Blog 4

In Swales' discuss, he says that there are six defining characteristics that compose a discourse community:
1. A discourse community has broadly agreed set of common goals:
- As a class I definitely feel like we have a common goal and that is for us to pass this class. I feel like we are all striving for an A and in order to get that A we know what we need to do as it is stated in the syllabus.

2. A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members:
- Yes, we have many discussions as a class as well as group interactions. We all have a blog which we use to communicate, as well as emails with our professor.

3. A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback:
- We get feedback from our blogs through an email by our professor. I would also feel that in the actual class we receive feedback not only from our professor but our classmates through discussion and participation as a whole.

4. A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims:
- As a class community we definitely use more than one way of communication. We use emails, our blog posts, and overall discussion as a class in class.

5. In addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired some specific lexis:
- I know for myself and I'm sure most of the class, we've so far learned many terms that we weren't familiar with. I feel by us knowing these terms it will help us become better researchers and writers.

6. A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise:
- I would say that our professor is our expert and that we are not YET on her level. I'm sure a lot of us hope to be soon. I feel that with our professor being so experienced and passionate about her work she will do the best she can to educate us on the appropriate material. I feel that our class as a whole is on the same level.