OPERATIONALIZING THE CONCEPT OF DISCOURSE COMMUNITY - A CASE-STUDY OFONE INSTITUTIONAL SITE OF COMPOSING

Scholars have employed a number of theoretical frames for interpreting the social dynamic in acts of composing text: constructivist relation s between writers and readers, genres as situated action, systems of g enres, intertextuality and discourse communities. The latter has been disputed on philosophical grounds and has not been operationalized in concrete terms through empirical research. This study takes a systemat ic approach to defining and operationalizing the notion of discourse c ommunity, drawing on data from a portion of an ethnography of writing in a workplace setting. Textual dynamics and acts of composing could b e seen in their fully contextualized manifestations when examined at t ile level of community practices. For example, a single genre varied i n form and function depending on the specific discourse communities in which it was used, and writing events took an layered meanings-some p ractical and some symbolic-as they were viewed in relation to other co mmunicative activities. Discourse community norms and values also esta blished hierarchies of texts and different writing-related roles for m embers. The data suggest the validity of discourse community as a theo retical construct and point to the importance of anthropological appro aches for studying sites of writing. In addition to theoretical implic ations, there are educational implications as well. If writing were fu lly contextualized for students and the overarching framework of disco urse community were made explicit, writers would be aided in the neces sary boundary crossings from one community of writing practice to anot her.