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Discourse Community Ethnography

Irais Tarango
University of Texas at El paso

Abstract
In this essay, I will be defining what a Discourse Community is and comparing the two
that I chose. I will present their communication, genres, and lexis to demonstrate a Discourse
Community. Articles will also be mentioned to help fulfill the purpose of this essay.

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Discourse Community is a group of people involved in and communicating about a
particular topic or issue to achieve common goals. I will use two Discourse Communities to
demonstrate this definition. The purpose to this essay is to answer the driving question, How do
they communicate and achieve their objective? I will go into great details of the genres, lexis,
and forms of communication that are used within both these communities. My first choice is
Taco Bell. One of the most chaotic discourse communities to be a part of. I am a member of the
Taco Bell crew. My second choice of a discourse community is Menchies. A relaxed two person
job that seems to have no form of stress or rush.
Learning to Serve is an article written by Tony Mirabelli that demonstrates how I want
to portray both my Discourse Communities. He concentrates on waiters and waitresses to
disprove a theory that the level of literary and verbal skills needed to be a waiter or a waitress is
the same as a ninth grade reading student. Mirabelli focuses on the genre of the restaurants
menu to show his audience how it functions in his discourse community. Just like with Taco Bell
and Menchies, I will use all types of genres both communities include to demonstrate how they
each interact with their own manner of speaking to achieve common objectives. Another author
named John Swales states that a lot of people think that discourse community is an important
enough concept to argue about (The Concept of Discourse Community) . He includes that in
order to analyze and identify discourse communities, you must know his proposed six defining
characteristics. The first characteristic is that a discourse community has a broadly agreed set of
common public goals, the second is that a discourse community has mechanisms of
intercommunication among its members , etc. Both my discourse communities use their own
type of language within their work to reach their goals. According to (shrike.depaul.edu) a

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discourse community is a group of communicators with a common goal or interest that adopts
certain preferred ways of participating in a public discussion.
Taco Bell, my first discourse community communicates to achieve their objective
rapid and repetitively. Their common lexis, specialized vocabulary, include terms such as
drop, time, and line. I interviewed Mirium Rocha, a member of this community. She
defined all the terms they use, drop means to put the flatbread in the oil to turn them into
chalupas, time can mean the time the food expires or the speed of getting the order out, line is the
station where the food is made. I asked her how long shes been part of the discourse
community and why and she replied with, Ive been here for about 7 months, and I joined to
help out financially at home. This discourse community includes different genres. From
receipts, to the monitor above the line used to make the orders, to the words used to identify
the food on their wraps, to the notes/announcements around the store, and to finally the schedule.
The monitor above the line shows the order. It includes abbreviations rather than the whole word
of the food ordered. Two chipotle daredevil grillers would be abbreviated to 2 Chip Dare D
Grl, a Nacho Cheese Chessey Gordita Crunch would abbreviate to Cheesy G Nacho, and a
Nachos Supreme would be abbreviated to Nacho Sp .The words display on the cashiers touch
screen where the order is taken to the monitor above the line. The reasons for abbreviations is to
make the whole order fit on the 24 inch monitor along with other orders that still need to be
made. The same rules apply to their receipts. Everything is shortened for it all to fit on the small
paper. The discourse community also include different wraps to identify which foods are which.
For example, the maroon wrap has 4 words on each corner. A beefy 5 layer, a chalupa, a 7 layer,
or a shredded chicken burrito can be wrapped with the same paper. They use these different

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paper so the customers can read what they are receiving, to make sure their order is correct. By
using these genres, the members of this community reach their goals.
Menchies is a completely different community. Rather than have 14 people
working in the store, there are only 2 people each shift. Which creates less communication.
Actually, instead of paper for schedules, announcements on the walls, and communication
between employees and managers, are all on an app called shift planning. With this mobile
application, store managers miss out on one-on-one communication with employees. Every
single form of communication is used through shift planning. You can only access this
application if you are a member of this discourse community. I had the opportunity to experience
it for myself by interviewing an employee who was kind enough to show me how her work place
functioned. I learned that this application includes terms are that very straight forward. Terms
like Inbox, Profile, Training, Availability meaning what times are available to work,
Notifications, Message wall meaning the tab where blogs are created between co-workers
and other store employees, and Logout. I wouldnt really identify these terms as lexis because
anyone outside of the community can understand them.
Employees dont make their yogurt, the customers do. The genres of text used in this
discourse community are not the same as Taco Bells. Since every topping and yogurt is chosen
directly by the customers, the only text on the receipt is what they were charged for. At
Menchies, there are stickers or signs to help the customers know where to start. Theres a sign
identifying the yogurt station, which says Yogurt bar and another sign above the topping
station that reads Snackage. There are also mini stickers identifying toppings like
strawberries and gummy worms.

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Both these communities are not very similar. Taco Bell has more communication
within the community and Menchies is more of a do it yourself type of place which doesnt
involve much communication. At Taco Bell, you are greeted from the moment you drive up to
the intercom/menu or when you step up to the register at the lobby. You are asked questions
about what youd like to have, you are asked for your name, and if your order will be for here or
to go? The cashiers tend to make conversation with their customers while they wait to make
their experience a great one. At Menchies you are greeted from the moment you walk in. If
youre a first time customer, the cashier shows you around and explains how things work. If
you already know what you want, all you simply do is get your own cup, pour your own yogurt,
and select your own toppings. When youre done, you put your cup on the weight platform on
the counter and the cashier tells you the cost of it. You pay, are told to have a great day and you
leave. Desree Rodriguez says. These discourse communities are very different when it comes
to communication. Taco Bell is flooded with employees who are told how to make things and
customers who express how they want things. Menchies only has two employees. A manager and
one employee as the cashier. There are four customers every two hours who get their own order.
I learned much from the nature of communication in these discourse communities.
Communication all depends on what kind of structure the community has. If there arent many
employees, and not many customers, there would be no need for much communication. If there
are more than ten employees, and many customers, there will be communication left and right to
achieve the same goals. I chose these discourse communities because they best demonstrate what
discourse communities are. Which are a group of people working and communicating together to
achieve the same goals. I could have picked a sport team, a classroom, or a hospital. All of those
are also discourse communities. I had no idea that Menchies would be completely different from

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Taco Bell, but since they are I have more to compare and share with my audience. The
communication all depends on the number of people there are on a regular day. It can also
depend on what kind of goals the community has. If you do everything for the customer, you
need speak with more people than just who you work with. If the customers do everything, the
only communication needed is when they are ready to be charged. This lesson will help me
identify what kind of community I am part of, in the future. I didnt even know that this word
existed. I am now able to understand and define the word discourse community when I see it
on posters or whenever someone needs help comprehending it. I can use this word to talk about
in my future essays as long as it relates to the topic. I one more word added to my vocabulary. I
learned that you dont always have to be a part of a discourse community to understand how it
functions. Actually having an outside perspective is better than being a member because as a
member, you unconsciously work and communicate to get something done. Which causes you to
not even know what a discourse community is. If youre not a member and you only have an
idea of a discourse community, you can do your own observation and have a clear understanding
by watching or being the goal of which ever discourse community you have chosen.

References

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Swales, John, The Concept of Discourse Community, 1990
Mirabelli, Tony, Learning to serve, 2004