Questions to ask a discourse community

Advanced Writing Assignment " Discourse Community "

You need to know Genre :

Genre canTells me how people in the group relate to each other:

Relationships range: personal to formal

Leaders/experts Become clearer

Genre Can help me organize my paper:

Arrange By social media, formal electronic communication, printed documents,etc.

Genre Can tell me how the group does business/meets its goals: Sometimes, Explicitly stated

Genre Can Tells Me what niche (collective identity) group occupies (Android users/Apple users)

OUT LINE

1) INTRODUCTION

Answer:

Why do we use a discourse community to

understand language?

End with thesis statement.

EX. Consistent observation, [specific

documents], and an interview with

[expert/novice name & title] reveal

[discourse community name]’s

mechanisms/ communicative

aims/goals/ideas about [concept]

(2SUMMARIZE SWALES’S

CHARACTERISTICS

One strategy:

•

Introduce a characteristic (w/citation)

•

Explain characteristic (w/citation)

•

Provide examples

Ex. Swales requires “specific lexis” of any group th

at might be called a discou

rse community (222). He

does not rule out terms that can be used in other

contexts (222). For instance, a group of roommates

might be just as concerned with parking as a communi

ty of factory workers, and words related to that

idea can be found in both communities. His em

phasis, however, is on “shared and specialized

terminology” as a way to understand group dynami

cs through communicative formats (222). It would

be more valuable, for example, to know that in Professor Myers’s class, “DCA” is a common

abbreviation for a major assignment than to know that

instructor uses the phrase “freak out” frequently.

3 BASIC INFO

•

Consider

•

What makes this group a discourse

community?

•

What makes the analysis of this DC

unique or interesting?

•

What matters to members of the

community? What do they do? What

do they value?

3) METHODOLOGY

•

How did I gather my data?

•

How often did I observe my DC? In what setting?

•

Whom did I interview? Why was this person selected?

4) APLY SWALES’S CHARACTERISTICS TO

MY DC

•

Why does the group exist? What does the group do? What are its shared goals?

•

How do group members communicate with one anot

her (e.g., meetings, phone calls, e-mail, text

messages, newsletters, reports, evaluation forms, blogs, online bulletin boards, etc.)?

•

What are the purposes of the group’s communicati

ons (share information, reinforce values, make

money, improve performance, offer support, declare identity, etc.)?

•

Which of the above communications can be considered

genres

(i.e., textual responses to recurring

situations that all group members recognize and understand)?

•

What kinds of specialized language (

lexis

) do group members use in their conversations and in

their written genres?

•

Who are the “old timers” in the group with expert

ise? Who are the newcomers with less expertise?

How do newcomers learn the appropriate language, genres, and knowledge of the group?

5) ANALYSIS

•

Are there conflicts wi

thin the discourse

community? If so, about what? How do their

genres address those conflicts?

•

Which genres help the

discourse community

work toward their goals most effectively?

•

Do some participants in the community have

difficulty speaking or writing within it? Why?

•

Who has authority in the discourse

community? How was that authority

established? How is authority demonstrated

in written and oral language?

6) CONCLUSION

•

What can my readers take away from this essay?

•

What future work can be done with the work I’ve accomplished here?

MORE INFO

Purpose
The purpose of this assignment is to help you more fully understand how discourse communities use language to function and accomplish their purposes and goals.

Getting Started

Description

Your goal is to compose an interesting description and insightful analysis of the language practices (spoken and written) of a discourse community of your own choosing.

Identify a discourse community that interests or intrigues you. You may be a member of that discourse community; you might be an outsider. For our purposes, a discourse community could be any group of people who identify themselves as a group. Some possibilities include a church group, a fraternity or sorority, a club or team, a social organization, an academic or professional organization, etc.

If you are uncertain whether a group is indeed a discourse community, apply Swale’s six characteristics of a discourse community (220-22) to see if you can find answers to the following questions:

√ Why does the group exist? What does the group do? What are its shared goals?

√ How do group members communicate with one another (e.g., meetings, phone calls, e-mail, text messages, newsletters, reports, evaluation forms, blogs, online bulletin boards, etc.)?

√ What are the purposes of the group’s communications (share information, reinforce values, make money, improve performance, offer support, declare identity, etc.)?

√ Which of the above communications can be considered genres (i.e., textual responses to recurring situations that all group members recognize and understand)?

