Caroline Eberhart Professor Leslie Wolcott ENC 1101 19 November 2012 Discourse Community Analysis Introduction For the

past few decades there has been a problem of conflict within discourse communities and communities of practice. The properties of discourse communities as well as the reason for studying them are still not completely understood. Two linguists with the names of John Swales and James Gee have done research that have both suggested similar but different points of view. These existing studies have clearly established their beliefs, but they have not addressed the reason for studying discourse communities or the goals and characteristics of the UCF Womens Golf team. John Swales believed that participating in a discourse community did not necessarily require joining it; although he did not pursue the idea of conflict within communities any further (Swales 268). Swales also focused his writing on six characteristics for identifying a group of individuals as a discourse community. The first being each discourse community has an agreed set of common goals, each community has mechanisms of intercommunication, each community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback, each community possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims, each community has acquired some specific lexis, and each community has a

Eberhart 2 threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise (Swales 471-473). I will use Swales six characteristics of a discourse community to define the UCF Womens Golf team as a discourse community. James Gee argued that people from non-dominant home Discourses can only join dominant Discourses through mushfake, which is making do with something else when the real thing is not available (Gee 490). Gee made clear in his article that you are either recognized as a full member of a discourse community or youre not. This directly relates to the UCF womens golf team. In an interview with Mary Mulcahy, a freshman on the UCF womens golf team, she stated that the process of entering the team was long and tedious. Mulcahy traveled cross-country her whole childhood competing in AJGA (American Junior Golf Association) tournaments. She played in certain tournaments her junior and senior year of high school so college coaches would come to watch her play. Mulcahy even put in the extra effort specifically coming to Orlando to a UCF golf camp to get the head coachs attention, Emily Marin. Mulcahys hard work paid off and Marin offered her a spot on the 2012-2013 select roster of only nine. Mulcahy officially committed to UCF in September of 2011, stating she was all ready excited to add whatever she could to the success of the golf team. Mary Mulcahys words led me to believe that the talent level of the nine members on the team was extremely high and that there would be no way possible to fake being on the team until making it. The coaches of the team intensely recruit talented girls that would be great student athletes at UCF. My observations through Mary Mulcahy match up directly with Gees thinking in that you are either

Eberhart 3 recognized as a full member of a discourse community or youre not. There would be no way someone who just decided they wanted to be on the golf team one day would be able to join this discourse community. The nine girls on the team have intense concentration skills, focus skills, and the ability to play golf at a professional level. In this article I will convince the reader that the reason for studying certain discourse communities is for an education purpose. The more we study and research discourse communities, the more we can spread the word of the positive and beneficial communities for other generations to join. Most discourse communities serve as places where people meet to work for a common goal, set an example, and help others. The more people research these communities, the more people will want to join and start to make the world a better place. This article describes one study I conducted on the UCF Womens Golf team workout session on November 11, 2012 at the Wayne Desnch Sports Complex. The results of the study suggest that the UCF Womens Golf team has three common goals: winning conference USA, finishing the 2013 spring season with a top #25 ranking, and advancing to the NCAA finals. Methodology I first went to a UCF Womens Golf team workout session and took observations for an hour. I recorded how the members intercommunicated and how they interacted with Tracy, their workout coach. I also observed feedback spoken by Tracy, lexis, and a common goal each member was striving for. I then interviewed one member of the team and asked more specific questions about her team and

Eberhart 4 enculturation process. I also assessed the information from Gee and Swales and applied their studies to mine. Lastly I put together my comparisons and findings in this article. Data I will be using Swales six characteristics of a discourse community to define the UCF womens golf team. According to Mary Mulcahy, there are three common goals her team wants to accomplish this year. They are win Conference USA, finish the 2013 spring season with a top #25 ranking, and advance to the NCAA finals. A minor goal is to finish top 10 in each tournament they play. There are also a few unstated goals that I picked up on when observing a workout session. These include acting as a support system for each member while pushing each member to become the best athlete and teammate they can be. Three major goals Mulcahy listed are actually written out on paper for members to look at every day to remind themselves what to strive for. This list of goals is located in Appendix A. The next characteristic Swales defined that a discourse community needed to have is mechanisms of intercommunication. According to my observations, there was a member-only meeting before the workout session started and a team meeting with the workout coach at the end. These face-to-face meetings implied that the golf team preferred direct and personal communication. However in my interview with Mulcahy, she stated her team members also use group text messaging as ways of communication and group emails between the head coach and members. My observations also implied that Nazi Tracy, what the members of team call the workout coach, was in supreme authority. It was very easy to tell that Tracy was of

