Discourse Communities

When we were first discussing discourse communities, I was given the false impression that they were limited to a professional or academic context. It also did not help that Swales described the term with such complicated diction. Still, even though a discourse community isn't limited to a professional environment, that doesn't mean it's simply a social or linguistic community either. I can't really define what a discourse community is in one sentence, but Swales does give us guidelines that I will be following. What I can say is that you and I are engaged in rhetoric every single day, and the reason a discourse community may be so hard to explain is because they form so naturally that many of us don't even think about it.

When I first introduced myself in this blog, I mentioned my involvement on campus at SDSU, namely with AB Samahan. Well, as it turns out, this organization just so happens to be a discourse community! I'll admit that the organization is very much a social experience, but just that fact doesn't exclude it from being a discourse community. The organization still meets all of Swales' requirements as they are listed below:

1. A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals. The goals of AB Samahan are clearly layed out in the organization's constitution. This constitution is available to the public and acts as the objective that unites all members of the organization. In short, the goals of AB Samahan are, "to support educational enrichment and advancement through preserving, and increasing the awareness of the Filipino and Filipino American cultures through organized leadership, academic learning, and political and community involvement". However, the way that the various members act to achieve this goal varies.

2. A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members. AB Samahan hosts weekly general body meetings that allow the members to communicate with one and another. It is here that members can inform each other of future events that are being organized or current situations that in some way influence our goal. I can apply the The Cafe Owner Problem to this organization. If I am Individual A, and other members are Individuals B and C, then even if we never interact, we are still considered to be part of a discourse community because we all have lines of communication back to the meeting. The organization establishes intercommunication with all members who attend meetings.

3. A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback. At any meeting or event, members have the opportunity to give feedback. This is usually about how members feel, how well an event was organized, and if the organization was successful in promoting the values and goals defined in the constitution. This often leads to discussion and rhetoric focused on how future organization activities can be better planned in accordance with the discourse community's goal.

4. A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims. There's a plethora of genres utilized by AB Samahan. Everything from informal oral communication, to newsletters, to social media like facebook, instagram, and twitter. Though those genres do not appear to be unique to this discourse community, they have been assimilated to fit the purposes of the organization. 

5. In addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired some specific lexis. As a cultural org our lexis is influenced by some cultural vocabulary. I'll often call other members Kuya (Big Brother), Ate (Big Sister), or Ading (little sibling) based on their age and how close they are to me. We also abbreviate events such as FG and JFAV or leadership positions like NSRs and CoCos. We even have unique phrases like SPUFs, which is like a chant to cheer on your fellow team mates and get everyone pumped. All of these words and phrases would likely be outright confusing to a random passerby, but to members of the discourse community, they have a very real meaning.

6. A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise. In simpler terms, survival of the organization depends on a good ratio of experts to teach the novices. As a collegiate student organization, we have a very fluid member base that is always changing from year to year. However, though old members will leave and new members will join, there are always some elder members around to inform the new members about the values of the organization. So when the new members become the elders of the organization they will repeat this process to the then new members. This ensures that every generation will share the common public goal that the discourse community was founded on.

By meeting all six criteria, there is no doubt that AB Samahan is a discourse community, and one that I'm proud to be a part of!