Discourse Community Enthnograohy
Principles of Nutrition Discourse Community Ethnography
D.S
English 1311
University of Texas at el Paso
Discourse Community Enthnograohy
Introduction
The concept of a “discourse community” is described in the book Writing About
Writing by John Swales as a community that shares an objective or common goal, also he
mentioned six characteristics that this community needs to have in other to qualify itself as
discourse community. Discourse community in order to communicate amongst themselves
have specific language and tools. The name for this specific language is called by swales a
“lexis” and this tool is called a genre. I can explain a Discourse communities better with
examples like school teams, associations, businesses, and classes. For my discourse
community ethnography I will investigate a fundamentals of nutrition class, because is
related with my nursing major. I will explain how this community is a discourse
community. In order to explain it I will use the six characteristics made by Swales.
Literature review
John swales is a professor of linguistics at the University of Michigan as he wrote in
the book “Writing about Writing” he presents to us the difference between discourse
communities and speech communities. A discourse community is a group of people with
the same goal, they also use specific terms in their discourse community that swales terms
as lexis. Also, they use genres, Swales states “Genres are types of texts that are
recognizable to readers and writers, and that meet the needs of the rhetorical situations in
which they function” (p. 216). Also to analyze this discourse community there are six steps
Discourse Community Enthnograohy
to do it. The difference of the discourse community and the speech community Swales
states, “speech communities are centripetal ( they tend to absorb people into that general
fabric ), whereas discourse community discourse communities are centrifugal ( they tend to
separate people into occupational or speciality-interest groups)”.(p. 220) Other differences
that swales mentioned are “ A speech community typically inherits its membership by
birth, accident, or adoption; a discourse community recruits it members by persuasion,
training, or relevant qualification.” (p. 220) A speech community is a community that has
as principal social characteristic and the discourse community has specific goals to achieve
for the social whole. The six characteristics that a Discourse community has that I
mentioned earlier are described by swales in the book and are the following:
1.- A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals.
2.- A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members.
3.-A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide
information and feedback.
4.- A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the
communicative furtherance of its aims.
5.-In addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired some specific lexis.
6.- A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of
relevant content and discourse expertise.
These six characteristics of the Discourse community will help me with my
discourse community ethnography because I will explain each of them how they are related
with my discourse community which is Fundamentals of nutrition.
Intertextuality
Discourse Community Enthnograohy
In the book “writing about writing” in the reading “Intertextuality and the discourse
community” by James E. Porter explains to us what intertextuality is and how it is related
to a discourse community. Intertextuality is described by Porter as “looking for traces bits
and pieces of text which writers or speakers borrow and sew together to create new
discourse” (P.397). Porter shows us two types of intertextuality, iterability and
presupposition. Porter described iterability as “repeatability” of certain textual fragments
(P.397). The iterability has explicit allusions such as difference with presuppositions that
has no explicity. Porter describe presuppositions as “Presupposition refers to assumptions a
text makes about its referent, its readers, and its context- to portions of the text which are
read, but which are not explicitly.”(P. 397-398). The text book of my discourse
community is using iterability because repeat some text fragments of the others text books.
Discussion
My discourse community is a fundamentals of nutrition class. I will explain the six
characteristics by Swales related to my discourse community ethnography. The first
characteristic is:
A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals
In my discourse community I could see this characteristic in the way that they are looking
for the same common goal, better nutrition, not just for themselves but also for their family
and friends. In the interview with Professor Ximena Burgos, she explained to me the
objective of the class. The objective is to learn the basic macronutrients, how nutrition
affects our life, and how it is affects our health. Also in the interview with a volunteer
student, Francisco Sagredo, he told me the class is achieving its objective of learning how
Discourse Community Enthnograohy
to use nutrition in everyday life. The students also go to the discourse community to learn
more about nutrition and apply this knowledge later in their majors. Fundamentals of
nutrition is a prerequisite class for nursing majors as well as other more majors. In this
class the rethorical situation is applied, because in the reading of the book “Rethorical
situations and their constituents” by Keith Grant- Davie explains a rethorical situation as a
situation where one person or a group of people called rethors are persuading people that
are the audience to change their mind, this persuasion can be teaching something. For this
reason I could say that this class is a rethorical situation. The professor in this case would
be the rethor and she is persuading her students to change their diet into something
healthier .(Gant-Davie 247).
