In her essay “Discourse Communities and Communities of Practice”, Ann Johns calls to question the structural properties of social groups, or more specifically, the part of these groups that focuses on the exchange of knowledge and experience within a certain subject, known as discourse communities. Johns lists the defining characteristics and constraints that naturally filter the constituents of these groups. The following concepts are essential in identifying a group as a discourse community: “a broadly agreed set of common public goals, mechanisms of intercommunication among members, possession and utilization of one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims, utilization of participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback, unique lexis specific to members, a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise.” (Johns 3). Though at first glance a person may find these requirements to seem highly specific, maybe even questionable, an examination of one’s own discourse memberships would likely prove its objectiveness. A personal example from my (the writer’s) life is as follows. When I am not in attendance at the University of Mississippi, I work at a bike shop back in my home state, Minnesota. Accordingly, I am a member of the discourse community that embodies the world of cycling. Within this community, I can identify each characteristic listed above. Common goals of cyclists include: decrease in race times, increase of skillset, increase of knowledge, increase of possesions, advancement of technology. Many cyclists communicate via forums and social media, but broader communications are also seen through magazines and online articles. Genres of this community include road cycling, mountain cycling, gravel cycling, bicycle mechanics, bicycle sales, and more. An obvious example of participatory mechanisms that provide information and feedback is cycle competitions. Not all of these events are open to all who want to participate, but many are, and those which are not are typically available for spectation in one way or another. Members of the community usually receive feedback from said events regarding personal progress towards goals as well as others’ progress, through times, scores, and leaderboards. Lexis specific to the world of cycling is shown through terminology related to tricks/skills, parts, tools, and more. Lastly, the cycling community exhibits varying levels of expertise between constituents (which differs even between genres). An example is shown within the mountain bike racing genre, where novices exist at the bottom, simply trying to improve upon the little amount of skill that they have in hopes of reaching a competitive level. World Cup racers exist at the very top, representing the edge of the blade, or the golden standard of mountain bike speed. Finally, I will list several other discourse communities to which I belong.
-Skateboarding
-Music Production
-FasTrack Students
-Snowboarding
-Bodybuilding