John Swales is an English professor with a strong scholarly background. He truly understands discourse communities much more than most people. In this small excerpt, Swales explains what it means to be a part of a discourse community and what it takes. According to him, there are six key rules that will help you distinguish discourse communities. The first rule Swales brings to our attention is that “a discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals” (Swales 220). What this means is that everyone has a similar goal that they are trying to reach. Most people probably can’t relate to this but oddly enough I can.

Ever since I was a young child I took a huge interest in music. I began to study and write raps on my free time I thought it was amazing how you could tell a story and make it mean something completely different just by the choice of words. What people don’t really understand is that the rap culture creates a discourse community. I can relate to this first rule because I realized this among my rap friends. Everyone has the same goal. Weather it’s to get to the top and get some money, or spread your knowledge and voice. Those are the two different discourse communities that I have witnessed through rapping. However, this is not the only rule that I have experienced.

Swales makes sure that each rule he determines has a valid argument and example. Some of the other rules consists of things such as intercommunication, word choice and relevant content. I have observed that the intercommunication between rappers is different than other discourse communities. One of the many skill some of these artist have is using double meanings in the lyrics. Rappers use subliminal messages about other rapper or even current events that are happening. They do this to attract the attention of the audience. For example, ever since Trump was elected, many references have arouse associated with the way he plans to run the country. Word choice is another big thing in the rap industry. The more vocabulary you have the more rhymes you can produce and the more unique your sound will be. This is what people don’t realize about rapper; just like writing a short story, every word counts.

After reading this excerpt not much has changed about my thoughts or views on writing, only because I have read this piece before because i feel as though i already understood what Swales was saying. Through my experience i have witnessed discourse communities and some of the differences between them. It is important to know that when it comes to writing, there is always going to be a target audience that you are focusing your attention to. However, discourse communities are more than just the audience. A discourse community is what brings the writers and audience together and creates a connection between the readings.