William Garcia Garcia 1

Marie Webb

English 100

13 november 2018

The soccer community

What defines a discourse community? A discourse community is defined by a

Linguist professor john Swales as “A group that has common goals or common

purposes, that uses communication to achieve goals as well as consisting of the six

characteristics to form a discourse community.”(pg.470) There are many discourse

communities and most people are apart of one even more without them even knowing.

With the definition of Swales of discourse community i began to realized that i was also

part of a discourse community. A community that i take part in is the soccer community,

this sport is all around the world and played by millions and teaches us how to

communicate with our teammates in order to win tournaments and also to be in a good

and healthy shape as well as learning social skills with people who shares the same

goals and wants to be apart of this beautiful sport , by doing this they implements

analysis like ethos and logos in my community.

In any discourse community, communication is a key factor in order to reach the

goal of that particular community, John swales states in page 473 of his article “A

discourse community has acquired some specific lexis”. In the game of soccer certain

terms are used on the pitch ,off the pitch,and during practice in order for us to achieve

our goal of winning tournaments and interact with new people and learn how to play as

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a team .This community uses Common vocabulary words or terms used during practice

and on games some of this terms are: Get-wide (when one player on the same team

needs to spread out more on the pitch to open up a pass) ,man-on (which means a

player on the other team is approaching to steal the ball), or Rabona (which is a fancy

play in order to pass the ball to your team mate). These three examples are a select few

of the many ways people on the soccer community communicate on the field in order to

improve their skill play during the game. The communication from the game continues

off the field as well, but there is a slightly different tone and dialect and applies the

rhetorical appeal of pathos, For example on the pitch people would shout out in an

intensive voice because they are communicating in the heat of the game and also

because emotions like frustration or happiness, whereas after the game your

teammates and yourself are able to review and the game and give feedback in a more

calm way.The level of focus at practice can also be intense ,but it has more of a relaxed

tone and more of a happy emotion since is just your teammates who you are interacting

with and not a opposite team. The main important communicator of this discourse

community would be the coaches.

Coaches employs ethos in order to communicate with all of his players in that

discourse community and are the main source of feedback and communication and are

not just the authority figure of the team.Cross communication among all discourse

community participants is another criterion for Swales defining characteristics (472).The

couch help the team grow physically and mentally, by being present in every practice

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and matches and also cheering them up in a positive way during the games in order to
make the player more integrated to the team and boost their emotions and be more tied

to this community, he is in charge of keeping everyone in touch and sending each and

every player a training schedule that way the players are more effective during the

game, and also to know if a certain player is not going to show up during the game or

training, that way the coach can make changes before the game starts . A coach also

gives feedback on a player’s attitude , how they perform individually, and how the team

interact with each other during the game. Teammate are another good source of

communication, they are able to help you physically and emotionally, by bonding and

working on skills that you may need to improve in order to reach your goal of becoming

a better player and helping your discourse community as well to reach their goal of

winning tournaments.

For a community to be a discourse community they must help themselves by

doing certain tasks to help them improve. Another way they implement ethos is by

practicing and playing more, this way a player will progress more. Practice is a huge

commitment that a lot of player have to do in order to become better. In practices,

coaches will have players work on their skills by running different activities like running

laps , passing the ball more effectively, to have a better shooting skill, and going over

plays in order to know each one their mission during the game. Coaches pushes

players to gain endurance and stamina by building up their muscles and cardio in order

for them to run more and last longer during the matches. Another focus that the

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coaches emphasizes at practice is teamwork and relationships built among the players.

Practice is mandatory for every member of this discourse community to help them

achieve their goal.

In this discourse community there are several teams with different goals in mind,

such as the goal to win. On the other hand , individually, each team member has set of

goals they wish to achieve. There are short terms and long terms objectives in this

community or as the professor of reading james paul gee says “you’re either recognize

by others as a full member of it or you're not.”(pg.481) Short terms ambitious usually

last on a day to day basis. They consist of scoring a certain amount of soccer goals

during the game or season or the number of touches (this means the number of times a

player touches the ball with their feet) on the ball before it is passed during the game.

This short terms are great to have in this discourse community but long term goals give

the team motivation to strive for the ultimate bond of a team. For the soccer community,

goals don't have to be set in numbers or shown on the scoreboard they can also

involved with developing relationships between the teammates to have a great time.

In order for the soccer discourse community to prosper and achieve their goals, it

is an achievement for players to step up to the plate and take on the role of leadership

in the team. Swales mentioned in page (472) of his article “A discourse community had

to develop and continue to develop discoursal expectations.” These members can

eventually become captains of their teams, they can be senior players on the team who

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have played for a long time soccer and knows everything about the sport and the tactics

that the coach uses, or even players who are more skilled and have experience in the

soccer community. As a leader its good to have a specific set of qualities, such as,

knowledge of the game, good communication skills , and selflessness, the captain role

is important to guide the new members in the community into their specific roles they

are doing during the game, and to give moral support if they need it during the game,

and they are responsible of any altercation or decision during the match for example

whos gonna kick a penalty or asking the players during the game if they are able to

continue .

Leadership is important for any discourse community, but a team requires every

person in the community involved to guarantee a feeling of satisfactory or achievement.

This feelings can be gained by completing personal and team goals, or by giving it your

best in every practice or games played during the season. Having soccer skills is

essential in order to be in this discourse community, but there are other qualities that

are needed as well to help players develop .Relationships are a key point in this

community , because they can affect how the team works together and how they

communicate with each other. It is necessary for teammates to bond and have a good

relationship so that they are able to have a good chemistry on and off the pitch.

In conclusion as swales mentioned they are six characteristics that a discourse

community has to have, but the way these characteristics are portrayed is slightly

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different in each discourse community.and people who have more than two discourse

communities will notice this. I am grateful of been in this discourse community , soccer

made me work and communicate with a team , it took commitment , dedication and time

to build a strong relation. And important thing in order to be successful in this discourse

community is that you have to enjoy it especially if you love the soccer.

Work cited Garcia 6

Elizabeth Wardle,Doug Downs.Writing about writing; A College reader, Bedford/st.

Martin’s 2017.