Post 11

In James Gees’ “Literacy, Discourse and Linguistics,” he talks about how tension or conflict is present between two people in discourse communities.  We test people in a certain community, for example a softball organization that I once played for, perhaps in order to show our dominance.  This group can communicate in a distinct way, which will weed out people who discourse communities can deem “non-natives.”

Swales’ identifies six different characteristics for a discourse community.  Using an example familiar to me, I would choose my softball team/softball community.  I was constantly surrounded by the people I was playing with and the atmosphere it provided.  The first characteristic is: the community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals.  Everyone shared the same goal and did similar things to achieve the goal of winning.  Although we wore different color and team names, all in all everyone was doing the same thing. 

            The second characteristic is using its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback.  Being a softball tournament allowed parents and team members of my team to bond and get to know someone they might not have normally talked to.  With this interpersonal communication, everyone has able to improve and provide suggestions on how to be a better team.  This feedback is what forms the board that strives to make the organization better.

            The fourth characteristic is a community that utilizes and possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims.  The softball organization I played for consisted of hundreds of different teams.  All of theses teams are their own genre, but together we all worked to better the organization and to make a good name for ourselves.

            The softball community has its own specific lexis.  This includes terms that would not be heard on a soccer field or perhaps a football field.  Typically there are things such as “RBI” or batting average, but specifically within a team, you could have different plays that need to be called that have special names.

            Lastly the sixth characteristic is a community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discourse expertise.  The softball organization I played for only extended up to the age of twenty-three.  Every year there were girls leaving the organization in order to go to college or focus on their career.  Some left for other reasons, but many girls continued to also enter every year, which ensured the organization would continue.