Amway Discourse Community

John Swales, a professor of linguistics, explains the concept of a discourse community through six characteristics. This creates a general knowledge for individuals to collectively recognize themselves with. Furthermore, a discourse community is where there is a general understanding of what the community represents and the different type of people that are in it.

I have been a member of a discourse community since I started my freshman year, when I decided to join Amway and became an independent business owner. When I joined Amway I was skeptical since I was under the impression that it would take up a lot of my time. However, it was one of the best decisions of my life and I have connected with different individuals within the community held by hierarchy and expertise, professionalism, and communication.

The first characteristic, having a broadly agreed set of common public goals, is understood at Amway, where everyone is a member for the same reason, which is communicated by the owner and the experts. The main goals consist of family, faith, reward, and freedom. Each of these aspects builds on each other. First, one must provide for the family and have faith among them. After that, he/she will build faith within the community, globally, and internationally. Lastly, through networking, you will get rewards based on how successful you are and have the freedom to expand or stay in the current position you are in. By having common public goals, no one does anything different than any other member in the community.

The mechanisms of intercommunication among Amway’s members are seminars and emails. Every member attends a seminar to learn about the growth of the company and new products that they can advertise about and tends to be very formal. Emails are sent out to keep all the members notified of current trends, hot items, and upcoming news. Additionally, all members have a website that also keeps them updated with Amway’s current news and helps them keep track of their performance. Secondly, a select number of individuals will gather and talk about their group’s performance as a whole and will try to improve it. This is casual since this specific group of people knows each other for a few years.

All discourse communities have acquired specific lexical terms. In Amway, you tend to get very familiar with the products, that it incorporates in your everyday language. For example, when selling your product to consumers we tend to use terms such as “XS,” “Legacy of Clean,” or “Artistry.” There are many other terms that we use, which are known to the whole business and not just a specific group of people. If anyone were to eavesdrop on a conversation between two members who are a part of Amway, they would have trouble following where the conversation is going and what it is about.

The sixth characteristic of this discourse community is the success and expertise of individuals within Amway. The age or gender of an individual doesn’t matter as everyone learns from the individuals that have benefited the most. The newcomers or amateurs have a basic understanding of Amway and the successful individuals teach them so they have a better understanding of how to become sucessful. It is not obvious to outsiders which individuals are successful as their impression would be the oldest member of Amway.