Discourse Community Research Paper

Throughout our lifetime we will be involved in a variety of discourse community. Understanding the concept of a discourse community is essential and very useful to easily adapt to different discourse communities such as a new class in school or even a new workplace. As we look at the discourse communities we are already involved in you may see many common traits. Many notable writers have influenced the definition of a discourse community, and through applying my personal experiences I have defined a discourse community as a group of individuals who share a common goal, have their own genre, develop their own language, and a communicate through writing.
The first characteristic that defines a discourse community would be sharing one common …show more content…
The use of bulletins handed out in a church is one form of genre. These are forms of communication with in one church to announce certain events, or articles on that day's sermon. Although since the Catholic Church is universal, we may receive genres like letters all the way form the Rome from Pope Francis. These letters might include announcement or may talk about a certain issue in the church. Scripture is another genre used not only in the Catholic Church but in other religious discourse communities. In the Catholic Church scripture and hymns come from the Bible. Their purpose being to convey a message about living a good life that pleases …show more content…
This trait sets them apart form speech communities which are "composed of those who share similar linguistic rules"(Swale 470). You see written communication being used through newsletters sent out through email, and sometimes even through the mail like the old fashion way. Discourse communities allow knowledge and feedback to be reached to a larger audience. This makes it easier to share information with people in different states, and even countries. Especially with technology advancing to where instant messaging is possible, discourse communities no longer have boundaries. This is useful when a new discovery is made, through discourse community it is easily shared around the

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