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

others. A church, sports team, or even a class of students can be a discourse community.
A discourse community that I am a member of is the Bartlett football team. We are a group of almost 70 players that play under the guidance of 6 coaches. We all share a set of common goals as a program, which are listed by our head coach, Tim Haney, in a letter that he composed for the schoolboard when he became the head coach. The goals are not publicly listed, but they are understood by the players. The football team’s goals are a variation of long-term, short-term, large, and small goals. They are meant to drive and encourage the players and coaches to give maximum effort, and to keep track of the team’s progress as a whole. The list of goals is ordered in an inductive fashion, starting with “Win a State Championship.” This is the overall goal that the program will be working towards by completing all of the other tasks. Winning the state championship is like winning the Super Bowl in high school football, and it is what every team aspires to accomplish. The second goal is “Win a Regional Championship,” which is the step that a team must take before having the opportunity to move on to play for the state title. The third goal is listed as “Host a Playoff Game.” In our district, a team must have an exceptional winning record to host a playoff game, otherwise they have to go somewhere else potentially far away in the state to play. When a team wins enough games to host the playoffs, it is a sign that they are having success in their season. The fourth goal is to “Win a District Game,” and the final goal is “Win Every Day.” That final goal has a lot of meaning to the Bartlett Football program. This is goal that we have to fight for every single day, no matter if it is the practice, game-day, the weekend, or even the off-season. Winning every day is what we have to do to take steps forward towards the larger goals. Taking steps forward means putting in 100% effort all the time and doing whatever it takes to fill in and play the role necessary to improve the team as a whole. It requires attendance and a winning attitude from everyone, whether the player is a starter or not. Winning every day is the a simple, but extremely important component of being a successful football team. Our goals are communicated indirectly by our coaches and surrounding players at every practice and workout. Everyone is hard on one another in order to push ourselves to perform the best that we possibly can, so that we are ready when we line up on Friday night. Our goals do not need to be directly stated because they are common sense, and every person on the team knows them.
The Bartlett Football team has a special way of communicated amongst itself, which Swales defines as a “lexis.” The term lexis refers to the jargon that is unique to that discourse community, and is used to communicate information. There are a vast amount of football terms used to describe different offensive plays, defensive setups, wide receiver routes, and so much more. An example of some offensive play terms are: zone, counter, speed, traps, powers, sweeps, screens, toss, dives, pitch, lead, and wedge. A few of the wide receiver route names are: slant, snap, curl, hitch, drag, go, post, corner, skinny post, slug-o, seam, bubble, and tunnel. Our defense also has a set of calls to read the opposing team’s offensive plays. None of these terms mean much to me personally, but they’re crucial for the players in those positions to make sure everyone is on the same page while on the field. The team uses all types of different names and signals to relay information about formations and plays while on the field. These words and signals are always being changed by the offensive coordinator, so that no opposing team is able to study them and read the plays we are going to execute before the ball is even snapped. One way to simplify the process of learning and remembering plays is by wearing wristbands. The wristbands have a rows and columns of colors and numbers such as “Red 1” or “Green 4.” Instead of making players memorize names for each of the new plays, they are all assigned a color and number depending on the type of play. That way there is considerably less confusion on the field.
There are several genres that the Bartlett Football team uses to communicate. Email is used by coaches and the fundraiser club president to share information about important upcoming events, any paperwork or forms required, to communicate with parents of the players, and to let players know when game film is available. Often, coaches will use the whiteboard in the locker room to draw up plays so that coaches can discuss them with the players before a game or at halftime. Team meetings of various lengths happen every single day that we are together. After practice we always get in a huddle around Coach Haney as he tells us what we did correctly, what we need to improve on, any announcements, and anything else that he might want to add. We rely on communication to keep everyone together mentally.
The dictionary definition of assimilation is “the process of taking in and fully understanding information or ideas.” Complete assimilation is not required to be a part of the Bartlett Football discourse community.

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

game.
Levels of expertise within a football team is crucial to be successful. The level of expertise does not completely depend on whether or not the player is new to the program, or a fourth year veteran. Although players come and go as they become freshmen and when they graduate, people can randomly decide that they do or don’t want to play during the off-season throughout any point in their high school career. We have even gained and lost a couple of players at a few points throughout the season this year. Usually, levels of expertise within players is determined by how the coaches evaluate the players’ understanding and performance. Position coaches view the players at their given positions, and then figure out who is the best. The best player is typically a starting player on the first string. The other players at that specific position are then made backups, to replace the starter when they get hurt or need a break from the game. However, the levels of expertise are always able to change. A starting player could show a pattern of poor performance, or the replacement player could work extra hard and improve. The starting lineup can change, and backups can lose their priority and fall further behind the others.
The Bartlett Football team is a work in progress that has been building since it began. We share a common set of goals, and has unique ways of communicating which sets us apart from other teams that we compete against. We utilize these forms of communications in an attempt to work towards achieving our common set of goals, which are understood by the players and coaches that make up the team. The Bartlett Football team consists of different levels of expertise among its members, which is constantly changing as players improve and when senior players graduate. Everyone has to cooperate and fill their role to benefit their team, so that we can succeed and win the day, every single day.