Discourse Community of Law: Appeals Brief In his article “The Concept of Discourse Community,” John Swales describes a discourse community as a group of people that “have a broadly agreed set of common goals, contain certain mechanisms of intercommunication among its members, have acquired a specific lexis, and have a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content discoursal expertise” (Swales #). An example of such a discourse community is the legal profession. The legal profession has the common goal of understanding and applying general principles to particular factual situations. In doing so, lawyers use language, concepts, and methods that are unique to their community. In order to become a recognized member of the legal community, a person must graduate from law school and pass the bar exam thereby demonstrating an in depth knowledge concerning all areas of the law and the specialized rules, methods, and jargon used by lawyers to communicate about legal principles. Although the legal profession is a single discourse community, it is made up of many smaller discourse communities. This is so because while all lawyers share the same broad goals of the legal profession and have a general knowledge and expertise in all areas of the law, most lawyers after graduating from law school and passing the bar exam specialize in a particular area of law. This specialization requires the lawyer to go beyond the broad concepts of law as a whole and to become knowledgeable and proficient in the sometimes minute details of a more specific area of law. Even then, some lawyers will go even further to focus on one aspect or another of that particular area of law. This results in most lawyers being members of many even smal... ... middle of paper ... ...onfidently but without appearing argumentative or petty. The argument must be based on thorough legal research and a full understanding of the legal issues and the facts of the case must be set out concisely and persuasively but also respectfully. After analyzing the discourse community of law and the detailed process lawyers take in order to write an effective appeals brief, one can see that lawyers have a very specific and unique way of communicating that includes certain jargon unfamiliar and possibly incomprehensible to the general public. Although writing an appeal brief is only one aspect of many that government prosecuting attorneys such as Kenny Elser face in their jobs on a daily basis, it is also a very necessary job because not only is it used by a single discourse community in the law profession but utilized by the discourse community of law as a whole.
Argument: This is where the attorney gives detail of the legal situations of the client, and relies on the primary and secondary authorities (Statsky, pg. 545).
At Children’s First, our mission is to keep a safe, healthy, prosperous environment for children. Being a part of this community, I know firsthand what it takes to maintain an ideal setting for children to grow. It is essential for the caretakers to communicate, share information, and work together to put the children first. This core goal of ours, along with my own experience, analysis, interviewing, and observation demonstrate that Children’s First Daycare is a discourse community according to Swale’s six characteristics of a discourse community.
The University of California, Los Angeles, established in 1949, is a public institution that is recognized as one of the nation’s top law schools. The UCLA School of Law is acknowledged worldwide as a model of academic rigor and diversity, and distinguishes itself from other nationally ranked law schools by having established itself as the youngest. The school’s mission is to strive to offer an in-depth education in the fundamentals of ethical and professional practices of law through rigorous courses to help develop analytical skills in a cultural and diverse environment. According to Admissions Advisor Andrea Sossin-Bergman, the School of Law focuses on the presence of vital and diverse viewpoints that affect each student in significant ways with a respect to the quality of each student’s education (Sossin-Bergman).
Football is a discourse community I am involved in where the members have similar goals and expectations. As in, what Swales describes a discourse community as groups that have goals or purposes, and use communication to achieve these goals”. In his article “The Concept of Discourse Community” (Swales 466-479) Swales argues for a fresh conceptualization of discourse community, especially as a distinct entity from the similar sociolinguistic concept of speech community, and building upon the foundations of that argument defines discourse community in his own. In the Conceptualization of Discourse Community he talks about the six defining characteristics of a discourse community. The discourse community I am part of is playing and coaching football.
Looking for an activity that is is fast-paced, aggressive, and competitive? There is a discourse community that perfectly fits this description. These communities are a defined as a group filled with individuals who share a main interest, idea, and goal. Each discourse community has its own set of intercommunication, lexis, genre, and hierarchy within the members. This year, I was lucky enough to join the Women’s Water Polo Club at Purdue. When I first joined the organization, I felt as if it was going to be difficult to fit it into my busy work schedule, but I was wrong. With school work and other priorities that come with the college lifestyle, the Women’s Water Polo Club works hard to win as many games as possible with the implementation of daily practices, team meetings, and many versions of communication. The team is welcoming of new members, whether they be novices or previous players, and encourages other students to join the organization through social media and campus advertisements. Overall, this active club allows a group of athletic females to bond with one another in order to achieve the main goal of being a successful water polo team.
