CL 2/4

Swales says that speech communities are centripetal, those who are a part of those groups are usually drawn by connection creates a sense of community meaning “us”. A discourse community send a sense of difference, “them” like outsiders. The goal is to create a sense of distinguishment, you must be recruited into this community.

1. A discourse community is described as one that has a set of common goals
2. Mechanisms of intercommunication between the members
3. They use mechanisms of involvement to get information and feedback
4. Posses more than one genre to further their aim
5. Acquires lexis
6. Members are masters or have knowledge of content

What Swales points out as a problem in a discourse community is that it is all contradiction.