Discourse Community Research Paper

Every individual is a component of some type of discourse community. A discourse community is a group of people who work to achieve a set of common goals through a unique form of terms and conditions. Discourse communities are often confused with speech communities. The difference between the two is that “a discourse community recruits its members by persuasion, training or relevant qualification” (Swales 220) rather than gaining members through birth, or accident. Discourse communities have a “reasonable ratio between novices and experts” (Swales 222) and different genres of communication that are used to progress towards the group’s goals. Another characteristic is the use of a unique lexis, or vocabulary, that sets the community apart from

I am not fully familiar with most of the terms due to my positions on the team, the kicker and punter. Kickers and punters are generally the “glorified soccer players”, and generally don’t get as much attention as the players on the offense and defense. I’ve never had much interest in football, so I haven’t taken the time to learn the majority of the specifics of the game. I know my place and do my part for the team, so everyone accepts it. The lack of knowledge of the details of what is happening on the field may be much more of an issue for someone playing a different position. Other players need to know where to run, who to block, as well as what all of the other players around them are doing as well. There are a variety of positions that have different tasks filled by players with different strengths and weaknesses. All of the various links that make a football team operate correctly on the field deeply rely on proper communication. A player doesn’t need to know absolutely everything, but they do need to know enough information to execute their assignment fluidly and correctly in the