A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members.
In the reading “The concept of the discourse community” by John Swales he states
that “The participatory mechanisms will vary according to the community: meetings,
telecommunications, correspondence, newsletters, conversations and so forth” (pg.221). In
this discourse community the meeting could be the class they assist Tuesdays and
Thursdays at 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm. In my first visit to the class I noticed the professor use
power points in order to give the class. In these power points there are key terms and
definitions, but also in between she has a question that the students need to answer. This
discourse community uses a specific way to answer the question. They have a sheet of
paper with four options, a, b, c, or d and they show the answer with the paper. The second
day of my visit the professor gave them an assignment.They need to look for specific
vitamins and find the following information about the vitamin: function in the body, dietary
Discourse Community Enthnograohy
sources, deficiencies, recommended intake, and optimum recommendation. The professor
gave them the chance to use their phones or laptops to look for the information and when
they finished the professor chose one member for each vitamin and they needed to present
for the class. I think this part is related with the reading of the book “Activity Theory: An
introduction for the Writing Classroom” by Donna Kain and Elizabeth Wardle they state:
“Tool- mediated. People use many types of tools to accomplish activities. These may be
physical objects, such as computers, or systems or symbols, such as mathematics.” (pg.
276)
3. - A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide
Information and feedback.
In the class of fundamentals of nutrition the professor and the students have a
participatory mechanism primarily to provide information and feedback through
blackboard. In the interview she told me that she asks them for dietary analysis which is an
assignment that they have to do on a website designed by the government. To learn how to
collect data on their diet, they have to do that in the website called “do my plate” and they
need to submit that through blackboard and they are also required to do different
assignments in class. They have exams and quizzes, they also need to do three recipes using
different fruits, and usually fruits that are healthy and that they do not eat frequently, in
order to learn how to use this food to have a healthier life. They need to answer and also
submit it by blackboard and the professor gives them their grade also by blackboard.
4. - A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the
communicative furtherance of its aims
Discourse Community Enthnograohy
The class of fundamentals of nutrition possesses genres that John swales describes as
“genres are types of texts that are recognizable to readers and writers” for this discourse
community the genre could be their book, in the interview the volunteer student showed me
the book called “NUTR” by Mcquire/ Beerman. Maybe a genre could be the exams or
quizzes, and the power points of this class. Also, the recipes could be a genre because they
deal with vitamins, lipids, carbohydrates, between others.
5.-In addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired some specific lexis.
Lexis are specific words that the discourse community understand between their members.
The discourse community have lexis. In the interview the professor told me some lexis that
they use, some examples are the following: carbohydrates names, enzymes (these are very
specific to the nutrition), amilas enzyme, lypas enzyme, lactose, monosaturated facts and
polysaturated facts, they are the words that are not very common outside the class.
6. - A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of
relevant content and discourse expertise.
Swales said in his article “survival of the community depends on a reasonable ratio between
novices and experts” (p.222) in my discourse community the expert would be the professor
because she is the person who has more knowledge. The novices are the students that are
learning new things from the expert.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the discourse community ethnography led me to identify the
differences between a discourse community and a speech community. I also better
understood the six characteristics by swales and how they were related with my
Discourse Community Enthnograohy
discourse community, the principles of nutrition class. I also realize that every day
we are often in a discourse community and we are parts of a group that share the
same goals. I learned how the different discourse communities have their own
language called lexis and the specific texts that are called genre that they used in
order to communicate their goals. I can use this information for my future because
when I become a nurse I will be familiarized with what a discourse community is
and maybe identify the genres and lexis that I will use at that time.
Discourse Community Enthnograohy
References:
Swales.J ( 1990) “ The concept of Discourse community” Writing about writing.
Boston,MA. Bedfort/St.Martin´s. Print.
Porter, J (1986) “Intertextuality and the Discourse Community” Writing about writing
Boston MA Bedfort/St.Martin´s. Print
Grant-Davie.K.(1997) “Rhetorical situations and their Constituents”Writing about writing
Boston MA Bedfort/St.Martin´s. Print
Kain D & Wardle,E (2014) “ Activity Theory :An introduction for the writing classroom”
Writing about writing Boston MA Bedfort/St.Martin´s. Print
Discourse Community Enthnograohy