√ What kinds of specialized language (lexis) do group members use in their conversations and in their written genres?

√ Who are the “old timers” in the group with expertise? Who are the newcomers with less

expertise? How do newcomers learn the appropriate language, genres, and knowledge of the group?

Collecting Information

Once you have identified a discourse community to study, you will need to engage in the following research activities:

• Observe and take detailed notes of members of the discourse community while they are engaged

in a shared group activity. (What are they doing? What kinds of things do they say? What do they write? How do you who is “in” and who is “out”?)

• Collect anything people in that community read or write (i.e., their genres)––“official” publications, newsletters, blogs, forms, IMs, texts, etc.

• Interview at least one member of the discourse community. (How long have you been involved with this group? Why are you involved? What do the terms X. Y, and Z mean? How do you communicate with the group? How did you learn to write things to the group?)

Analyzing Information

As you gather and review information about the discourse community, what catches your interest most? What stands out to you about that community? What surprises you? Listed below are some additional questions that can help you dig more deeply for your analysis of the group:

• Are there conflicts within the discourse community? If so, about what? How do their genres address those conflicts?

• Which genres help the discourse community work toward their goals most effectively?

• Do some participants in the community have difficulty speaking or writing within it? Why?

• Who has authority in the discourse community? How was that authority established? How authority demonstrated in written and oral language?

Planning and Drafting
Because your goal is to compose an interesting, insightful analysis of a discourse community, you will use the material you have gathered from your observations and interview(s). An analysis is your interpretation of all the information you collect. Strive to make sense of everything you learn about the discourse community and convey that to the reader.

Adopt the impartial, analytical stance of a researcher conducting a study. Writing in third-person is appropriate (unless, perhaps, you are a member of the discourse community). Render others’ words fairly. Your comments and explanations should provide your readers with important background information and connections to the course readings where appropriate.

As you draft your analysis, there are many ways you can arrange your material. The suggestions below are not a template, but they may help you consider the types of information you should include:

• Begin by explaining what a discourse community is by quoting and paraphrasing some of the readings in our textbook (e.g., Swales, McCarthy)

• Identify the discourse community you studied by explaining what makes it discourse community (referring to Swales’s criteria would be useful) and what makes it worth studying

• Describe how you studied the discourse community

• Discuss in detail what you discovered about the discourse community (use examples and quotes from your notes, interview, and texts you collected) and analyze what makes it significant to understanding that group

• Include a works cited page (for interviews, genres, etc.)

What Makes It Effective?
An effective analysis is vivid: rich with details, examples, descriptions, and insights.

A reader should finish reading your analysis and have a clear sense of the discourse community you studied. If asked, a reader could find answers in your analysis to the following questions (in no particular order):

What makes this a discourse community? What makes it unique? Interesting?

What matters to members of the community? What do they do? What do they value? How is membership in the community established? Maintained?

How do members use spoken and written language to accomplish their goals?

An effective portrait will demonstrate that you have done sufficient research; organized the material to present key ideas; and edited and proofread to eliminate grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors.

Final drafts should be at least 1750 words. Be sure to include an interesting title.

Helping a Community Attain a Healthy and Beautiful Smile: A Discourse Community Analysis of a Dental Office

The modern definition of health was created for the Constitution of the World Health Organization and signed on July 22, 1946. The definition claims, "Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" (100). Based on this concept, dentistry is a branch of medicine that is involved in the study, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases and disorders of the oral cavity and the adjacent structures and tissues. This dental treatment is carried out by a dentist and her dental team. Success of a dental private practice relies on effective communication between staff members and their ability to share common goals. Consistent observation, analyses of documents like board publications and reports, and interviews with the office’s staff members reveal that the dental private practice of Dove Family Dentistry (DFD) is a discourse community according to Swales’s six characteristics.

Summary of Swales’s Characteristics

John Swales is a professor of linguistics and co-director of the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English at the University of Michigan. He says that in order for a group of people to be a discourse community they have to share six characteristics. The first of these is that “A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common goals. These public goals may be formally inscribed in documents, or they may be more tacit” (Swales 220). This means that the members of the group all work for the same goal, even if that goal is not written down somewhere. For example, in football

( Example 1 )

and many other sports, each team member knows that the ultimate goal is to score more points than the opposing team.