Sports have been around since the beginning of time but did you know each sport is its own discourse community? You may now be asking what is a discourse community? A discourse community is a group of people who share information and a way of staying connected with other people for a variety of reasons. I bet you didn’t realize that Endurocross is classified as one, well I’m here to tell you all about its community. Here is some background information in case you don’t know what Endurocross is exactly, it is a challenging sport that requires a lot of hard work and patience along with numerous hours of practice and determination.
My discourse community is the joplin crusaders I think this is a good discourse community because I think it pretty much gives the definition of what a discourse community is. Wikipedia defines a discourse community as a group of people who share a set of discourses, understood as basic values and assumptions, and ways of communicating about those goals. Linguist John Swales defined discourse communities as "groups that have goals or purposes, and use communication to achieve these goals”. I think that the joplin crusaders have all of these characteristics to be a good discourse community to talk about in this essay.
Every individual is a component of some type of discourse community. A discourse community is a group of people who work to achieve a set of common goals through a unique form of terms and conditions. Discourse communities are often confused with speech communities. The difference between the two is that “a discourse community recruits its members by persuasion, training or relevant qualification” (Swales 220) rather than gaining members through birth, or accident. Discourse communities have a “reasonable ratio between novices and experts” (Swales 222) and different genres of communication that are used to progress towards the group’s goals. Another characteristic is the use of a unique lexis, or vocabulary, that sets the community apart from
America's schools and universities have genuinely been managed as refuges with the desire of complementary talk, exploration focuses of thought were arranged points of view and contemplations can be analyzed and wrangled in an interminable mission for truth and data. The Supreme Court has since quite a while back saw that our establishments of cutting edge training fill a basic societal need past classroom rule, that the forefront school grounds "is especially the 'business focal point of considerations.'"Along these lines, the Court has generally held that school understudies are qualified for powerful discourse rights so that they may talk uninhibitedly and add to the trading of ideas.
Not many people know what a discourse community is but are most likely involved in at least one if not many. These communities are everywhere, for example, one could be anywhere from AA to a legal firm, a synagogue is also a type of discourse community. The community being discussed in this paper is the Beth Abraham Synagogue (BAS). The Beth Abraham Synagogue meets all the qualifications of a discourse community while also publishing texts about their history and education program which reflect the members of its congregation.
Thesis Law uses advertising strategies through the media to gain a reputation in the community. Court cases are often the topic of news articles, and we promote the journalists who write about ours. Doing well in court shows a range of potential clients what our firm has to offer. Once a potential client has initiated contact, it is important that the information they provide is properly interpreted- this will be useful when deciding on how to go ahead with their case. Part of building a better clientele means not accepting everyone who walks inside.
As stated by Fairclough (1955), this model consists of three dimensions of discourse concepts, giving a three-dimensional method for discourse analysis. Fairclough (1995, p.97) assigns three dimensions for every discursive event. The first one is a written or spoken text, the second is a discursive practice which involves production and interpretation of a text, and the third a piece of social practice. Furthermore, Fairclough also assumes that discourse can be found in the sociocultural practices at personal level – at different stages, at institutional level, and at societal level (Fairclough,
When I originally wrote my paper, I failed to notice that my discourse community was not explained in much depth as it left out many details that would have helped the audience better understand my community. While rereading my paper, I noticed that I never addressed topics such as the venue of HOBY, how I originally became a member or the process, and how others can also become members. The topics that I failed to address would have most likely been a focal point for my audience when attempting to learn about my discourse community.
As technology is rapidly increasing new forms of communication are being made. Communication is a big part of today’s world and one uses it everyday. Communication is especially a big part in groups. John Swales defines a discourse community by “groups that have goals or purposes, and use communication to achieve these goals” (Swales 220). Within a discourse community members use genres to get important information to others, which enables intercommunication throughout the whole group. Genres in a discourse community can range from a various amount of things. In a certain bible study group from the University of Oklahoma their genres consist of Group Me, which is a messaging app, text messaging, email, and person-to-person communication. Communication
• This concept departed from the principle that English of a specific science differs from each other in terms of its grammatical and lexical features of the registers.