Proposal: Project 3

Discourse Communities to Study

1. Facebook
2. Life Guard
3. Competitive All-Star Cheerleading

For my first choice, I would study the Facebook discourse community. Facebook meets all six of Swales’ characteristics of a discourse community.

• Broadly agreed set of common public goals:

o   To begin, Facebook is open to the public itself. The goals are to stay in contact with and reconnect with old friends and family, make new friends, find people with similar interests, share thoughts and ideas, and entertain. All members agree to the Statements of Rights and Responsibilities, Data Use Policy, and Community Standards upon free registration.

• Mechanisms of intercommunication among members:

o   The main mechanism for communication with members is the internet- via computer, cell phone, tablet, etc. Video chat, direct messaging, and public posting are available for correspondence and conversation to occur. Some detailed options include instant messaging, private messaging, wall posting, and photo-sharing.

• Uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback:

o   As stated above, there are several communication options on Facebook. As for messaging, replies are expected. Wall posts express ones thoughts, ideas, or feelings. Pictures are posted for the same purpose. Both can be a source of entertainment to the viewer. Comment and “like” options are available for feedback on all wall posts and posted pictures. There are topic-specific “Pages” on Facebook as well that limit shared information and feedback to a particular subject.

• Utilizes and hence possess one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims:

o   Genres utilized in relation to Facebook are- direct messaging, chat logs, web pages, wall posts, comments, e-mail, and image sharing. You can also create ads and Pages.

• Has acquired some specific lexis:

o   Lexis is essentially jargon. Jargon used on Facebook includes tagging (photos, location, and friends), wall, news feed, poke, message slang (such as txt me, brb, ttyl, etc.), emoticons (i.e. J, L), status update, like, and share.

• Has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise:

o   Facebook has several administrators and employees that know everything there is to know about Facebook- especially the creator (Mark Zuckerburg) and support staff. Some members are daily users and know all the things you can do on Facebook. New members register everyday and they would be considered the novices.