The second characteristic proclaims, “A discourse community has mechanisms of communication among its members” (221). This means that the people inside a discourse community are able to communicate with one another. For example, inside a law office, people communicate through meetings, telecommunications, newsletters, and conversational. The third characteristic builds on the second, exposing the idea that “A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback” (221). Here, Swales is talking about the content of the ways the group communicates. In a workplace, for instance, information is given in meetings and feedback comes in the form of addressing the issues discussed in those meetings. The consecutive characteristic states that “A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims” (221). This proves how genres articulate the operations of discourse communities. The genre is the channel through which the information travels. For example, inside the discourse community of the Composition 1010 classroom, the genres are verbal speech, text messages, notes, drafts, homework assignments, eCourseware, and e-mails between others.

Swales’s fifth characteristic expresses, “In addition to owing genres, a discourse community has acquired some specific lexis” (222). This explains how discourse communities have specific words or phrases that they use to communicate in more specific ways. These range between regular words known to the wider speech communities used in special and technical ways, or work-specific terms, abbreviations, acronyms, and highly technical terminology as in medical communities where the lexis used inside a medical practice between doctors and medical assistants is often not understood by patients.

Finally, the last of Swales’s characteristics denotes that “A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise” (222). This explains how

discourse communities have changing memberships, involving a balance of personnel with high levels of expertise (or the “old timers”) and novices (or the “new comers”) with less expertise. This characteristic also explains how people enter an organization or group, and how they leave it.

Basic Information about the Dove Family Dentistry Discourse Community

Dr. Dove is a general dentist who focuses his practice on the needs of the family, with a goal to serve those who are traditionally underserved in receiving dental care. He tailors his clinical hours to accommodate the needs of the working family and reach the Spanish-speaking community. He is a firm believer in education and progress through education. He shares his philosophy with his staff and their slogan is “Team work makes the dream work.”

DFD has a working staff of fifteen members; six of them are bilingual. They have twelve “old timer” members with different levels of expertise, and three “new comers” that are still adapting to the office style. The majority of the employees are from different countries such as India, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and the States. This makes the dental practice a multidisciplinary and multicultural environment.

Methodology

The analysis of this discourse community shows how important is to maintain effective communication to be a successful practice. It additionally demonstrates how important it is for the Spanish-speaking community to have the opportunity to communicate with the doctor in order to address their concerns.

DFD is an office located in the intersection of Covington Pike and Stage Road and was observed during a period of two weeks in Feb. 2016, by a staff member. The observation took place within regular office hours and was guided by Swales’s six characteristics. The interviews with Dr.

Dove, Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Kendall, Mrs. Stevanott and Mrs. Barrios occurred after the observations were made, and those interviewed were members of each level of the practice in order to determine

if information is handled in the same way at all levels. These interview consisted of five open-ended questions (Appendix B) asked in private about the common goals and communication between the staff. These questions permitted a direct view of office performance and showed how DFD is a discourse community.

Swales’s Characteristics Applied to Dove Family Dentistry Discourse Community and Analysis DFD is an excellent example of a discourse community. The six swales characteristics are

clearly defined and easy to recognize. DFD shares the common goal to provide a welcoming environment to the underrepresented patients, making them feel at home while giving the best dental care possible. Even though there are personal goals involved within each particular position inside the office. For example, at the front desk the personal needs to have the paper-work ready for the day. One of the most important goals of the entire office is putting the patient needs first, making them feel as comfortable as possible during the dental treatment.

DFD does communicate among itself in more than one way. They use verbal speech, meetings, reports, board postings, emails, and phone calls. Each member of the DFD discourse community has an important role in order for the practice to be successful, and effective communication permits the practice to function properly. Sometimes there is a breakage in the channel of communication and the information in the message does not reach the listeners. For example, in a meeting held by the office manager about the office cleaning, the staff was distracted and the message was not acquired. After a week, Mrs. Jones was disappointed about the staff’s cleaning performance. So, she had to post a note in the break-room board as a refresher about the previous meeting. That reflects that written instructions are more effective than spoken instructions. As the instructions are directed by one expert through verbal speech, sometimes the novice is overwhelmed with information and gets lost through the learning process. If a guide book were

handled to the novice prior to the work day, the novice would know what to expect and how to be effective in his or her performance.

