I plan examining the discourse community of the Ohio University Rugby Football Club. Being a member of the team for about five seasons now, I whole heartedly feel that I am completely immersed as a fully fledged member of this discourse community. The rugby team here at Ohio University is a tight-knit group of people. Every member of this discourse community is has their own unique personality that contributes to the overall make up of the team. I know every member of the team on a person level, from the coach, to the veteran players, to the rookies, down to the people who have tried out but never finished. I also personally know many of the alumni that have played here at Ohio University.
As I mentioned before the Ohio University rugby team is a band of colleagues that would fight their hearts out for each other. Our motto for the team is “Friendship and Togetherness”. We end every meeting, practice, and game with a chant of our motto. In my final paper I will examine more closely how people stay committed to the team and motivated to keep battling through a long, grueling season. We have many members of the team how communicate clearly the team’s goals and what we all should be striving to do. I specifically want to look at how we keep each other all on the same page and striving for the same goals. I feel like everyone on the team is their own motivational speaker throughout a unforgiving season of pain, strive, and triumph. When you have been around the team for a while you buy into what is being presented to you. For a newcomer, I would like to also examine how we bring that person into our rugby family and keep them with us throughout their years at Ohio University.
A rugby team can field fifteen players on the field. This obviously isn’t the total number of people on the team; the whole member count is around thirty to forty-five players on a team. This being said, many people will not be starters or play on the A-side. In the final paper I want study how we communicate as a team to those players on the sidelines. Everyone is important to the Ohio University rugby team and how we communicate our message of commitment and motivation to those bench players is key to keeping everyone solid in this discourse community.
I feel like the rugby team is an interesting discourse community, it’s almost like a family. Analyzing this discourse is useful because we can see how people stay motivated and committed through the rollercoaster of emotions in practice, games, and off the field issues. I would like to see how being on the rugby team helps me to stay or get into other discourse communities, or relate to them. I feel like I can possibly add to Gee’s 6 characteristics. I feel like our fans are about of our rugby discourse community, even though they’re not on the field with us. They help to keep us motivated, they cheer us on, and they donate money and time so that we can achieve our goals. They might not be battling with us on the field, but we accept them as family with us too.
I plan on using Ann M. Johns section about the cost of affiliation to a discourse community. I feel that everyone has given up something to be on the rugby team. I also feel like Wardle’s three modes of belonging will be accurate for the rugby discourse community. I think I can relate how messing one of those modes up will spoil someone’s outlook on what their role is on the team.
Works Cited
Johns, M. Anne. “Discourse Communities and Communities Practice.” Writing about Writing. Ed.
Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 511-512. Print
Wardle, Elizabeth. “Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces.” Writing About
Writing. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 524. Print
Ryan,
ReplyDeleteGood proposal- I like how you describe the team and your role as a full member. You've also got multiple ideas about specific aspects you might discuss and the concepts from the book you might apply them to. Having multiple possibilities in the beginning of any project is important, but you'll want to start narrowing your gaze as you go further. If you try to do too much in this paper, you'll only come up with a surface level investigation of many aspects rather than a deep investigation of one or two things. With this in mind, the idea that really struck me as having the most potential was your discussion of motivation and authority.
You write that you "want to look at how we keep each other all on the same page and striving for the same goals" and that it feels "like everyone on the team is their own motivational speaker throughout a unforgiving season of pain, strive, and triumph." This attitude (which might manifest in the team motto and possibly other "texts") has to come from some authority on the team, and it would be interesting to discover that authority and discuss how they are able to pass on / influence other members of the team to feel / act / speak a certain way, to motivate them. It would be really interesting to examine Bakhtin's concept of "authoritative utterances" -sayings/texts/actions that authorities act out in order to control/influence the whole group. Who makes these utterances on the rugby team? What are the forms of these utterances? Mottoes? Speeches? Emails? How do they influence the group and help motivate? You'll want to read over a section of the Johns article ("Issues of Authority" on p. 513) as she's the one who's using Bakhtin.
Good luck!