Running Head: DISCOURSE COMMUNITY ETHNOGRAPHY: GEEO

Discourse Community Ethnography: GEEO

(Global Engagement and Exchange Organization)
Zanet Navarrete
University of Texas at El Paso

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GEEO (Global Engagement and Exchange Organization)
Introduction

A discourse community can be defined by many actions that people sometimes take.
Every person belongs to a discourse community, many might not know if theyre in one. There
are many communities to which one can belong to. Many might belong to more than one
discourse community. Sometimes you might not know it but, sometimes people can belong to the
same discourse community as you. Many wonder what the real meaning of a discourse
community is, or what it really does. According to professor and analyst, John Swales (1990), a
discourse community is the common assumption that operates within conventions defined by
communities, academic disciplines or social groups, and also has a broadly agreed set of
common public goals. Swales included 6 characteristics that make up the discourse community.
These characteristics represent what the discourse community is all about. Each person may have
their own community were people join, or others just belong to one already without knowing that
they even belong to one. For a community to be discourse it has to include the 6 characteristics,
and those have to take action in the community. A discourse community can be anything, it can
be an organization, a class, etc.
Now, as a new incoming student in the University at Texas at El Paso, with a major in
international business I know that Im going to have to join or be a member of a discourse
community that has to do with my major, and thats going to have to be something involving
international business. In my school there are many organizations that I'm looking forward to
joining.

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Literature Review

According to John Swales article, The Concept of Discourse Community, tell us the
meaning of what discourse community is, what Swales is telling us in this article is that for a
group or organization to be a discourse community it has to follow some specific rules, and what
those rules include are the six main characteristics that make up the discourse community. A
group or organization must include and take into action these six characteristics. Those six
characteristics include that members need to strive for common public goals, what this means is
that the organization and the members need to have a goal for the organization, they need to
strive for a goal. The second characteristic includes having communication mechanisms between
its members, what this means is that each member needs to be able to communicate with each
other in order for the organization to work. The third characteristic is informational exchange
with feedback,this means that the members and the organization need to have certain feedback
from a sponsor or a group of people that are willing to help. The fourth characteristic is to be
able to work certain genres or standards that they communicate, specific lexis which are certain
terms that only the community knows, and its members should have suitable degrees of expertise
(Swales, 1990).
Swales also tells us about the differences between the discourse communities and speech
communities. A speech community is a community that shares knowledge of rules for the
conduct and interpretation of speech, of any kind (Swales, 1990). A reason that both speech and
discourse communities are different, is that both have a different set of goals. Another reason is
that in the discourse community they tend to separate people into groups where they are

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interested, and in the speech community it inherits its membership by birth, or adoption, and also
in the discourse community it recruits its members by training or qualification.
Discussion
GEEO (Global Engagement and Exchange Organization) is an organization that provides
its members an insight into the business environment on a global basis, to prepare and support its
members in seeking opportunities abroad such as internships or study abroad programs, while
also improving networking skills. Its vision for its members is to be globally aware and
knowledgable they need to strive to make themselves better with communities around the world.
Thats where Swales first characteristic takes action. The first characteristic can be used in this
organization because the organization strives for goals, it has a certain goal for its members and
that is to make their members aware about the communities around the world and also to prepare
them and support them in seeking opportunities abroad. The organization also does community
service and has different activities for its members, to help them give back to the community.
Anyone can say that preparation is the key to success, and it is, GEEO prepares their
members for their future in the organization which include workshops, guest speakers, and
conferences. The second and third characteristic takes place in here because, it gives their
members the opportunity to communicate within each other, learn about the main goal of the
organization. It also provides feedback to its members by hosting guest speakers, and thats a
really good thing for the organization to have, because its better to hear from someone who has
had the opportunity to experience all the key elements that each member needs to have, and its a
prepared person. Another feedback and preparation can be the workshops, which help each
member to prepare themselves and take into action what they have learned within this
organization and what not better than attending workshops. The fourth characteristic takes action

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in this organization because it only focuses in one genre, it focuses on people who want to go
study abroad or want to go farther than what they expect of themselves. In each different
community there has to be a specific type of lexis. Thats one of the key elements that makes
each community different and unique the lexis. In this organization the lexis, would be talking
globally and about making business around the world, many people might not understand the
lexis of this community because each career is different and in this case each organization has its
own specific lexis.
The sixth characteristic takes place in this organization because at first anyone can sign
up, when I mean by anyone, is that any person involved in the business area or anyone that is
interested in doing an internship or just wants to go study abroad, but ones all those members
sign up, other people cant join because the organization has already advanced and its already
preparing projects for the next days that are to come. Overall, what this organization is offering
is the preparation for its members to start learning about business and studying abroad. What this
organization, based on Swales six characteristics its includes all of them, because to be a
discourse community according Swales the six characteristics need to take place. Which include
communication among its members which is the key ingredient for a discourse community to
work. The feedback that this organization offers it is a really good one because it includes the
preparation and the people who want to help. This organization has all the key ingredients that
Swales asks of it.

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Conclusion
As I have observed and analyzed each of Swales six characteristics, I can conclude that
GEEO (Global Engagement and Exchange Organization) is definitely a discourse community.
All the key elements that Swales asks are included in this organization, and I chose this
organization because its going to help me to prepare for the future. International business is the
career that I want for myself, and in order to get to that I need to learn and receive feedback to
help me in the future, and what other best organization to learn from than a discourse
community.

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References
Swales, J. (1990). The concept of discourse community. In E. Wardle & D. Downs (Eds.),
Writing about writing: A college reader (p. 212-227). Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins.

Kain, D., Wardle, E. (2005). Activity Theory: An Introduction for the Writing Classroom. In E.
Wardle & D. Downs (Eds.), Writing about writing: A college reader (p. 277). Boston, MA:
Bedford/St. Martins