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The American Political Science Association:

Professional Discourse Community Analysis

A discourse community forms when people with shared goals communicate in a variety of ways to further the ideals of their group. The American Political Science Association’s mission is to “bring together political scientists from all fields of inquiry, regions, and occupational endeavors within and outside academe to deepen our understanding of politics, democracy, and citizenship throughout the world.” (About APSA, 2017, para. 1). According to John Swales’ (1990) six-point definition the America Political Science Association qualifies as an example of a professional discourse community (p. 26-28).

Swales’ (1990) first criterion for a discourse community is “a broadly agreed set of common public goals” (p. 26). On their website (http://www.apsanet.org/), the American Political Science Association (APSA) lists their core objectives, which include, “Promoting scholarly research and communication, domestically and internationally, defending the legitimacy of scholarly research into politics and government, and strengthening the professional environment for political science” (About, 2017, para. 3). These and the other core objectives of the APSA fulfil the first prerequisite.

A discourse community must also have mechanisms for intercommunication (Swales 1990, para. 26). Members of the APSA communicate via APSA journals, reports, books, the APSA monthly newsletter, and social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. The reports, which lie under the publications tab on the APSA’s website, include “Task Force Reports,” which serve to make the knowledge of political scientists accessible to society and are available in PDF format for easy obtainability (Reports, 2017, para. 1).

Several modes of communication are used primarily for feedback from members (Swales 1990, p,27). In the case of the APSA, these include annual meetings, where members spend a weekend participating in panels and sessions (Annual Meeting and Exhibition, 2017, para. 1). Another forum for communication is the APSA’s annual teaching and learning conferences, which are comprised of paper presentations and workshops. Members and non-members may submit papers for presentation to attendees, panel discussion, and roundtable dialogue (2018 TLC Call for Proposals, 2017, para. 2-3).

A professional discourse community will use different genres, or categories of writing, in its communications (Swales, 1990, p. 27). The most pronounced difference between writing genres is the specific writing style, driven by the intended audience to which they are addressed (M. Scolaro, lecture, September 13, 2017). For example, the APSA publishes four different peer-reviewed scholarly journals. In a recent edition of the APSA’s journal American Political Science Review, entitled, “Electoral Accountability for State Legislative Roll Calls and Ideological Representation,” Rogers (2017) documents his “analyses that evaluate the extent to which voters sanction legislators who cast unpopular roll-call votes or provide poor ideological representation” (p. 155). Upon review of such articles, one may easily gather that the intended audience of these journals is other scholars in the political science field.

In contrast to its scholarly journals, the APSA employs casual web-based writing on their social media cites. For example, their Facebook page features articles, “action alerts,” and details about upcoming events. Facebook users may write comments on the articles or send a private message to the APSA Facebook page administrators. The Facebook articles offer anyone a chance to read and consider topics in the current American political arena. A recently posted article expresses the APSA’s concern regarding, “the potential detrimental impact that the decision to end DACA would have on the free exchange of ideas and promotion of research…” (PSNow 2017, para. 2). The action alerts contain directories of contact information for political leaders, so that users may conveniently contact their representatives about important issues.

The APSA’s newsletter falls into a third genre of the community’s communication types and is intended to give members an easy way to directly communicate about events and issues. Members may use the links provided in the online newsletter to register for conferences or meetings, sign up to be an APSA mentor, or apply for a job in the political science field. This platform is designed to be user-friendly and helpful to members. Additionally, it provides member-exclusive access to a professional networking website via easy access to many helpful web pages.

According to Swales (1990), the fifth criterion for a discourse community is an exclusive “lexis,” or collection of jargon specific to the organization (p. 28). One example of this lexis is the American Political Science Association’s acronym, APSA, which members would instantly recognize, while non-members might not. Another example is “DACA”, used in the Facebook article example above, which is an acronym for the “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.” While this term is by no means exclusive to this organization, it is more likely to be used and recognized by those involved or interested in American politics. Ideas discussed in the APSA’s reports include “the problem of rising socioeconomic inequality,” a socio-political topic that would be less known to those in other disciplines than to those in the political science field (Task Force Reports, 2017, para. 3).

Finally, a discourse community possesses a certain dynamic between novices and seasoned members (Swales, 1990, p. 28). Experienced members can sign up to be mentors for the APSA’s mentoring program, which seeks to, “provide professional advice to undergraduates, graduate students, and junior faculty in the profession” (June 2017 Member Newsletter, 2017, para. 12). Additionally, membership fees for the APSA vary between newcomers and experts, as they are income-based and depend on the length of time of membership. The best rates are available to novices, as students may join at the rate of $5 per year (Membership Rates, 2017, p. 1).

In his essay, Swales (1990) outlined the six qualifications needed in order to for an organization to be considered a discourse community (p. 26-28). The American Political Science Association satisfies all of the criteria and is therefore a prime example. Benefits of APSA membership include career advancement, access to scholarly resources, increased visibility via opportunities for publication, and member discounts from a variety of product and services providers (Individual Membership Benefits, 2017, p. 1). Because of its status as a discourse community, in addition to the aforementioned benefits, membership in the APSA offers access to a verity of ways in which like-minded people may augment the professional conversation of the political science realm in order to reach common goals and advance the shared ideals of their group.

References

2018 TCL Call for Proposals. (2017). American Political Science Association. Retrieved from American Political Science website: https://apsa.wufoo.com/forms/r1o5tr2i18usqq6/

About APSA. (2017). American Political Science Association. Retrieved from American Political Science website: http://www.apsanet.org/ABOUT/About-APSA

Annual Meeting & Exhibition. (2017). American Political Science Association. Retrieved from American Political Science website: http://www.apsanet.org/annualmeeting

Individual Membership Benefits. (2017). American Political Science Association. Retrieved from American Political Science website: http://www.apsanet.org/membershipbenefits

June 2017 Member Newsletter. American Political Science Association. Retrieved from American Political Science website: http://myemail.constantcontact.com/2017-Annual-Meeting-Updates---APSA-Program-initiatives.html?soid=1122576371682&aid=tsFrAWgUDs8

Membership Rates. (2017). American Political Science Association. Retrieved from American Political Science website: http://www.apsanet.org/MEMBERSHIP/Membership-Rates

PSNow. (2017). American Political Science Association. Retrieved from American Political Science website: http://www.politicalsciencenow.com/

Reports. (2017). American Political Science Association. Retrieved from American Political Science website: http://www.apsanet.org/reports

Rogers, S. (2017). Electoral accountability for state legislative roll calls and ideological representation. American Political Science Review, 111(3), 555-571. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055417000156

Swales, J. (1990). The concept of discourse community. Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge University Press.

Task Force Reports. (2017). American Political Science Association. Retrieved from American Political Science Association website: http://www.apsanet.org/reports