Discourse Communities
A discourse community is a group of people distinguished by how they talk, write, listen, and read. As a technical professional you must able to cooperate and communicate both within your own discourse community as well as with people from other discourse communities. In business and public service you will need to develop your ability to meet the needs of two types of discourse communities that exert simultaneous demands on your loyalty: a local discourse community and a global discourse community [1].
Local Discourse Community
The people with whom you work.
Ex: All hierarchical levels within an NGO, including board members, director, program manager, administrative personnel, project coordinators, field workers, hiring personnel, technology specialists, legal advisors, etc.
What is the local discourse community represented in your writing assignment?
Global Discourse Community
A group of professionals whose members share a common language and understanding within a specific technical field.
Ex: Electrical engineers, large animal veterinarians, quantum physicists, policy analysts
What are the global discourse communities represented in your assignment?
Remember that in your workplace or on your team (your local discourse community) you may be the only representative of your global discourse community, the only specialist in your field; therefore, your colleagues will depend on you to understand their needs and to supply the technical information in a form they can digest and put to work.
Why does understanding the differences matter?
Image CreditThe Marlin Company. Post by Frank Kenna. "Democratization of Workplace Communication." http://www.themarlincompany.com/blog/article/democratization_of_workplace_communication. 25 August 2013.