A discourse community is a group of people who come together to

accomplish the same objective. Starbucks is a brand name coffee shop that is
becoming globally known. Starbucks opened 599 stores in North America in 2003
(Fellner105). In its 2015 Company Profile Starbucks states Today, we are
privileged to connect with millions of customers every day with exceptional products
and more than 21,000 retail stores in 66 countries. Most everywhere you go in The
United States theres a Starbucks avalible to you. According to Google Maps, there
are 51 Starbucks in Charlotte, NC including the one right on UNCCs campus. With

Windows User 3/23/2015 9:47 AM

Comment [1]: available

all the traffic in and out of the Starbucks in the Union, youd think coffee was
essential for UNCC college students and professors. So, does this particular
Starbucks qualify as a discourse community? Lets explore this community and
Swales definition of a discourse community.
When you walk into the front entrance of the Student Union on UNCCs
campus, directly to your left is a Starbucks. As soon as you enter the doorway of
Starbucks you are able to take in the vibe of the store. The atmosphere is very
inviting. The baristas have a constant smile as they take orders and make the
customers drinks and speak in friendly tones whenever they interact with a
customer. The store is dimly lit, almost like a fancy romantic restaurant and the
songs playing are definitely not from the Top 100 most popular songs. The staff
follows a dress code and Starbucks employees are specially known for their green
apron. If you were a customer here, you would get in line, order your drink, and then
go wait in a separate area for you name to be called. There are a couple of seating
options available to you if you chose to sit and stay a while.
Swales believes there are six characteristics that all discourse communities
fit. I sat down with two baristas at Starbucks and talked with them about what these

Windows User 3/23/2015 9:55 AM

Comment [2]: consider rewording. "You can
tell the vibe starbucks has the minute you walk in
the store" or something along those lines.

Windows User 3/23/2015 9:54 AM

Comment [3]: explain what a barista is for
people who don't know

characteristics are specifically as a worker at Starbucks. According to Swales, the

first characteristic is a discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common
public goals. (Swales 220). According to Sally, who has been working at Starbucks
for two years, her goal as a Starbucks worker is to provide good customer service
and make their drinks as best I can. According to Sarah, who has been working at

Windows User 3/23/2015 9:59 AM

Comment [4]: talk a little bit about who you
interviewed, then go into detail about what the
workers said. you're talking about Sally and Sarah
without the reader even knowing who they are.

Starbucks for almost 3 years, her goal as a worker is to make money for college and
graduate. These are two very different goals, but for this Starbucks these are their
everyday goals since all of the baristas are also college students. Starbucks as a
worldwide company has a mission that all workers in all of the different stores must
work towards. Our mission: to inspire and nurture the human spirit one person,

Windows User 3/23/2015 9:52 AM

Comment [5]: mention the workers
specifically. the way this sentence is worded, it
makes it seem like the goals the workers had are
the UNCC Starbucks's goals.

one cup and one neighborhood at a time. (Starbucks Coffee Company) This can be
seen as another goal for the workers at Starbucks by not only serving drinks but
providing a specific kind of atmosphere.
The second criteria for a discourse community is a discourse community has
mechanisms of intercommunication among its members. (Swales 221).
Communication is very important in our society as human beings. Starbucks
employees communicate by talking to each other, or by writing on the cups during
their shifts. This might be a little confusing but let me explain how it works. The
barista at the cashier will take a customers order and then write the customers
name and the drink they ordered on the cup. The cup then gets passed to more
baristas who are making the drinks and they use what is written on the cup in order
to do their job. If a employee has a question about how a drink is made they ask
their fellow baristas. Once the drink is made they will call out the name written on the
cup to let that specific customer know that their order is ready. This is an efficient
way of serving the customers without holding up a line. When the line gets short

Windows User 3/23/2015 10:02 AM

Comment [6]: this isn't needed. the reader
already knows that.

