John Swales feels the need to clarify what discourse community means and how it is different from the speech community. In his article, "The Concept of Discourse Community," he explains that, unlike the speech community, which is a "community sharing knowledge of rules for the conduct and interpretation of speech" (470), the discourse community is defined by six characteristics. These characteristics make his concept of discourse community broader than Porter's who argues that a discourse community is a "group of individuals bound by a common interest who communicate through approved channels and whose discourse is regulated" (91).
I didn't find this reading interesting but I did like that I was able to identify the different discourse communities that I belong to while I was reading the characteristics that Swales describes.
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