Eberhart 5 authority because she had a UCF coach shirt on, she was older in age, and she was speaking in a harsh tone to the team about striving for excellence. Mechanisms of providing information and feedback are also a required characteristic Swales defined. According to my research of the UCF Womens Golf team and my interview with Mary Mulcahy, there are many mechanisms of feedback the golf team is provided with. Mulcahy stated that after every tournament they play, they receive an updated national ranking. This ranking is a clear mechanism of feedback that the head coach Marin takes in extreme consideration. This national ranking is what determines if Marin keeps her job as the head womens golf coach. Other forms of feedback I identified when observing a workout session were the positive or negative spoken responses to each exercise by Tracy. Tracys satisfaction was easy to identify by her tone of voice. Mechanisms of feedback for the UCF Womens Golf team came in two forms: written and verbal. The fourth characteristic Swales defined is each discourse community has to possess one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims. There were so many examples of genre for the UCF Womens Golf team, so I decided to include them all in Appendix A. These include a 2012-13 tournament schedule, a 2012-13 roster, a practice facility/Twin Rivers guidelines list, a qualifying list, a Golf Stat rankings list, a practice round tee time list at the Cougar Classic tournament, a 2012-13 team goals list, a process goals list, as well as a team motto. These documents help the womens golf team achieve its goals by acting as means of organization and motivation. These pieces of text also act as reminders for members to strive for excellence every day. This packet of text, which I included in Appendix

Eberhart 6 A, was located in Mulcahys locker so she could easily access and view it every day. I could tell that the head coach Emily Marin wrote these pieces of text because she holds the position with most authority. Genres in the communicative furtherance guide and invite participation involving the UCF Womens Golf team. Lexis was very easy to identify when speaking with Mary Mulcahy in my personal interview. When asking her to describe a really poor shot, she said, I hit a triple bogey into the hazard with two shots on par five and ended up with an eight on the hole. I had absolutely no clue what Mulcahy was referring to when she said this. After asking for an explanation, she told me that triple bogey meant three shots over par, a hazard meant water or an unplayable area, par five meant the expected number of shots to make the ball in a hole, and eight on the hole meant her score was eight shots after one hole. Because I only observed a work out session and not a golf practice, I did not hear these terms said aloud. However Mulcahy stated that all nine girls speak those certain golf terms fluently. The last characteristic Swales defined was that each discourse community has to have a threshold of members. With only nine spots available on the team, head coach Emily Marin keeps her squad small and elite. Marin intensely recruits high school golfers at tournaments nation wide. Impressing Marin and assistant coach Ashley Prange would be the only ticket to getting a pass on the UCF Womens Golf Team. In conclusion, major goals of the UCF Womens Golf Team are to win Conference USA, finish the 2013 spring season top #25, and advance to the NCAA finals. I also have concluded that the reason for studying discourse communities, such as the UCF

Eberhart 7 Womens Golf team, is for educating and advertising purposes. Certain discourse communities, such as the golf team, hold very positive environments. If more is known about these educative and positive environments, than the more positive advertising and spreading of the word will come from it. The UCF Womens Golf team would be considered an official discourse community if judged by Swales six criteria because it meets each characteristic.

Eberhart 8 Works Cited Gee, James. Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction. Writing About Writing. Leasa Burton. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 481-497. Print. Mulcahy, Mary. Personal interview. November 11, 2012. Swales, John. The Concept of Discourse Community. Writing About Writing. Leasa Burton. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 466-480. Print.