Determining whether or not an organization qualifies as a discourse community is accordance to Swales' six characteristics of a discourse community has led me to trash several ideas for this assignment. The Police Department, however, matches Swales' six characteristics of a discourse community:
1. The Police Department's broadly agreed set of common goals is to protect and serve the public, as well as to enforce the law. It is their ethical and occupational duty to go out of their own way to ensure the safety of the public.2. Their mechanisms of intercommunication among its members is are done primarily through meetings and radio. Through the radio, dispatch can alert the department's policemen on duty of the location and situation of the incident, and the officer closest to the scene will likely respond and investigate.
3. The Police Department also has its participatory mechanisms to provide information and feedback. Some departments allow "ride-alongs" to allow the individual who is interested in having the career of a police officer to have a sample of what is associated with the occupation. They also have of course, rigorous training, which consists of durability and physical tests, firearms proficiency tests, and high-pressure driving tests.
4. There are countless numbers of different genres entailed when working for the Police Department. Different situations that require police attention require different approaches to solving the dispute. For example, there could be domestic violence. There are certain ways in which an officer is required to handle the situation. If something even as simple as a girl's cat being stuck in a tree were to occur, the officer will likely have to adjust their behavior and act in a friendly, caring, and confident person.
5. A lexis, or unique set of vocabulary, is also associated with the discourse community of a police department. Police departments are known to have certain acronyms to communicate with one another much faster. For example, if dispatch was to notify nearby officers that there was a man DUI (Driving Under the Influence), the officers will immediately understand what situation is taking place and can plan ahead to solve the issue as quickly as possible upon arrival of the scene.
6. Finally, a police department has its officer ranks to fulfill Swales' final characteristic of a discourse community: A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise. The ranks, similar to that of the military, include private, corporal, sergeant, etc.
I will most likely begin my research by finding a local police department and schedule possible interviews with its members. I think further research on the second characteristic of a discourse community will be most interesting, as it appears to be the most dynamic.
