Discourse Communities
A discourse community is a group with shared knowledge, values, characteristics, genres, language, and/or style. You’re already part of many discourse communities. For example, your “Friends” on Instagram are a collection of people who have something in common (you), who understand what a post is (the genre or the form writing usually takes), who share a lingo (like LOL, BTW, and IDK), and who enter into conversations (by responding with words, emojis, or just cat memes).
Do you remember the first time you visited a different family–maybe the family of your significant other or your roommate or best friend? Did you notice that they talked and acted differently than the family you grew up in? Did they have little nicknames or mannerisms or ways of responding that surprised (or even amused or annoyed) you? Did they have inside jokes that you didn’t understand? That’s because they’ve developed a discourse community and you’re an outsider.
The artist Pablo Picasso learned from the discourse community of the art world in which he worked. He went to the best art school in Spain and learned how to paint very traditional paintings before developing his unique, convention-altering style (Google “Picasso early paintings”). He first needed the skills and understanding of what the norm was in his field in order to break those conventions and create a new style in response. You, too, should spend time listening to and observing the conversations going on in your field so you can learn the lingo–the jargon–and understand the conventions people use. Not because you want to simply conform, but rather, so that you can understand your audience and know the best ways to get your message across and be heard. And if you want to change the conventions along the way, go for it. But you’re more likely to have an influence if you first learn what the standards are.
How to Listen
One goal in this class is to learn how to become an insider in your field of study. So how can you discern the characteristics of the discourse community in your particular field? By doing a bunch of “listening” first. Here are some places you can go to start learning how scientists talk, write, and respond. The more read and talk to people in your field, the faster you’ll catch on and the faster you’ll be able to contribute.
- Publications (journals, books, newspapers, websites)
- Style Guides (APA Manual, Turabian, etc.)
- Conferences/Societies
- Websites
- Email Listservs
- Online forums
- Conversations
- Interviews
- LinkedIn feeds
- Facebook/Instagram/Twitter
Now let’s get you started finding your field’s discourse community.
