Reading Log 3: The Concept of Discourse Community

What is a discourse community? Well after reading "The Concept of Discourse Community" by John Swales I think I understand it a little bit more. This was very tough to read through. The language was very advanced and I didn't have any background knowledge in this area of knowledge. My understanding of a discourse community is a group that has goals or purposes, and uses communication to achieve these goals. I am part of a discourse community! I am part of a video game clan. We all have the common goal to win each game and eventually win the championship. We have our own form of communication during matches so that we know where everyone is and can help out each other when someone is in trouble. We have our own clan website so everyone knows when matches are. The only difference between Swales characteristics of a discourse community to my "discourse community" is that our members are all experts. Swales says that a discourse community needs a reasonable ratio of both experts and novices to survive. But if we had novices we probably wouldn't be that good and we would never complete our goals. Either way the topic of discourse communities is sketchy and hard to explain to an audience that isn't all too familiar with that area of knowledge.