discourse community Essay Examples

Analysis of Discourse Community Essay Example

he typical ways that people in a discourse community talk and argue have to be learned for a person to get accepted into them. By establishing credibility, acquiring knowledge and learning soccer which is the game that I love, I can prove how I was able to join my high school soccer team discourse community in this paper. In other words, ethos, pathos, and logos are the modes of appeal that I will be using. I watch the professionals who play soccer on television because I love playing the sport. I joined the city league team which is where I played since I was ten years of age. Meeting the requirements for the team was tough but in the same breath simple.

Understanding a Community

Crowley Eagles is the name of my high school soccer team, which I was in recently. We were more than a team; we considered ourselves family since we grew to love one another, but to other people, we might have come off as a regular soccer team. No matter the circumstance, we always stuck to each other from being undefeated to losing most of the games of the season. Sharing of responsibilities and knowledge is what members do in any community. With my commitment as a team player, I knew that I had to be demonstrated to get acceptance as a member. Also, with other members of the community, while interacting with them, I had to draw on my skills and knowledge.

The Ethos and Logos Appeals

During my freshman year in high school is where it all started, and to convince the upperclassmen, I used the ethos and logos appeal to prove to them that I belonged. The upperclassmen were in point of fact looked up to by the incoming freshman. Becoming part of the team was what we all hoped to achieve. All the dirty work had to be handled by the freshman just like in any other kind of sport. According to the upperclassmen, all the responsibilities including the gathering of all the balls to picking up trash and bringing out water, among others, were ours. It was the freshmen’s fault whenever the team was in trouble. It was in some way to show our commitment to being part of the team; I can say this was in a way a test to prove it. Learning to appeal to the values and emotions of other discourse community members is what a member should strive to do. It was a problem for the coaches to decide whom to put on varsity because there was enormous talent in the program. Communication with not one but all of your teammates is a must in the game of soccer. And from the start, this is the thing what we worked to have. The communication method as a team that we used was in many different ways, for example, enduring punishments together, training on the daily and even calling each other out. Whether you liked it or not, learning how to collaborate with each other on the team was everyone’s responsibility. At first, it seemed pointless, but the building of chemistry with each other was part of it. Acceptance of new players into our family year in year out and losing others was difficult. One of the significant coaches I ever had was the coach, King. We had to change our view of him since at the beginning; he came off as a grumpy and angry old man. His meaning of the word GAS was clear to us as he made us understand it. Grades, attitude, and skill were the meaning. The rule was no pass no play, which made grades the most important rule. To most of the guys, this was not a problem granted that for quite a few of them it was some trouble. If we were planning on having a full squad on our next few games, we had no choice but to help when one of us was struggling. When faced with the danger of failing, we did a lot of things to help them such as getting assistance from tutors or teachers. We counted on one another as a team to get through various obstacles which came our way as the year went on. Between a negative and a positive attitude, the positive one is always better. Rather than a great player who only cares about himself, the coach made it clear to us that he preferred an alright player who cares about the team. The people to look up to are those guys who lead others in the right path. I have been on teams that are very strict; you would not get a chance to show what you’re about by the coaches if you do not know how to play the sport. Not all that were selected were better than the ones that were not chosen. Hence, it was hard for those who did not understand this because it was different. As much as I was not the best player, I did know my capabilities. I did motivate not only myself but also my teammates to my level best not to give up and for us to live up to our potential. Being part of the team is how the coach made us understand how ethos appeal takes effect. How we played depended on us. “I got myself here” is what we would think as we played. Becoming part of the team was how we had achieved credibility. The headlines on the papers read “Crowley Boys soccer team falls short against El Paso Del Valle.” When the referee did blow the final whistle, the feeling that I got is unexplainable. I had sustained an injury from the previous game, and due to that, felt hopeless and mad for not being in a position to do much for my team. Because of a small mistake, the other team managed to defeat us. My brothers and I found tears rolling down our eyes. Although we felt defeat and disappointment, the feeling did not last long because we knew that in more than ten years for the team, we were the first ones to get this far. However, knowing that this was our last game as a team, it sucked that it would end like this. People who started coming out to support us surprised us by how many they were. The next season would be a different team because the majority of the team members were seniors. I gathered that for the next year I had to step it up since I was a junior at the time, and I did not take time to realize how close to each other the team had gotten. To be part of the team was an emotional and fantastic experience. We had gone through a rough past season, and not many realized how much we had put in determination and hard work, and only remembered us as the undefeated team that always won and almost made it to the state championship. All we wanted was to step up since we were tired of all the glory that basketball and football received. To motivate ourselves, everyone had to contribute.

Understanding Communication

For us to understand the true meaning of communication, we did whatever it took from going through plays over and over again, to longer practices and harder workouts; we did it all. At first, we started off by not getting along with each other at all and were just the losing team. Everyone thought of themselves as better than the rest, and so we faced a situation where everyone had developed a big head. Regardless, we had a shared dream of bringing back the trophy to prove to all those that did not believe in us that we could do it and that was the reason why we could not have given up. In the end, we did as much as it did take some time to get there. For us to know each other better on the field, we started off as two indoor teams. One team consisted of the seniors and the juniors together; while on the other was the sophomores and freshmen. Attaining greater chemistry was our goal and the reason why we split the teams in this way. To increase our level of bonding as a team, every Friday night once in a while, we would have bonfires at the captain’s house. To help out our team, we would have conversations about how we could all improve together. For us to continue bringing the excellent results that we had achieved, we would discuss the areas where we needed to work on as we reminisced about the past games. In three of the paragraphs above, I have made a point of using pathos and logos appeals. By sharing the defeat experience that I went through with my fellow discourse community members, I was able to demonstrate the appeal of pathos. As a result of the struggles that we went through, a stronger bond was formed specifying the allusion to the journey that we went through to be able to make it to the season - that is how I was able to accomplish the point. As a community, we indeed became closer through the struggles, and a reader can see that I used both pathos and logos appeal to the conclusion that is logical.

Conclusion

Of all the disclosure communities, this is one of the greatest that I have ever belonged to. If I were on my own, most probably I would not have communicated or worked with a team if it were not up for soccer. The way to be part of this community is by taking time to create a relationship that is strong between the community and one of dedication and commitment. Regardless of whatever obstacles that came my way, I still managed to enjoy this discourse community which is likely why I was able to be successful in the community. As much as it was hard, the memories and skills that I developed within the community will stay with me for eternity.