4 nguyễn thị lan anh hcm5

HUE UNIVERSITY

INFORMATICS AND OPEN INSTITUTE
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ASSIGNMENT ON

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

TOPIC:
DISCOURSE COMMUNITY OF SALE COMPANY

Lecturer:

NGUYỄN VĂN TUẤN

Student:

NGUYỄN THỊ LAN ANH

Class:

HCM5

Tp HCM, 30/7/2023
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I. Introduction
The concept of business discourse is a way of communicating within
business, professional, and commercial disciplines. Business as a discourse is

often deemed to be of a different category from professional or commercial
discourse. For our purposes, business discourse is the use of written and spoken
word in all relevant media to convey meaning and to accomplish the tasks of a
business endeavor.
The common goals of retail stores are to promote sales, make money for
the company, and provide excellent customers service that will make the customer
want to return. So they like to keep the store feeling laid-back and care-free.
Although retail jobs are usually loathed and feared by many, the community has
always been one that makes workers want to come back and be excited for their
shifts. The managers offer a positive, rewarding, and calm attitude. This should
not be fooled for being lazy and something to take advantage of. They manage to
be laid-back while still enforcing rules and encouraging their workers to work
hard and complete their tasks. Workers are always encouraged to approach
customers with a smile and to offer help to anyone and everyone.
II. Content
1.

Discourse community of sale company

A discourse community is a group of people who share certain characteristics
and interests and, as a result of ongoing communications within that group, share
language practices for communicating the group’s goals” [1]. Our daily lives are
being constantly ran through discourse and discourse communities without us
even realizing it. We have daily discourse with our families, peers at school,
professors, or even just random people on the train. Although discourse and
speech between peers and others is a common, daily practice, most people belong
to specific discourse communities in which they share thoughts and ideas.
The discourse community often uses both verbal and textual communications
on the daily basis. Surveying employees found that while they each believed that
both both verbal and textual discourse were imperative to our community, their

final answers on which was used more depended exactly on what position they
work in the store.
1.1

Verbal communications

Brand reps, or sales associates, are the ones who believe they use verbal
communication more often at work, mainly between other associates and
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coworkers. Sales associates who do jobs such as folding clothes, helping
customers and managing cash registers believe that verbal communication is more
commonly used in the store because they are almost always at the front of the
store to talk to customers.
Workers will continuously receive feedback from their manager during a
briefing with one of the managers at the end of the shift. During these meetings,
there is a discussion about their recent in-store performance, what they are doing
right, and what could be improved.
1.2

Textual communications

There is an associate text message group chat in which each of the store
associates joins when they start working with the store. In this group chat,
associates ask their peers for coverage for shifts, or even just general questions
about the job or their schedule. The group chat was created for there to be an easy,
laid-back discourse between associates in order to have their problems solved
before taking it up with a manager. As for verbal, associates are almost constantly
speaking with others at the job. They speak within their own discourse community

when talking to managers or other associates. But since this community is found
in a retail job, associates are always engaging in discourse with the customers of
the store; another discourse community of its own. Lastly, there is a “Company
Corkboard” hanging up in the back of the store inside of the stock room. On this
board, there are multiple papers hung up in order to keep associates informed on
how the store is doing, if there are any upcoming corporate events, or even “if
there was an alternation of mall hours”[2]. Associates who work primarily in the
warehouse, performing tasks such as loading clothes in the warehouse, vetting
outbound boxes, and preparing for the updated store floor say they use written
communication. more copies. This is directly caused by the fact that they spend
most of their shifts alone in the warehouse.
1.3 Change with the times
The expansion of technology has changed discourse communities, however,
because a much broader set of members can now participate in them.
Contemporary research has begun to explore how technology-mediated discourse
communities form and change, as well as how they serve educational and other
social functions. There are advances in and the challenges of conducting research
on discourse communities established through social media [3].
2.

