35 Discourse Community Investigation
A Discourse Community Handbook is training guide for novice members of your chosen academic major or professional career designed to help prepare them for joining that community.
A Discourse Community Handbook should identify:
● How does one become a member of this DC?
● What values, attitudes, and beliefs are needed to succeed in this field?
● What are the common public goals of the discipline?
● Where do professionals go to exchange information with each other? (i.e., trade journals and conferences)
● How are these participatory mechanisms used? (In other words, what kinds of information and feedback are commonly conveyed?)
● What role does writing play within this DC?
● What kinds of documents are commonly produced, and what are they used for?
● You should also include representative examples of discourse-specific lexis (i.e., specialized terminology, jargon, acronyms, etc.)
Discourse Community Investigation Sample