Life is full of different paths that each person has to take to achieve their goals. In those paths, people might find groups that share ideas and knowledge called discourse communities, which can lead to live experiences that might turn unforgettable. In the first few weeks in ENGL 1301, we have discussed the importance of mastering rhetorical skills. There are many discourse communities all over the world, and many of us are in one or more discourse communities. In this paper I will show how I entered in a discourse community of tennis in my high school. I got into this community by accruing knowledge, establishing my credibility, and learning the game which I love. I. in other words I will be using ethos, pathos, and logos appeal. I started to play in my school team at the age of eleven and then at the age of fourteen, I got selected into my city’s tennis community.
When I was the part of my school’s tennis team which is known as “ARAVALIS”, it may sound like regular sports team, but for me it was like a family which was always together in all thick and thins. From losing games and then sometimes being undefeated in tournaments, our team was always together. I knew as a player I have to perform well on all my matches but as a part of community I should also have good communicating skills with all the members of my community.
In other words, I used logos, ethos, and pathos appeals to convince my coaches and other community members.
Name of my high school coach is Varun, he was a very mean person in the beginning but with time he became very polite and generous. Coach not only taught us how to play tennis, but he also made us learn the value of communication in a team and team should rely more on a person who cares about the team not on the person who cares for himself.
Communication is the most important thing of a community, my team used to communicate on daily basis by practicing together. In the beginning it was difficult for me to communicate with other members but after some time I started feeling comfortable in the team, it started to feel more like a family and less like a team.
In a community everyone should have a similar way of thinking, everyone should be familiar with the terminology used in this sport. When I started playing the terms like “LOPS”, “SMASHES” were all new to me, but I learned these terms and moves few days.
By using the appeal of logos, I earned my place in this community. When I was a beginner, the professional players of my team used to ask me to do all the dirty work like picking up the balls when they were practicing. I thought this was like a test which will show my commitment to the game. I never left faith and confidence in myself and put in the best of my efforts to become a successful tennis player. A good tennis player needs to be agile, cognitive and endurant.
The most important thing which matters is coordination of hand and the eyes. I mastered these skills through a lot of practice.
To be a part of a community a person does not only need skill in game, a person should also be a good human being who is friendly with all the other members of community so that they should also accept him as a part of their community. It was very hard for me to build credibility in my community but after a lot of practice I earned my teams trust. my high used to have two tennis team one was of seniors and one of juniors as I was only eleven years old so i was in the junior team but due to my outstanding performance in my matches I became the main player of my team. In was able to build enough credibility that my coach used to send me as the first player in all the tournaments which we played against other schools. My coach started trusting me a lot that he used to ask me to train the beginners. Once I was playing in a tournament with other school and I performed so well that after watching my match, my city’s tennis team asked me to come to their court and give trials. After that, I was also selected in my city’s tennis team and I started playing against other cities.
Knowledge and credibility are not the only things which a person should have to be a member of a community. One must be compassionate and should respect the thoughts and feelings of the other members of the community. When I started playing tennis I was so uncomfortable with my other team members, but after some time I did not realize how close I had really gotten to all other team members. Other team members started to feel like my brothers and it became a very amazing and emotional experience for me. When I played in my first match I lost cause of my own mistake and when I was coming back from the court towards other team members tears started rolling down my face because I knew our team is going to lose because of me. Though, our team lost that tournament but, my team members did their best to motivate me and said that I
should not lose faith in myself. After that day I started longer practices, harder workouts and going through over and over with my team members cause another tournament was coming and our team wanted to win that tournament at any cost.
People might argue that I cannot be the part of community, cause when I started playing I had no previous experience of this sport, but I disagree. A person in a community is not defined by his skills, he is defined by his relations with other community members. People may also argue that I was not eligible to get into my city’s tennis team cause, I was very young at that time and most of players of my city’s team were more experienced than me, but I disagree because age does not define one’s capability and strength.
In the previous paragraphs I have used the appeals of logos, pathos and ethos, I showed the logos appeal to tell about the skills, knowledge and vocabulary which is required to join this community. I showed the pathos appeal through sharing the experience about my teams defeat in my first tournament and how all team members became closer while practicing for the other tournaments. Tennis community is one of the best communities that I have ever joined, and this made me learn how to coordinate and communicate with the team. Without these tools I would not be able to get mixed up with the members of my community. Using these tools allowed me to join a discourse community and thus lead me to what have so far been the best years of my life. I see now how vital mastering rhetorical skills can be and I know that I will use the skills that I have learned in future discourse communities that I want to join.
