lets start with some definitions. Discourse, according to your textbook, means language in action or language for the purpose of doing something.

A discourse community is a group of people bound together by common goals with a common style of using language among its members.

Heres a review of the six characteristics of a discourse community:

1. a broadly agreed set of common public goals.
2. mechanisms of intercommunication among its members (such as newsletters or journals).
3. utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims.
4. uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback. In addition to owning genres,
5. has acquired some specific lexis.
6. a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise.

Can you think of a Discourse Community that you have unsuccessfully tried to join?