You will identify a discourse community that you will focus on over the course of the semester. The discourse community should be related to your studies. Consider the field you plan to enter after graduation. Refer to our in-class presentation and the essay by Swales when selecting your discourse community.

Other things to consider:

• Does this community meet face-to-face or online; how regularly?
• Does this community use any jargon that is specific to the community?
• What are some of the ways in which members of the community communicate with each other

So for this Discourse Community Assignment, any idea I can think of right now is the Supply chain management discourse community. This is actually what I'm studying and getting into a career into supply chain/ logistics. You can talk in detail about the Supply Chain Management discourse community's common public goals, membership qualifications, mechanisms of participation and interpersonal communication, and significant developments. Also, talk about the significance of the Supply Chain Management discourse community and the organizations that supply chain managers join.

Requirements:

• Specialized Terminology: Unique, and often inscrutable, vocabulary associated with a particular community of practice.
• Common Public Goal: Unifying purpose, mission, or vision
• Barriers to Membership: Criteria that include or exclude individuals who wish to participate in a community of practice
• Platform for Sharing Ideas: Physical, virtual, or textual space where members discuss, exchange, debate, and share ideas that relate to their community.
• Expertise in a Subject: Varying levels of understanding and/or mastery
• Genres: Distinct texts with unique features that convey information in a community-specific format.

Why study discourse communities?

The concept provides a useful analytical framework for understanding how distinct cultures and professional communities of practice operate. Understanding a group as a discourse community allows us to easily recognize tendencies for exclusion or inclusion and address them up front, which helps to create high functioning communities.

How do I analyze a discourse community?

Start with the specialized language. You'll need definitions in order to understand the group's goals, membership requirements, platforms, and genres. Once you understand what members of a group are saying, then you can start to determine the importance or usefulness of their goals, practices, and attitudes.

What do I do with this information?

You can use your analysis of a discourse community to help insiders and outsiders communicate with one another more effectively. Importantly, people who are in a position of privilege in a given community may take their specialized knowledge for granted, assuming everyone is aware of it. If newcomers are provided with a discourse community analysis, then they will more easily gain access to that community of practice.

Some discourse communities I belong to include:

My Discourse Community:

Specialized Terminology

Common Public Goals

Barriers to Membership

Platform for Sharing Ideas

Expertise in a Subject

Genres