A Past Discourse Community Can Determine One in the Future

Getting involved in a discourse community can help people achieve many goals and the adaption to a certain language and knowledge of that community. American linguist John Swales, defined discourse communities as “groups that have goals or purpose, and use communication to achieve these goals.” Each discourse community has its own special features that establish itself different from other discourse communities. My discourse community that I joined in high school was softball. It taught me the values of leadership, responsibility, and discipline. These characteristics have helped me overcome many obstacles in my everyday life and will help me succeed in the major of nursing that I will pursue in the future.

In the softball discourse community, there are many goals that are shared within each individual that joins the community. One goal shared between the players of the game, is the determination to always be successful and the desire to be the best in the coaches’ eyes. Even though this is a team sport, you must compete with your teammates in order to participate in the game and show your skills to the coach. My coaches goal to the community of softball is to give guidance and produce a highly qualified team to have a winning status. My coaches wanted me to learn the techniques of becoming a skilled softball player and what it takes to have leadership. The factors of leadership helps a team create a special bond that helps them strive to success. Responsibility is the key factory of leadership. When I joined this discourse community, I had to discover my duties and accountabilities before I could become a leader on the team. One instance that occurred was when my coach asked me to gather up my teammates and talk to them about their goals for the upcoming season, and I did exactly that. Moreover, by simply learning my responsibilities created my teammates to believe that I was worthy of guidance. They believed this because I used specific language in order to advise my teammates including phrases like “you got this” or “I’ll help you.” This proved that I had leadership and that I was willing to accompany my teammates. My goals towards this community was to always push myself and never be satisfied with the level that I’m on. This goal required me to learn the factors of discipline and mental toughness throughout the game of softball. In order to build inner strength and character, I had to develop the fundamentals of discipline. Discipline showed my dedication for any activity that included softball. In similar to my goals, many people will set physical goals to increase their ability of the substantial parts in softball such as strength, speed, and flexibility. Because players have comparable goals for themselves in softball, the team will be stronger than if they were not sharing the same goals. When each player is working to meet a specific goal, it causes an increase in the team’s level of potential.

There are many different genres of skills that the coaches must teach to a softball team. Because there are many different positions on the field, there are multiple components for teaching and learning the game. For instance, a coach might tell a middle infielder to get around the ball and come through it while telling a person who plays third base to keep their feet still when grounding a ball. Coaches might also assign a catcher to learn how to block the ball with their body because their job is to not let anything get pass them when the other team is in scoring position. With the help of a certain vocabulary, teaching softball can be very effortless. Some vocabulary include bunt, steal, and line drive. Coaches will use the words bunt and line drive when they want a player to barely tap the ball or swing fully for a ball to travel in a straight line. They will also say “steal” if they want a player to advance to the next base when the pitcher releases the ball. These different key features and genres help players achieve goals by simplifying the strategies of every position and job that each team player needs to master. In order to prove to the coach that you are working hard to become better, he must see you putting in extra work in your own time and showing improvements of your weaknesses. When I was struggling, I stayed after practice to get extra reps and it showed my coach that I wanted to get better. Coaches expects a team player to always have an encouraging tone and diction when cheering for a teammate. This type of encouragement can bring a positive outcome to any situation of the game and can impact the relationships between the teammates and coaches of the community.

Furthermore, being apart of softball had taught me many factors that will help me transition myself to my future career. In the major of nursing there are many requirements and goals that help establish an ethical environment. These goals that are shared between individuals majoring in nursing include the goal to utilize the health of the community and to provide a safe and effective nursing practice. People that major in nursing also strive to develop good critical thinking skills, communication, and technical skills because those play an important role in the nursing field. In this major, professors want students to learn collaborative working skills to teach them the value of teamwork. Because of my early experiences with softball, working with others and collaborating with a team is my second nature. Teamwork is an important factor when it comes to nursing because it ensures the best possible healthcare when treating a patient. Professors also want to demonstrate professionalism and the roles of being an efficient nurse. Professors will create assignments that include different types of genres such as writing diaries and analyzing the different types of health problems and diseases in human beings. Diaries are used to write about your own experiences of habits that relate to your health and then applying it to the overall study of nursing. Keeping a diary takes a good amount of responsibility. It requires an everyday report about the functions of a person living their day-to-day life. Luckily, with the help of my softball discourse community, I show a good definition of responsibility. Moreover, analyzing is important to gather data about a specific topic and then using it to give feedback or gain insight. I had to analyze many different possible situations that may occur when playing a softball game. Such as breaking down each outcome if a ball was hit to me and where would I throw it to. I would also give feedback to my teammates about what they should do if a ball was hit to them. Analyzing and diary keeping help students achieve their goals by practicing the evaluation of health care and developing the skills that nursing requires. In order to show others that a person has knowledge of patient care, they need to be able to make evidence-based decisions that are supported by scientific evidence which is combined with patient preferences and clinician expertise. This type of evidence will help establish credibility and it will prove that a person is intelligent within healthcare. Similar, I had to establish my credibility in softball by putting in extra work and showing dedication. This major does include specialize language when it comes to describing clinical judgments or outcomes related to the documentation of nursing care. When diagnosing a patient, nurses will use special terms to give them a concise and clear communication method when it comes to recording their evidence in a database. They have a standardize nursing language so that nursing care can be communicated accurately among other nurses and other health care providers. Some terms include hemiplegia which mean someone being paralyze on one side of the body, or the word friable which means fragile and easily broken. Furthermore, the specialize language that is used in nursing is very beneficial when it comes to diagnosing a patient. Overall, you can become successful in the major of nursing by setting goals that relate to wellness and prevention initiatives so that you can promote healthy outcomes in a variety of communities.

As I discussed the two discourse communities, there are multiple connections that I can make of the two. Such as having a specific language to narrow down the meaning of the words and creating a simple way to communicate with others who are in the same discourse community. In addition, both softball and nursing take responsibility when developing task and building up to their potential. Neither of the two discourse communities would be successful without a team. In order to win a softball game, it takes every player to accomplish a certain duty and it takes a team of nurses to help a struggling patient that is fighting for his or her life.

In conclusion, the softball discourse community taught me how to adapt to a new environment. It showed me many important aspects that will help me achieve goals in the future. When I begin the process of learning to become a nurse, I will transfer my knowledge about leadership and responsibility to show my credibility to others. Because nursing requires the same elements of softball when working with a team, these two discourse communities exhibit a variety of similarities.