the use of the words and phrases like green, environmentally friendly, and others that pertain to recycling and such.

6) “A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise.”

Within the discourse community is at least a certain number of people who are credible in the knowledge and direction they provide. In my example, this could be a group of knowledgeable students studying fields relevant to “going green” (i.e., environmental health, environmental sustainability, green energy, etc).