Transcript: Choosing a Discourse Community
*Note: Text in bold appears onscreen.
Hello, I’m Lesley Kamphaus, and this video will cover how to choose a discourse community for
your assignment this month.
In the Week 1 Readings and Videos activity, you learned that a discourse community is a group
of people that 1) has a shared goal or purpose and 2) has one or more regular forms of
communication.
Remember, a discourse community is more specific than just a general community you belong
to. The video on discourse communities in the Week 1 Readings and Videos activity pointed out
that something like “people who live in Orlando” is a type of community (a geographical one),
but it doesn’t count as a discourse community because it doesn’t pursue a common goal and its
members don’t regularly communicate. Keep that distinction in mind as you watch the rest of
this video. While general communities like “people who live in Orlando” won’t work for this
assignment, they are useful starting points as you brainstorm and narrow down your
community options.
To start brainstorming, I’ll think of some of the general communities I belong to. I live in
Orlando, which is a geographical community, and I’m a teacher, which is a professional
community. I’m also part of the LGBTQ+ community, an American, a writer, and I’m part of
several fandoms. Again, these are not discourse communities, but let’s explore how I can use a
couple of them as starting points to narrow down from.
A discourse community has…
1) A shared goal or purpose
2) One or more regular forms of communication
I’ll start with my professional identity. I’m a teacher. “All teachers” is way too broad, and even
“all university teachers” is too broad. I don’t have a way of communicating with every
university teacher in the world or even just in Orlando. However, my workplace is definitely a
discourse community. All Full Sail faculty have a common purpose—to educate and support Full
Sail students—and we have regular forms of communication, including emails, continuing
education sessions, and university-wide meetings like the President’s Message.
However, I could narrow down my workplace further. While Full Sail faculty fits the definition
of a discourse community, I could narrow down to just the English department. We’re a smaller
subset of Full Sail faculty, but we have our own purpose and means of communication, and
because I work more closely with members of the English department, I have more types of
communication to choose from, including emails, department meetings, Slack conversations,
live lectures, and spreadsheets. So, I’d probably be able to come up with more to say about the
English department than I would about the larger community of Full Sail faculty. The narrower,
the better! Think about your own workplace; does it fit the definition of a discourse
community?
Another path I could take is to think about what I’m interested in. [Fandoms] For example, I
love the show Supernatural (I know, don’t judge me). There’s probably some interesting stuff
to say about the Supernatural fandom (it’s a hot mess), but “all Supernatural fans” is too broad.
However, I could do a quick Google search and find there’s a Supernatural Fan Club that has a
Facebook page and an Instagram. This could work because it exists for a common purpose
(presumably to talk about Supernatural) and has multiple types of communication. I could also
follow the same process to find communities dedicated to local music or to the type of writing I
do.
You don’t necessarily have to be a member of the community you write about, but you may be
able to do your best work if you focus on a community you’re a member of because you have
access to more information as a member than you would as an outsider.
To recap, make sure the community you choose 1) exists for a common purpose, and 2) has
regular forms of communication. Also, remember the narrower, the better! A specific
organization works best. If you have questions about whether the community you’re thinking
about will work for this assignment, please ask your instructor. Good luck!