Ishan Sharma 10/9/13 ENGL 106 Aria Halliday Reading Response: Swales Discourse Community In the article The

Concept of Discourse Community, Swales analyzes the context of a discourse community, and argues about what the definition should be and provides examples to strengthen his arguments. Swales mentions that the term itself is not well defined, and goes on to argue against some of the common definitions of a discourse community, such as how it is defined by Herzberg as a center of a set of ideas, is arguable. In terms of his guidelines of what a discourse community should and should not include, there are some points I agree with, and others that I do not. Firstly, I agree with Swales point that a discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals. I believe people part of a group of similar literacy and comprehension skills will also interpret their goals in a similar manner, and though the goal they want to achieve may not be exactly the same population wide, there definitely are components that relate and branch from the same roots, and end towards similar goals. Secondly, I agree with his point that a discourse community uses participatory mechanisms to provide information and feedback. To be part of a community involves being aware of what is going on and being as included as possible, and in this case, the provision of information and feedback is what keeps a community together. Without the provision of such material, it wouldnt be considered a community anymore because members will start feeling unaware and left out. However, his point about how a discourse community has a threshold level of members hindered my confusion. Though generally the amount of people in a discourse community

remains relatively static (excluding inevitable factors that affect population, such as death). I believe the number of people in a discourse community is a number that is variable, and depends on what ideas are being discussed and introduced in the community- anything that could change peoples opinions in a community could attract individuals from other communities to become a part of this specific one. Depending on the communitys guidelines and norms, there could be communities dont have a threshold for the number of people that could be part of the community.

Swales, John. ''The Concept of Discourse Community." Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Boston: Cambridge UP, 1990.21-32. Print.