The definition of discourse communities has been argued over for a long

period of time. I will be using the guidelines created by John Swales that
narrow down what characteristics a Discourse community obtain. The
guidelines are as such 1. A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of
common public goals, 2. A discourse community has mechanisms of
intercommunication among its members, 3. A discourse community uses its
participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback, 4.
A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in
the communicative furtherance of its aims, 5. In addition to owning genres, a
discourse community has acquired some specific lexis, and 6. A discourse
community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of
relevant content and discourse expertise. To summarize a discourse
community it is a group that has a goal or purpose and to accomplish that
goal or purpose use communication. Following this definition I found that a
high school football team and volleyball team displayed all the requirements
necessary to be a discourse community. I will dissect these two discourse
communitys to answer the following question, how do these two
communitys communicate to accomplish their goal? I will answer this
question by dissecting each component of the team from the coaches to the
players and show how the information is communicated, learned, and used
during a game. I will show the lines the information follows from the Head
Coach, to the assistant coaches, to the position groups, and the team as a
whole working together.

First is the football team which has the

purpose of winning by out preforming the opponent at hand. Information

comes from the head coach and he then has a group meeting with the
assistant coaches to allow them to grasp this new information. Then the
assistant coaches give the players the information that applies to their
positional groups. For this example I will be splitting the football team into
offense, defense and the positional groups that make them up. I will also use
a frequently play used by the offense and defense to show the lines of
communication and how it is interpreted and used to accomplish their goal.
The play I will be utilizing for offense is 22 zone. The positional groups for
offense are quarterback, running back, o-line and receivers/tightends.
Starting with the biggest group the o-line. The purpose of the o line is to
create room for the running back to run and to protect the quarterback while
he throws. The o line knows that since the number is in the beginning of play
it is a run, they know that since it is an even number it is a run to the right,
and since the second number is a two they know that the running back will
be running through the two hole which is between the right guard and tackle.
Also because it has zone they know they will be getting the person to their
right and hooking them which takes them out of the play. A way the line man
communicate with each other is by using the terms cloudy and clear
cloudy is used when an opponent is lined up on them and clear when there is
no one lined up on them. This lets the cloudy player know the clear player
will go straight to the linebacker. Next the wide receivers/tightends which
have the purpose of catching the balls and also blocking. From the receivers

and tightends view they know that it is a run play because the play starts
with a number rather than a pass play which ends with a number. The
receivers and tightends job at that point is simple which is to block the
person in front of them and if there is no one someone to the right of them
because they know from the even number it is going to the right. If it was a
pass there would be numbers after the zone word and the numbers are
connected to the type of route the receiver or tightend would run. Next is the
running back which has the purpose to run the ball for as many yards as
possible. In the running backs perspective he knows he is getting the ball
because the play starts with numbers, is going to the right because it is
even, is going through the 2 gap and that the line men are going to block the
person to the right of them because of the zone. Now the quarterback
purpose is to hike the ball, give it to the running back or throw it to a
receiver. The quarter back runs to the side line and the coach tells him the
play then he goes and tells the play to the rest of the offense. The quarter
back knows it is a run to the right and will hand the ball off to the running
back because of the 22 telling him its a run to the right.
Now the defense which overall purpose is to stop the opponent from
scoring. The defense consists of the d-line, linebackers, and secondary. The
play I will be using for defense is Over cover 2 Starting with the d-line
which has the purpose of stopping the running back or getting the
quarterback before he throws the ball. This play is very simple for the d-line
because all they would have to do is line up more to the strong side which

is where the tightend is lined up so if the tightend is one the left side the dline will line up more to the right. Next is the line backers which have the
purpose of stopping the running back and cover certain area of the field. For
the linebackers they also line up towards the strong side but if the play is not
a run play they will drop back into coverage and they know by the cover 2
and this tells them which zones they have to cover on the field. Next is the
secondary which has the purpose of covering the receivers then play the run.
Only the cover 2 applies to the secondary which gives them the specific
zones to cover during the play. The play is given to the middle line back from
the side line by hand signals that the whole defense should know.
Now the volleyball team which consists of six players for one team. The
team consists of a Setter, Libero, Middle blockers/hitters, Left Side hitters,
and right side hitters. Starting with the setter which controls the team and
place the ball in the air where the hitters can hit the ball over the opponents
court. Next is the Libero who have the responsibility to hit the ball over the
net and to serve the ball over as well. The middle blockers/hitters block the
ball when the opponent hits the ball over and the hitters hit the ball over
when the setter sets the ball to them. Next are the left side hitter that hit the
ball when the setter sets the ball to their side. The right side hitters all
simply hit the ball when the ball is set to them. In this team there is no plays
it is by instinct and depends on where the ball goes after the setter sets it.
Each player has been taught by their coach.

The differences in these communities are the amount of

communication that is being used. The football team has communication
going from the coach to the quarter back to the rest of the team to their
positional groups and the volleyball team is allowed to play and make their
reactions while the coach watches. In both their goals are the same which is
to overall win and the players must in both teams must have multilitericies
because they have to able to read either the offense or defense.
Referring back to John Swales article The concept of discourse
community gives his definition of a discourse community by creating these
six characteristics to guide the idea. My paper relates to Swales because of
the need to show his definition of discourse communities and I do so by
showing the examples of the football team and volleyball team that
contained his six characteristics of a discourse community. My topic is also
related to Mirabelli Learning to serve which is about how being a waiter is
so much more than what people think and as a waiter you need to have
multiliteracies. My paper is related to this article because I am also trying to
show that sports need more than just physical aspects but also mental
because they every player required mulitliteracies.
Overall these discourse communities are very complex and require a
great deal of multilieracies the way the communication is brought from
ear to ear is very complex because it comes from the coach to the
players and the players communicate while executing and they have to

be able to read certain things during the games that sometimes comes
down to instinct. These teams are discourse communities because they
each have the six characteristics that Swales created for discourse
communities. In analyzing these communities it has given me the
insight to communication and the importance of mulitlitericies in how
they allow us to function.