My Discourse Community
Professional Athletes Personal Team
Research Question
• I look into how a professional athletes trainer, mental coach,
dietitian and agent communicate between one another and with
the athlete himself/herself. I want to find out how they go about
tying everything together, for example, if the trainer and dietitian
meet up and discuss what they plan on doing with the athlete that
particular week and how they can work together to get the best
results. I also look into how the athletes team keeps track of
everything and what different kinds of ‘lingo’ they use between
each other. Lastly, I would like to find out how they all work
together to prepare for a game that the player might have coming
up.
Introduction
• The main goal of this project was to answer the research question I
created. In order to further my knowledge and thoroughly answer my
research question a lot of data collection was done. Interviews were held
and extensive research was done online. Also coding the interviews was
done in order to pull out as much key information as possible.
• This presentation is guided towards people who are also interested in
joining the same discourse community one day or have an interest in
learning about how a professional athletes personal team communicates
between one another and how that relates to an athlete performing at the
top of their game.
Data Collection Methods
• Many dada collection methods were used throughout the process of
looking into and researching the discourse community of a professional
athletes personal team. The data collection method that was first used
was understanding the key concepts of the course and how they are
applied to my chosen discourse community. Concepts such as discourse
communities, genre analysis, interview coding, and expertise. Each of
these concepts gave me a better understanding of my topic and how to
find the data that I needed to answer my research question.
Discourse Communities
• Discourse communities was the main topic of this project. A discourse
community is a group of people who share a set of values and goals and
use communication to achieve these goals. Therefore as introduced
earlier, the discourse community I chose to research was a professional
athletes personal team. I was to figure out what set of values and goals
each individual within the team shared and how they achieve the goals
they set for the athlete they work with.
Genre Analysis
• Completing a genre analysis for my topic helped me further understand
how all roles that are played within an athletes personal team are tied
together. The work that is done by each individual within the team is
related to the rest of the group. I found three examples of different types
of genres within the discourse community that I chose. A workout plan, a
dietary plan, and a athletic trainers notes. Each example used very similar
layouts and language. This allowed me to understand that communication
is quite easy and fluent between the members of the team. This
answered part of my research question about how people within the
community communicate and what the language is like between them.
The language mainly consists of charts/tables and brief recorded notes.
The charts are used for workout plans, dietary plans, and daily schedules
for the athlete. The notes that are recorded are used to diagnose an
athletes injury or current health status.
Interview Coding
• Throughout the process of collecting data for this project, I was able to
hold two interviews. I was able to interview a sports dietitian and an
athletic trainer. Both interviews were used to ask each of the
interviewee’s about their field and discourse community that they are in.
They were both involved with sports teams and athletes so they were
within the discourse community that I was researching. After both
interviews were held, I was able to use interview coding techniques to pull
out key information from both of my interviews. This helped me find most
of my answers for my research question.
Expertise
• Throughout the process of this research project, knowing the difference
between an expert and a novice was crucial in order to find the knowledge
that I needed to find. An expert is someone who can adapt to new
situations with greater flexibility than those that are considered a novice
and that an expert is able to transfer knowledge to their new and
upcoming situations.
• I was able to find out that in order to become an expert within the
discourse community that each individual is well educated and have a
great deal of expertise within our field. I know that within my discourse
community there are a number of different jobs that all intertwine with
one another. I also know that in order for myself to get to where I want to
be I have to become an expert within my chosen community and work my
way to where I want to be
Results
• Throughout the process of data collection, I was able to answer all of my
questions that were asked in my research question.
• The best information that I found was discovered in the interviews that I
held, the example genre texts that I found, and the observation site that I
decided to observe.
Interviews
• As touched on briefly earlier in this presentation, I was able to hold two
interviews for my research. The people I chose to research were both
within the discourse community that I am hoping to be a part of. I was
able to interview a sports dietitian and an athletic trainer. Although
neither worked with professional athletes, they both worked with college
level athletes. Going into the interviews, I had a list of questions prepared
to ask for each interviewee. This was where I was able to gain most of my
research. I was able to ask specific questions about the language and
communication used within the discourse community. The interviews
provided much of the knowledge that I needed to answer my research
question.
Genre Texts
• I was able to find three examples of texts that are used in my chosen
discourse community. I found an example of a workout plan, a diet plan,
and an example of an athletic trainers notes about an athletes injury.
These three examples were able to show me how each part of an athletes
personal team communicates with one another and the language they use
in their communication. A lot of the language was similar in each of the
examples and a lot of charts were used and formed in the same ways. The
diet plan and workout plan were almost identical in the way that they
were set up so it would be easy for the athlete to understand both of
them. Lastly, the language used was a bit different in the athletic trainers
notes compared to the other two examples. It used more big words that
are used to diagnose what injury an athlete may have and what they need
to do in order to get healthy again. The trainer was able to explain what
everything meant though which was key for the communication between
everyone.
Observation Site
• The observation site that I decided to go to in order to observe the
discourse community that I chose was a college basketball practice. At the
practice the coaches were there, the athletic trainers were there, and the
strength coach was there. I was able to observe how they all worked
together and with the athletes which was very helpful in answering a few
of my research questions. Everyone seemed to get along with one
another because many smiles were exchanged and there was a smooth
flow to the practice. I believe that it is crucial for the athletes team to get
along in order to get the best results from the athletes.
What I’ve learned
• All the research that I have done over the semester based on my research
question has allowed me to gain enough knowledge to answer my
research question. I have been able to learn a lot about what I need to do
in order to get where I want to be and what it is like to be within that
discourse community.
Answering My Research Question
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To begin to answer my research question I will start by explaining how an athletes personal
team communicate between themselves and with the athlete. Within the discourse
community of a professional athletes personal team they have specific language that they
use. A lot of the terminology that they use has to do with a persons body and the
movements that it makes. Each persons language is a bit different than the others but they
are able to understand each other because they all have very similar backgrounds when it
comes to school and past experience.
I also wanted to find out how the athletes personal team goes about tying everything
together. Whether or not they meet up to discuss their individual meetings with the athletes
or not. After holding my interviews I was able to find out that the members of the team do
meet up but not as frequently as you would think. Phone calls are usually made or the
information is passed on through the athlete. I was told this still is an effective way to
produce the best results for the athlete by both of the people that I interviewed.
In both of my interviews I gave the example of a golfer and asked each of the people that I
interviewed how they would go about preparing the athlete for a tournament that he or she
had coming up and how they would work together with their team to prepare the athlete.
Both of the interviewees gave similar responses. Basically they would both go about their
own jobs that they have with the athlete but would design the weeks prior to the
tournament with everyone on the team. This is used to get maximum performance out of
the athlete because they would have regimented schedule and this also allows for the team
to agree where they think the athlete needs the most improvement.