analyze a discourse community. For this assignment we will use John Swales’ definition of discourse communities: groups that have goals or purposes, and use communication to achieve these goals.
To get started, you will need to choose a discourse community. ( Health Promotion & Wellness) I’m asking that you select a community that is related to your major, field of study, or future career. If, for whatever reason, such a discourse community would be too difficult to access, then you may choose one that has impacted you or interests you.
After you’ve completed your thorough and thoughtful analysis of your field notes, collected materials, and interview, it’s time to write about your findings in the Discourse Community Ethnography itself. Although there are many ways to approach writing the essay, I ask that you follow this basic structure:
Provide key information about your discourse community, for example, who they are, what they do, etc. You want to give enough context about your discourse community so that your audience feels prepared to read your analysis, but not so much information that your analysis becomes repetitive. You should also explain why you chose this discourse community and what you hoped to gain from studying it.
Before you discuss your findings, you need to briefly explain how you gathered them. Tell your audience where and when you conducted your observation(s), who and when you interviewed a member ( i change it to a female), and what materials you collected for analysis.
Discuss and explain your analysis. You need to discuss and provide examples for each of Swales’ characteristics. It’s often easier to discuss each characteristic separately; however, if you find it more productive to combine characteristics feel free to do so.
Reflect on your findings and analysis. What did you learn about how your discourse community communicates verbally and in written form? What did you learn about the genres your discourse community rely on most for communication? How does this knowledge help you better understand what it’s like to be a member of this discourse community?
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