He outlined six characteristics of discourse communities: 1) common public goals; 2) methods of communicating among members; 3) participatory communication methods; 4) genres that define the group; 5) a lexis; and 6) a standard of knowledge needed for membership (Swales, 471-473).Click to see full answer. In this regard, what defines a discourse community?A discourse community is a group of people who share a set of discourses, understood as basic values and assumptions, and ways of communicating about those goals. Linguist John Swales defined discourse communities as “groups that have goals or purposes, and use communication to achieve these goals.”Also Know, what are some examples of a discourse community? Genres “articulate the operations of the discourse community.” Examples include chemistry reports, personal narratives, hip hop music, emails, etc. Genres of The Plastics? “A discourse community has acquired some specific lexis.” People also ask, what are the characteristics of discourse? With that in mind, here are some positive characteristics of oral discourse: Meaning is supported by nonverbal communication and other factors such as tone and intonation. It can be done spur of the moment. The audience is known to the one delivering the message.Why is a discourse community important?Discourse is a conversation or more extended and more formal discussion of our ideas in either speech or writing. Discourse is important as this is how we communicate in the social world that we live and work in. The social groups we communicate within are called communities.