In the past the definition of discourse communities has been somewhat unclear he believes the ideas came from several leading “social constructionist” of our time (217). To find what he believed are the requirements to be a discourse community he researched the origin of the phrase discourse community and how the term came about. Among other rules he states the community should have a common set of goals, use different forms of communication to achieve them, and a specific set of words unique to their group. When reading through Swales article my first impression was the criteria for a discourse community was a bit exclusive yet the more I re-read the rules the easier they became to understand and apply to almost every group you can imagine. Swale gives us an excellent example of how a group he is a part of, The Hong Kong Study Group, which is a group that is all about Hong Kong stamps. He tells us how the group meets every requirement for being considered a discourse …show more content…
Borgs states that “The concept of discourse communities developed from the concepts of speech community and interpretive community, and sits somewhat uneasily between them” (398). This means that when discourse communities were first thought of, they differed from others enough to be considered their own genre of community. Borgs also talks about how usually when you are a member of a discourse community it is because you want to be, which is not the case in other communities. A vital part of a discourse community is the communication aspect which is why I believe Swales made such an emphasis on having multiple ways to communicate within the community, having ways to give feedback, and the type of language used. Borgs pointed out that discourse communities are especially important to writing because knowing your audience (which could likely be a discourse community) is vital to the writing process and the end result. Borgs did bring forward a few questions that still remain when it comes to the criteria for a discourse community and those are “how large (or small) a discourse community might be; whether speech is needed to maintain a discourse community; whether purpose is the defining characteristic of a discourse community; and how stable a discourse community; and therefore its genres, are” (399). I’m not sure if other communities have these