Discourse Community : a group of people who have a broadly agreed set of common public goals.
Discourse is the communication of thoughts by words either by writing or verbally. A discourse community consists of a group of members sharing a set of discourses which are understood as basic values and assumptions. The groups have a purpose for the discussions, and the members use communication to achieve their aimed goals.
A discourse community is a group of people speaking the same language, or in other words, sharing the same interest on a certain topic, a body of knowledge on the topics and have a common vocabulary for discussing these topics.
Discourse is a conversation or a more formal discussion of ideas either in speech or writing. Discourse is important as this is how we communicate in the social world that we live in. When one takes part in a discourse community, they need to understand what language is used in the community, how the language is being used, what knowledge is generally possessed within the community and what motivates and interests the members of the community.
A discourse community has few set of characteristics which distinguishes it from other communication groups. It has a broadly agreed set of common goals which is achieved by specific mechanisms of intercommunication among the members. The community uses the first-hand mechanism to provide feedback and information on the topic primarily.
The community possess one or more genres in their communicative furtherance of its aim, which it utilizes. A genre comprises of a class of communicative events, with the members of the community sharing set of communicative purposes. The expert members of the particular discourse community recognize these purposes and thereby constitute the rationale of the genre.
In addition to owning genres, the discourse community has some specifically acquired lexis. Lexis is the complete set of all possible words in the language required for not only delivery of information but also communication within the members. A discourse community has a threshold level of suitable members with a degree in the relevant content. The group should consist of a few members with discoursal expertise.
Communities believe incapable beginners which give a proper balance to ratio of beginners to the ratio of experts in the community for the group to evolve, exist and continue. When the community doesn’t have enough experts to guide novices or enough novices to carry on the community’s plan, the group will cease to exist.
A successful discourse community can be set up by designing the community, and a common tool used for designing is a map. The map of a discourse community can provide the common goals, specialized vocabulary used, values shared and specialized genre of the group. The map may be presented to all the members of the community as a mission statement.
New interests may appear in the discourse community with the entry of new generation of members which leads to the recreation and accommodation of updates interests and goals. The community ultimately functions in the way the discourse community is designed. This type of community will differ from another grouping as the design will either enable or constrain the participants.
