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Rossalyn Delfino
Professor J. Murray
ENC 1102
6 December 2014
Introducing the International Baccalaureate Program
A discourse community needs a common form of communication that helps achieve the
community primary goal without letting physical proximity from each member become an
obstacle. It does require a form of written communication such as pamphlets, texts messages, or
even a monthly email in order for the community to stay informed. While we are surrounded by
discourse communities everywhere around us, I will be discussing a discourse community that I
have personally interacted with. Throughout my high school years I was a member of a
discourse community known as the International Baccalaureate Program (IB). This community
exemplifies all the characteristics of a discourse community, and has personally defined my work
ethic in college. I will be examining the IB program at my high school and as to how it
functioned as a discourse community. In order to achieve this, I will be analyzing Swales six
points in order for further understanding of this discourse community’s primary goal. Why
should this discourse community be analyzed? By understanding as to what make this discourse
community produce well educated, college bound students compared to a normal high school
education; the county school administration or even politicians might seek to apply this program
in more schools. This could even help to change their methods of teaching in order to increase
the amount of high school graduates that will achieve a college education.
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Pont 1:
Swales’ first requirement of a discourse community and possibly the most important is
that it has shared goals within and it has a primary reason for existing. The International
Baccalaureate program focuses on educating students through the highest form of education in
order to prepare them for college as well as allow them to have a high academic background.
This program exist in order to allow any student internationally to have the same college bound
education and be able to have the same opportunity to a university just as a student attending
school in the United States would have. The student’s prime goal is to achieve their IB diploma.
As previously stated, I will be analyzing the program at my previous high school in order to
provide a more concise form of analysis. Riverview High school is located in Sarasota, Florida
and has about 2800 students and only 697 in the Pre-IB/IB program. By the end of senior year
only about 140 students will successfully complete the IB program and from that number, only
72% will obtain their IB diploma. While the program does consist of the brightest, hardworking
students in the school, problems do still arise. Every student is competing to be the best in the
class as well as to be recognized by the top Universities when application process begins at the
start of senior year. The first two years of high school (freshmen/Sophomore year) the students
are only considered Pre-Ib. This means that they aren’t fully part of the IB Program yet,
application process begins into the actual IB program at the end of sophomore year. They will
be considered actual IB students when they are juniors and seniors. With that being said, seeing
how each year has its own goal to achieve, I will be analyzing my class of 2014 in order to focus
on the primary goal: obtaining the IB Diploma.
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Point 2:
So far the primary goal of this community has been properly established as well as to
why this community exists. Regardless this isn’t what makes a discourse community, the
mechanisms that members use in order to communicate within the community specifically in
written forms, does. The main form of communication that I have used as well as other
classmates has been through social media. We as a class have created a Facebook page for our
2014 class in order to stay up to date with everything due. This page doesn’t just serve one
purpose, it has helped for both emotional and academic support. Phone calls and text messages
also were another form of written component that helped us succeed in our discourse community
and reach our goal. Without any of these forms of communication, interacting with one another
to help each other succeed would have proven to be quite difficult. While these forms of
communication aided us as students to help achieve our goal, the rules and guidelines of the
program itself where written in a handbook. We as students had to know each rule and the steps
in order to obtain our IB diploma. The handbook defines the rules of being in the program as
well as the requisites required to stay in the program itself. For example some of the main rules
were to maintain an above average GPA as well as attendance. No toleration for cheating/
plagiarism and fulfilling the program requirements were another main component of the IB
Program. While the use of social media proved to be quite an affective source it was also
limiting to some members of the community. The students that did not have internet access at
home or maybe just not have a Facebook account were limited to our main form of
communication.
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Point 3:
While social media and texting are the two main mechanisms that allow us to improve
our performance in the program, analyzing the main purpose of the IB handbook will serve as a
better form of understanding why this discourse community behaves a certain way. The IB
handbook is what defines the program itself and without this form of guideline there would not
be a program to begin with. The authority that created these rules are the executives of the
program internationally, which are located in England. But how are these rules enforced? The
program within the school has a director that oversees and enforces the main guidelines that
constitutes IB. Although the director might be the main enforcer of the rules not looking too far
the teachers are also play a role authority. They are the ones that will most likely report the
student to the higher authority if one of the rules is violated. The main purpose of this handbook
is to help the student in the program achieve their prime goal: The IB diploma. For example,
every student at the beginning of the school year is made to sign the IB honor code. A violation
of any of these codes with cheating/ plagiarism being the biggest focus will result in
consequences that could lead the student to be transitioned out of the program. Another
requirement is to maintain an above average GPA. While this handbook might shape the
discourse community, the students themselves are the ones that maintain the communication
through their own discourse in order to succeed and help form a closer bond within the
community itself. The forms of social media that we use as well as text messages and video chat
help set up study sessions or even assist in understanding certain concepts in a class.
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Point 4:
Swale’s also points out the importance of genres within a community. The main
mechanism of communication that can be considered a genre would be Facebook and
ManageBac. It would prove to be the most effective form of communication in order to transmit
a textual response that would answer the group’s question or address a situation. If a teacher
needed an efficient way to communicate something to the students, she would email a student to
post on the Facebook page and that student would post the information transmitted to them on
the page. This form of textual response also proves quite effective since it is the fastest form of
communication, but is also limiting to those who don’t have a Facebook account.
Point 5:
In addition, IB students are quite different when it comes to their lexis compared to an
average high school student. Depending on the classes that they are taking, each class forms in a
sense their own form of discourse community. For example you would only know chemistry
terms and phrases if you had taken that class. Regardless, IB in general has its own lexis; it is
common for a member of the community to use abbreviations for classes that only an IB student
would know. Another example would be like the class History of the Americas’ is abbreviated to
HOA. Other terms include IA’s which stand for internal assessments or even CAS (Creative,
Action, and Service). While these terms to an outsider might not have any meaning, to the
members in the discourse community those two abbreviations are some of the main important
components of being able to obtain the IB diploma. The communicative function of this lexis is
to make communication within the community easier to understand.
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Point 6:
Last but not least Swales last point is pointing out who are the “old timers” vs. the “new
comers.” The old timers in this program would be the teachers as well as IB alumni. They are the
experts in this discourse community. The newcomers with less expertise would be the
underclassmen as well as the newly initiated juniors. It is quite easy to make a distinction
between a newcomer and an old timer since their experience and perception of what the program
offers to them is different. The new comers are able to learn the new lexis as time progresses and
the teacher themselves introduces each terminology to the class.
All in all, the discourse community that has just been analyzed shows as to why this
discourse community is quite different than an average community within a high school. The
students belonging to this program have developed their own lexis that only members within can
fully understand. They all share a common primary goal which is to obtain the IB Diploma. With
that being said this community is worthy of further academic scrutiny and to investigate what
leads these students to be successful.