Discourse Community

Various linguists and/or writers have different opinions in relation to their definitions of a discourse community. Even though it may be different from other authors, I define a discourse community as a group of individuals willing to exchange efforts and some with similar interests with a finality of contributing positively to a given society. For instance, a basketball team, has as focus the conquest of championships, which at the same time will give the fans something to cheer for and will also attract more tourists; thus, helping a given society financially. The University of Oklahoma is a university located in the United States of America, Oklahoma State, and in the city of Norman (where I study). Inside of the University of Oklahoma

In my interview with Jeffrey, a student-employer that works in Cate Restaurant, I asked what is his main goal of working in Cate Restaurant, Jeffrey stated that he is working there to earn money to pay his bills, and just for the sensation of having a job and not staying at home with nothing to do (Jeffrey). On the other hand, in the midst of talking with Adam another student-employer at Cate Restaurant, he stated, “ …I’m there because first I want to gain money, and second because I want to help the community growing and supporting other students” (Adam). Analyzing both answers carefully, the trend goes towards the question of if the individuals of Cate Restaurant share similar goals, which they do not, making it plausible to accept that there can be in fact an exception on Swales’ characteristics of a discourse community. On the other hand, if both Jeffrey and Adam would have said that they would fight to contribute to the community, it could be more believable that a discourse community has to possess common goals in order to be a discourse community. Yet, the reason that Jeffrey and Adam not having the same goals towards the community does not imply that the Cate Restaurant cannot be a discourse community due to the fact that rather than common goals, they still possess traits that can be identified. These traits can be their threshold level of members to which as Swales says that the more experts in the community teach the new ones, which is what happens at Cate Restaurant as Adam says “ … I was taught by colleagues that work here …” (Adam); meaning that Cate Restaurant, indeed, is a discourse community because a discourse community has experts that teach apprentices, according to Swales, and Cate Restaurant does not exclude this