baristas talk and gossip as any other college student would. They talk about classes,
upcoming events, home life, or things that interest them. During my observations I
overheard conversations about dresses some of the workers wanted to buy to wear
to a party and even a conversation about the new T.V show Empire. Sarah told me
that Its pretty informal conversation even when it comes to communicating with
their supervisor and manager cause we hang out outside of work. Other minor ways
of communicating with each other are texting, phone calls, and leaving notes for
each other.
The third criteria is a discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms
primarily to provide information and feedback. (Swales 221). These are things that
the members of the community must participate in, in order to receive information. In
order to become a barista at Starbucks you have to go through training to learn each
specific job. Sally explained I had to learn all the drinks and the register and I had to
learn how to clean all the stuff just basic training I guess. Sarah talked about how on
her first day she was learning the latte machine and the person training her had to
leave early so she was stuck figuring it out herself. At Starbucks you dont learn
everything at once. Youre trained on one machine (whether its a drink machine or
the cash register) and then you move on once you understand how it works. There
are no outside trainings or events that staff are required to go to.
The fourth criteria is a discourse community utilizes and hence possesses
one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims. (Swales 221),
which means that a discourse community had different ways of providing information
to people in the community and outside of it. The company of Starbucks has a
website to provide you with overall information about its company, goals, and even
has a store to purchase merchandise. Since the Starbucks in the Student Union is a

Windows User 3/23/2015 10:10 AM

Comment [7]: try talking about what starbucks
might look for in a potential employee

Windows User 3/23/2015 10:10 AM

Comment [8]: talk about the different jobs that
Starbucks has

chain store owned by Chartwells, you are able to find information about this specific
Starbucks through UNCCs website. However the information is limited to times and
nutritional value. The Starbucks in the Student Union also has posters and
brochures in order to provide more information on the company and refreshments.
One of the brochures even has information on how to provide feedback on this
specific store by giving you the store number which is 78090.
The fifth criteria according to Swales is that in addition to owning genres, a
discourse community has acquired a specific lexis. (Swales 222). Language that is
specific to Starbucks is mainly in their brand name products and the sizes of the
drinks. Their brand products include Frappuccino, Starbucks Refreshers, Starbucks
bottled Frappuccino coffee drinks, Starbucks Discoveries chilled cup coffees,
Starbucks Discoveries Iced Caf Favorites, Starbucks Iced Coffee, Starbucks
Doubleshot espresso drinks, and Starbucks DoubleshotEnergy+Coffee drinks. They
use the sizes Tall, Grande, and Venti. However if you go in and order using the
words Small, Medium, or Large they will understand just fine.
The sixth criteria according to Swales is that A discourse community has a
threshold of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal
expertise. (Swales 222). Sally and Sarah both explained how there are three
different levels you can be at. Most employees are baristas which means that they
make the drinks and run the cash registers. Baristas are the people who work mainly
inside the store and with the customers. The next highest level is a supervisor.
Supervisors monitor the stores and the baristas working and have also been trained
as a barista so they are able to help out. The highest level of this Starbucks is the
manager. The manager runs the whole store, fills out the orders and paperwork, and

Windows User 3/23/2015 10:12 AM

Comment [9]: unclear what "times" means

counts the money in the cash register at closing time. The manager has a separate
office which is also in the Student Union but not connected or in the Starbucks store.
The Starbucks in the Union may just be a chain of the popular coffee shop
but also doubles as a discourse community. Starbucks has goals, different means of
communication, their own registered word and lexis and different levels of job status
hitting all of Swales criteria for what a discourse community needs. By exploring how
Starbucks is a discourse community we can relate these six characteristics to many
other things in our lives. We are all part of different discourse communities that may
or may not function in very different ways.

Overall, very well done first draft. There were some

spelling and punctuation errors, but it wasn't that much of a big deal. It's expected in a rough draft.
I'd go into detail about what a "barista" is for people who like me who have no idea what it is. There
was also a few sentences that I had a hard time understanding and would consider rewording to
both shorten and to have it make a bit easier to read. One thing that I would definitely do is go into
more detail about Sarah and Sally. In the paper, they're kind of thrown into the scene pretty
suddenly and it left me wondering who Sarah and Sally both were in relation to Starbucks. A nice
transition sentence or two in-between the ending of that quote and when you first mention Sally
wouldn't hurt either. That way it would give the reader some insight on who you are talking about as
well as having a smooth transition from one topic to the other. There was also one spot that you could
have taken out a word or two. Also, after you mention the training that each employee goes through
for their specific job, I'd talk about that jobs there are.

Works Cited

Swales, John.The Concept of Discourse Community.Boston: Cambridge UP. 1990.

Print.
Starbucks Coffee Company. Starbucks Company Profile.Starbucks Coffee
Company. January 2015. Web. March 22, 2015.