Discourse Community Ethnography

Basically, you are going to pick a group and analyze how the members communicate with each other within it.

Suggested interview questions based on Swales’s definition of a DCE.

1) What are the public goals of the community? How do these differ from private goals within the membership?

2) How do group memebers communicate with each other? (What genres do they use: text, emails, facebook groups, posters, postcards, websites, letters, memos, etc. )

3) Can you give some specific examples of language used within the group that outsiders would not be familiar with? (What is the lexicon/lexis unique to the group?)

4) How do you bring new members into the group?

5) Who are the gatekeepers who bring new people in?

6) What is the hierarchal or governing structure of the group?

7) Who are the experts or oldtimers in the community? How do they pass knowledge onto the new comers or intiates?

8) How does one achieve leadership within the group?

9) What makes this community unique?

10) Anything you else that you think would add to your paper.
DISCUSS THE FOLLOWING AND USE THESE SPECIFIC WORDS IN YOUR PAPER: definition of a discourse community by Swales; description of your specific DCE under analysis, lexis; lexicon; genres; research participant; etic (outsider) or emic (insider) perspective; situational, textual, and interpersonal literacies; triangulation through member checking, two different reseach methods (interview and observation), and peer review; conclusion you draw at the end.”