Why are discourse communities important

Advanced Writing Assignment " Discourse Community "

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?