Christian Coury

Coury 1

English Composition II
Dr. Pavel Zemliansky
March 3, 2016
The Significance of Networking Between Discourse Communities
When will I ever use this in real life, professor? One of the most common fallacies of
both students and adults alike is that the individual will hardly use any knowledge from his or her
educational career. For the longest time, I too did not grasp the concept of how education affects
every day of our lives. What I failed to realize was the impact of different language elements on
the world around us. And this is not just in the United States, but around the world as well.
Different groups of individuals have different goals, but they are ultimately bound together by a
network that uses their genre commonalities as a medium to progress the overall state of the
overarching community.
John Swales explains in The concept of discourse community that individuals that work
together to reach goals, utilizing specific genres and lexis of communication between them are
grouped together into an entity known as a discourse community (24-26). In addition, he explicates
that these said discourse communities consist of both novice and expert individuals, allowing the
discourse community to continue even after the experts become inactive (27). Though these
discourse communities are structured to accomplish different things by themselves, every
discourse community plays a part in the bigger picture. In fact, individuals even belong to different
discourse communities. As I will explain later on, every single company that has, does, and will
ever exist functions because of more than one discourse community. This situation circles back to
my mention of genres earlier genres of language are not just what ties similar fields of study
together, but every single individual in the world together.

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This concept is further explained in Kerry Dirks Navigating Genres. Dirk explains
technical communication professor Carolyn Millers perception of genre - that all genres matter
because they shape our everyday lives (254). Interestingly enough, an adaptation of Millers
perspective is even present on a microscopic scale. Cells are preprogrammed with information to
take on certain properties and have certain functions and information (comparable to genres).
These cells then work together to form tissues, which form organs, which form organ systems, and
finally the human body. And though each of these sublevels have completely different purposes,
they are all necessary for a human to function. Millers concept is also evident on a significantly
larger scale The United States of America. The United States is essentially one giant discourse
community made up of many smaller discourse communities. While every individual knows the
genres of other discourse communities they are part of, it is the fact that there are overlaps between
them that allows us to function as a whole (such is the case of the United States of America). It is
this networking of many discourse communities that is the key aspect in the process of shaping
our everyday lives.
Going back to the function of genres and discourse communities within companies - as a
manufacturing and operations engineer for the United States largest defense contractor, I am
responsible for designing tools and communicating my work via work orders. Because the United
States defense demands unending maintenance and upgrades, the defense contractor has very
stringent time lines to meet. This results in the need for workers to work as fast as possible by
minimizing unnecessary time and effort. Hence, both written and oral communication need to be
concise, yet effective. During the first week of employment, novices familiarize themselves with
the department-specific jargon and genres and are mentored by the senior staff members. Once
these senior staff members leave or retire, it is up to the once-novice individuals to communicate

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the specific lexis. These characteristics concur with those that John Swales mentions (24 27).
The work orders that I work on contain clear and concise processes and attached schematics for
the machinist and any other relevant specialist to follow. However, it is important to note that they
contain department-specific terminology, acronyms, and phrasing. It is so unique that the average
individual with an engineering degree may not be able to comprehend the processes in their
entirety. For example, in my work order for the R.O.V. Control Can Fixture for Testing, I use
the phrase, To be constructed as per the attached drawing 1.0 in the Machine Shop. Moderate
machining of aluminum components. Sized to fit vehicle space parameters (2). While individuals
outside the department will probably understand certain components of the phrase, they would
probably be left wondering what vehicle and space parameters I was referring to. But the reason
my department uses this type of genre is because it is uniformly understood by every individual in
my specific department; all of the workers are aware of the departments projects so redundant
words and explanations can be excluded from the work order documents.
The question is though, how do the different departments, or discourse communities, use a
means of networking to yield a final product? Different departments specialize in different
engineering fields, including mechanical, electrical, and software system architecture. And so, the
core component of producing a final product is being able to have some genre that overlaps the
discourse communities. At the end of a work term, a meeting of individuals from all departments
is held, and some individuals present a slideshow about the status of the jobs that are being worked.
These End-of-Term Presentations utilize common engineering phrasing, with no terminology
that is department specific, but rather company specific to ensure that information is
communicated between departments clearly. In my Operations Intern Summer 2015
presentation, I essentially summarize each of the work orders I created and the functions I carried

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out using the basic format of stating the objective, the tasks of completing the objective, and the
final completion status of the objective. On page seven there is a summary of the work order
process used for designing and creating each tool. Rather than explain every detail of the entire
process for the R.O.V. Control Can Fixture for Testing, I simply stated: The model of the ROV
was used to determine the parameters of the testing fixture for the Control Can. This statement is
obviously more effective than the previously mentioned Work Order statement since it actually
puts the objectives completed in context for those outside of my department. With this, the other
departments were able to know how far along I was, and so they were able to make adjustments to
their timeline accordingly to get the vehicle completed.
In retrospect, a large discourse community, such as a defense contractor, is composed of
smaller discourse communities that relies on a networking system between them. By analyzing the
networking structure of the defense contractor company, it is evident that the genre loses much of
its discourse community specificity (in terms of genre characteristics) when the information is
communicated to other discourse communities. This use of a separate and less specific genre is
what allows discourse communities to keep connecting, until they eventually form a company, or
even a state/province or a country.

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Works Cited

Coury, Christian P. (2015). Christian Coury Operations Intern Summer 2015. Lockheed Martin,
Riviera Beach, FL.

Coury, Christian P. (2015). Work Order Form (ROV Control Can Fixture for Testing). Lockheed
Martin, Riviera Beach, FL

Dirk, Kerry. Navigating Genres. Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Volume 1. Charles
Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. Parlor Press LLC, 2010. 254. Print.

Swales, John. The concept of discourse community. Genre analysis: English in academic and
research settings. (1990): 24-27. Print