Six key criteria in defining a discourse community
John Swales has came up with six key criteria in defining a discourse
community. He writes, “he defining characteristics of a discourse community
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might be (1) communality of interest, (2) mechanisms for intercommunication
between members, (3) survival by providing information and feedback, (4)
development of genre-specific discoursal expectations, (5) possession of an
embedded dynamic towards an increasingly shared and specialized terminology,

and (6) a critical mass of members with a suitable degree of relevant discoursal
and content expertise.” (Swales). Sale companise have a common interest, which
is primarily to make the company money and to promote a positive environment
for ourselves and our customers. The text message group chat is a main
mechanism for “intercommunication between members” [4]. As workers, they are
constantly receiving feedback from their managers during meetings, which are
short meeting with one of the managers during the end of their shift. In these
meetings, there is a discussion about their performance at the store recently, what
they are doing right, and what could use improvement. Some companies have
developed specialized speech as well, instead of calling people sales associates,
they call them brand reps. They have specific words for specific tasks, such as
back stock, taking a lap, and standardizing.
3. The role of discourse community of sale company
3.1
Increase labor productivity and team spirit bonding
“ Employee engagement is an emotional state in which employees feel
passionate, energetic and committed to their work. Employees are committed to
working with heart, spirit, mind and hands to bring high performance to the
organization ”. The sales force is constantly mobile and most of the time is not in
the company, so aligning them with the organization is also one of the challenges
of the manager. However, businesses that build a good corporate culture linking
sales to the organization, the sales team is always more passionate and combative.
The truth is that when we love something, we tend to talk about it with much more
positive and engaging energy. In the same way, the more salespeople love the
organization, the more confident they will be to fight. So how does a Sales
Manager make that happen? There are a few ways that can be applied such as:
regularly reminding them of the Company's mission and values, proposing to
recognize the achievements of sales staff, collective activities, sending letters of
congratulations and encouragement, engage and learn more about your
employees, get their opinions on upcoming plans at the Company…

3.2 Contribute to building a solid corporate culture
Good communication makes it easier for employees to connect and interact
with colleagues. If new employees join the organization and feel the working
environment is fun, sociable, leaders and colleagues talk friendly and close, they
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will quickly integrate into the company culture . At the same time, they will not
feel lonely, there is a distance in the department in which they work.
3.3 Help effective internal communication
By promoting multi-way communication between the organization and its
members, between colleagues, internally communicating information helps the
team have a common voice, individuals will not miss important announcements.
As a result, employees will work harder, be more responsible and productive, and
reduce staff leave.The internal communication department can organize collective
programs at a fixed time of the week such as creating mini games for all
employees through the unlimited Zoom feature built into the system.
4.

Some problems arise
One of the problems that arise when communicating in the workplace is that
they easily get caught up in talking to other associates, which distracts them from
their work. Leads to customers complaining about incompetence and lack of
focus. While employees have a positive work environment when they are
comfortable talking to their managers and colleagues about any issues, we should
take care of the customer first and then pass it on to us![5]. The most important
activity for a salesperson is consulting and selling. To perform well at this stage,
you need to be prepared. Learn and grasp the benefits and features of the
company's products, services, and sales policies to be able to advise the right plan
for customers. If during the consultation process you yourself do not understand

the information of the product, it is easy for customers to feel distrustful and judge
you as an unqualified salesperson. In this stage, you need to reach out to customers
to introduce the product as well as convince to buy. Salespeople can do this
through phone calls or face-to-face meetings. You should call to find out the
customer's needs first and then make an appointment to meet in person once the
customer wants to find out. That is often the most effective approach for
salespeople. In order to increase the rate of closing orders, it is important that you
listen and understand the needs of your customers properly so that you can offer
solutions to help overcome their problems. Depending on staff capacity,
negotiation skills of each salesperson, you have the opportunity to perform upselling, cross-selling, etc. and increase sales for the business.

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III. Conclusion
Communication plays a very important role and is likened to an emotional
bridge between people. In business, communication is like a ladder to bring an
organization closer to its customers and more successful. According to Forbes
magazine, effective communication skills are needed to break down barriers and
promote more successful cooperation between businesses. In summary, it is
important to see how the discourse community of sale company. It is crucial in
shaping how all other retailers create a safe, fun, and supportive work
environment for their workers. The leaders treat them with respect while still
making sure they don’t hate coming to work every shift. They give everyone
opportunities to get involved with the surrounding communities.

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REFERENCES

1. Gilstein, Julia. “Discourse Community.” Salem Press Encyclopedia,
January.
EBSCOhost, login.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/login?url=c
ohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=90558295&site=edslive.
2. Chen, Amanda. Personal Interview. 10 March 2017.
3. Kim, D., Vorobel, O. (2017). Discourse Communities: From Origins to
Social Media. In: Wortham, S., Kim, D., May, S. (eds) Discourse and
Education. Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer, Cham.
4. Blanchard, Collin. Personal Interview. 8 March 2017.
5. Flanagan, Ali. Personal Interview. 8 March 2017.

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