The discourse community is a concept today that can be defined in many ways. Some, like Swales, explain this by describing the criteria that the discourse community must follow, while others, like Gee, may describe Discourse as being more of an identity based concept. No matter what the explanation, discourse communities are an example of how writing is not just words on paper but rather how it is a crucial contributor to the social world. Discourse communities show us this because they are groups of people in different groups that are not always just writers or writing scholars, but any group that has a set of rules for communication and methods and has a common set of goals. Some scholars that explain this to us are John Swales, James Paul Gee, Elizabeth Wardle, and Devitt et al. (Amy Devitt, Anis Bawarshi, and Mary Jo Reiff).
Swales approaches the subject of discourse community by explaining the criteria that discourse communities must follow, which he breaks down into six points. These six points are a common set of goals, intercommunication, provide information and feedback, genres, lexis, and various levels of expertise among its members.
Gee approaches discourse community first by giving it a completely different title, by simply calling it a "Discourse" instead. He claims that Discourse is identity based, and that a person can become part of a Discourse by enculturation or apprenticeship. He sums up his claim by stating "You are either in it or you're not" (487), so therefore someone is either fully fluent in the Discourse or they are not, there is no in between.
Wardle takes an identity based approach to discourse communities much like Gee does, however she explains it through the three modes. These three modes of belonging are engagement, imagination, and alignment. Wardle also approaches the subject by discussing the concept of tools and their use in the discourse community.
Devitt et al. takes the approach to discourse community by means of genre analysis. Devitt claims that no matter what the type of community, the genre in which they write is very important in order to understand how that discourse community functions.
In this ethnography I am going to focus on the discourse community of theatre, and how all of these approaches listed above apply to this in order to classify it as a discourse community. In order to do this, I will apply different texts used by those in the theatre community and analyze how they fit into these characteristics, as well as interview individuals involved in various levels of theatre about how they intercommunicate with others in their field, as well as their strategies for doing so.
Mr. Vetter, I feel like this is a bit choppy sounding and that I could maybe go into a little more detail, but I'm not sure where to expand and where to keep it short because I don't really want to sound like I'm rambling or anything. Any suggestions?
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