Staton 1 Kiana Staton Professor Peterson English 1101 31 March 2014 A Discourse Community There is no set definition of the

term, discourse community. If I were to construct a definition, it would state that a discourse community is a group of individuals that intertwine and communicate, on a similar topic, in order to achieve the same goal. Many researchers have theorized their own definition of what a discourse community entails. A definition that has a meaning most similar to mine is John Swales. He defined a discourse community as a group of people that meets the characteristics of: having a certain number of group members, reaching to achieve the same goals, having ways to communicate within members, having a way to share information with the rest of the world, using many genres to help spread information, and having its own special lexis. According to Swales, a group is only considered a discourse community if it satisfies all of these characteristics. There are many different discourse communities throughout our world. Many people are included in several discourse communities at the same time. I chose to observe the discourse community of a recreational basketball pick-up game. A pick-up game can be described as a basketball game, between the students of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, for recreational purposes. These games do not have the specific rules, and are informal compared to an organized basketball game. Those who are looking to exercise in the form of this sport use their ID, and enter the gym to play the game. Depending on how early you are in the day, you either start a game or enter in the game to substitute in place of

Staton 2 others when they decide to leave. The game is played usually with five players on each team at a time. It is regulated by the players themselves, based on their own discretion. It is decided before the game what the maximum score is in order to win the game. Once a team reaches the maximum score, they are the winners, the game is over. It is very clear to see how this discourse community of recreational basketball players fit of John Swales characteristics. The first characteristics include, having a certain number of members, reaching to achieve the same goal, and using different genres in order to execute a certain task. UNCC gyms are only open and free to the students. Therefore, the number of people allowed to play these pick-up games on a daily basis is the same as the number of students within our school. In terms of an individual game, there is between four and ten players. All of these people decide to go to an open gym for many different purposes. They include, wanting to practice their ball handling skills, wanting to learn how to play basketball to the best of their ability, and simply to just get exercise and win a game. Players use different genres in an open gym in order to play a pick-up game of basketball. The players execute their own plays by correlating a certain sequence of steps in order to score. They also execute fouls, which can consist of restarting the game on the other end of the court with the other team, or shooting extra shots due to someone fouling another player. These are three of characteristics that apply John Swales definition of a discourse community. The last three of Swales principles are having its own set special lexis, having a way of intercommunication with its members, and having a way to communicate things to the general population. There are many terms used within any form of basketball game. This lexis is very specific to the sport itself. They include words such as dunk, which is a move that involves the player jumping, as they slam the ball into hoop, counted as a score . A

Staton 3 walk is a technical foul call when a player takes extra steps with the ball without dribbling. And charge is a player pushed through other players in order to get the ball in the hoop. They also use hand signals, sayings, and body language in order to communicate during a game. For example, when a player makes a T shape with his or her hands, this means they would like to take a time out. Or, when a player is pushing their body against anothers, it is to signal that they want to block you from making a shot. And lastly, the UNCC gymnasiums have a monthly calendar that show a schedule of when there will be open court time, the most important time for recreational players. This calendar can be found within the gym, or online. These help to fulfill the six characteristics. I enjoy using the principles established by John Swales to define the meaning of discourse communities. These communities exist in most everyones world. They can help us seek our own form of identification, and help to get us involved with one another. The community I chose to observe is consisted of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte students that go to an open gym to play basketball. They exercise both mind and body within the game, and play to win. It is an example of how some of our simple daily activities can be classified as a discourse community.