The purpose of the group’s communication is to share information, reinforce values, make money, improve performance and offer support. Inside DFD staff talking about information content. The information exchange travels from the top of the pyramid to the bottom levels, obtaining feedback since it is a work area. When Dr. Dove sends information to the manager, Mrs. Jones is responsible for distributing the information to the rest of the staff. For example, after a meeting with Dr. Dove, Mrs. Jones posted a communication on the board informing the days the office would be closed on holidays. In this case, the feedback is not immediately required. In other occasions Dr. Dove communication is directed to the staff, as is the case of a group text message sent after a hard day to thank the staff for their efforts and support. In this particular case the feedback is the reply text messages. In a different scenario the feedback is needed with promptitude. For example, after a survey about professional harassment was handled to the staff, they had to fill it out and return it to the manager in less than three working days.

In DFD there are different channels through which the information travels. Authority in this office goes from the top of the pyramid to the bottom and is established in each department by seniority. There is a high level of communication between the top part of the pyramid with Dr.

Dove and his associates, MB2 Company, and a less specialized type of communication moving down the pyramid. The pyramid’s first floor communicates daily through phone calls, once-a-week video-conferences, everyday reports, faxes, and emails. Between Dr. Dove and Mrs. Jones, the fastest way of communication is through verbal speech. Mrs. Jones communicates with the rest of the staff via verbal speech, board postings, and established once-a-month meetings. Between the rests of the staff the communication is direct, through direct verbal speech, phone calls, and text messages. Between the office and the insurance companies, communication is through faxes, emails,

correspondence and phone calls. Between the office and the patients, communication is through phone calls confirming and scheduling appointments, and through correspondence.

Implying the lexis characteristic DFD do share a particular lexis. This lexis is composed of highly technical terminology, used in abbreviations and acronyms, and other words related to location- specific terms. For example: RCT for root canal treatment, SPR for scaling and root planning, EXT for extraction, hot tooth for an incoming patient in pain, and PCP for problem child patient. Other words related to locations inside the facility are: X-ray room, break-room, playroom, sterilization area, laboratory, and operating rooms #1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Attributing membership and level of expertise characteristic, the experts inside the office are the owners, Dr. Dove and MB2 Company. The personal with high level of expertise that entered the office from the beginning or the “Old Timers” are Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Kendall, and Mrs. Tucker. The rest of the staff has a relative level of expertise depending on their time working for the company.

The part of the staff that are considered “New Comers” or novices, are those who have been in the office for one year or less. As soon as a new employee enters the office, one of the experts takes care of it and explains how everything works and shadows the novice to teach her or him how to function. Talking about patients, regular or old customers are experts and new patients are novices.

In order to enter the office, the process is through application and hiring. To leave the office the employee must quit, or get fired. In DFD, there is a 40 % bilingual staff who communicate with the underrepresented Spanish speaking community, which makes the office efficient in delivered dental care. This means that the other 60 % of the office have trouble communicating with this community. And that is why team work makes the dream work; each member of this group covers the back of another co-worker.

Conclusion

Based on the study of Swales’s six characteristics of a discourse community and the observations and the interviews withheld with the Dove Family Member staff, it is clear and evident that Dove Family Dentistry is a discourse community. This community shares common goals, different types of communications, lexis, genres, and sends information between its members obtaining feedback. What is special about this group is that they care about people, making them feel part of a larger family. On the other hand, they give to the underrepresented community the chance to obtain the same quality dental care that everybody deserves.

Works Cited

Nordqvist, Christian. "What Is Health? What Does Good Health Mean?." Medical News Today.

MediLexicon, Intl., 1 Jul. 2015. Web. (100)

Swales, Jhon. “The Concept of Discourse Community”. Writing about Writing: A College Reader. ed. 2. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2014. 215-227. Print.

Dove, Joseph. Personal Interview. 26 Feb. 2016. Jones, Deborah. Personal Interview. 26 Feb. 2016. Mamoot, Zakia. Personal Interview. 26 Feb. 2016. Kendall, Sharricka. Personal Interview. 26 Feb. 2016. Stevanot, Naishla. Personal Interview. 26 Feb. 2016. Barrios, Wenmar. Personal Interview. 26 Feb. 2016.

Appendix A

( Owners Office Manager Providers: Hygienists Dental Assistants Front Desk Scretaries Auxiliaries: New Commers )

Appendix B Interview Questions:

1. How long have you been part of DFD?

2. Who represents the authority inside DFD? Why?

3. What is the common goal of DFD?

4. What do you think is the best way of communication inside the office? It is effective?

Would you change it?

5. What do you think are specific words that you use inside the office that not everybody would understand outside of it?