Rough Rough Draft

            Before I was assigned the research paper in a field of my major, I had already been doing a little research on a topic I found quite compelling. My major is Mechanical Engineering and I hope to complete an aerospace minor along with that. From this information, it’s safe to say my research was based on some sort of flight, whether it was within our atmosphere or not. To clarify, my interest is not bound by our atmosphere! I have studied space travel and life out of pure enjoyment since elementary school. The one enigma I found most compelled to research happened to be Earth’s close companion, Mars.

            Before I talk about Mars, I will give you some history of America’s space explorations. As almost everyone knows, stepping foot on the moon was one of the first space explorations, and also, one of the greatest. In that single step the hopes and dreams of the American citizens were unified in glory and pride. From that moment on, the boundaries of our race were constantly being tested. After landing on the moon, the next big step was to get people to try to live in space. Although that goal was not quite accomplished, the International Space Station was built to simulate space using its unique microgravity environment to run various experiments ranging from biology to meteorology. Lately, NASA has been sending unmanned space crafts to Mars to get soil samples, take pictures, and do other such things. Using the information gathered by the unmanned crafts, scientists have found possible signs of previous life on Mars.

            Mars, although it may not be aesthetically pleasing, does hold many keys to life within its area. The first major thing to notice about Mars is it is home to the solar system’s largest volcano. The volcano, Olympus Mons, is actually larger than the entire state of Arizona. The interesting part of the volcano is not its size, though. Volcanos are important features of a planet because they have the ability to create atmospheres and oceans. Since Mars contains the largest volcano, it is possible the volcano created Mars’ atmosphere and may even be the source of the frozen water on Mars. Along with a large volcano, Mars contains the largest canyon in the solar system. Valles Marineris, the huge canyon of Mars, is three thousand miles long, or about as wide as the continental United States. For a canyon this large to be created, there must have been a large mass of water traveling through, slowly eating away at the crust of Mars, until the largest canyon was created. Another interesting fact about Mars is the traces of water previously on the planet. At the polar caps, there is frozen water to be found. Most of Mars now has water underneath it’s surface. Frozen between the crust and the core, water is trapped on Mars and holds promising signs of life. Why was life on Mars once so promising? Water is one of the key ingredients to life, and it has been found under the surface of Mars! Along with water, another key component to life is the presence of methane in the atmosphere. In the atmosphere of Mars, methane was been found in three major areas of the planet. The importance of methane on Mars is simple and can be better explained by using Earth as an example. On Earth, 99.9% of all methane in our atmosphere is produced by life. That means, if there are large quantities of methane on Mars, there may have been previous life that created the methane. Using all of this information plus lots more, scientists have concluded Mars, in its early history, may have been a lot like Earth is today. Mars had the potential to support life at some level, but not NASA is trying to piece the puzzle together to find the answers why the red planet is completely barren and dry. Still, because Mars could have previously supported life, scientists are now viewing Mars as the next place humans may be able to reside in.

Assignment!!!

These readings, as compared to other pieces of writing that we have read this semester, area a lot more interesting and fun to read. The authors aren’t writing from an academic standpoint. Instead, they are trying to inform the general public about certain issues. They are easier to read and are more informative and broad. Tomlinson, in her article, addresses the idea that metaphors are a way to not see writing. I understand where she is coming from, because a metaphor is a comparison not using like or as. It’s indirectly describing something so it isn’t really defining a certain object. I see metaphors almost as guidelines to what an object is, rather than it looks exactly like the metaphor.

Before I Read...

When I think about research papers, only two papers come to mind. Junior and senior year I had to write research papers, and I was not very fond of the idea. I did not like the idea of a research paper for the very same reason it got its name: research! I did not like doing very much research because I was lazy, but I knew these papers were not like the average papers that I could stumble my way through and still write a decent paper. With the research papers, a solid background in the topic was necessary and often hard to come by. For my papers, I was able to do some good research, and had a good variety of sources. The “before you read” question asks when I felt trapped by my sources, I can’t relate my feeling to being trapped. The sources, in my opinion, added strength to the paper, not hurt it. Once in college, I know better sources and knowledge is necessary to write a good paper.

OOPS!

*I actually answered questions 2 & 3*

Rules of Writing

1. Throughout my life as a student, I have been taught  many rules for writing. One thing I have found in the English language is there always seems to be an exception to a rule. When students are younger, they are told not to start sentences with because, but, etc. Now in college, I find this throughout many research papers, but teachers will not necessarily dock points for it. Teachers now say it is alright to begin sentences with such words, as long as we follow certain grammar and punctuation rules. Writing would be less confusing if the rules were either followed or not and contained no exceptions.

2. Knowing now that some rules of writing can be enforced more strictly than others is a great relief to me. When I started writing, all of the strict rules made writing hard for me, but now that I know that some rules do not have to be followed, it makes writing a lot easier. If I did stop following a certain rule and started enforcing a different one, I would need to make sure the rule I am following is more important than the ones I disregard. On the other hand, if I completely get rid of a rule I am free to write however I want, but I may lose organization, flow, or some other characteristic of writing. If I simply follow the rule more flexibly, then I can still save the organization and flow of the paper, while giving myself more flexibility while writing the paper.

The Intricacies of Soccer

      Before I read the articles by Swales, Gee, and Mirabelli, I did not have the slightest idea what a discourse community was, but the idea, once known, is quite simple. A discourse community, according to Swales, has a few defining characteristics. First, a discourse community must have a common set of public goals. The community must also have methods of communication between its members. Primarily, these methods are used to provide information and feedback to its members. Throughout these communications, specific lexis is used to help describe anything in the discourse community. The last point Swales stresses states “A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a sustainable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise,” (473). Although it may seem to be a large criteria to meet, hundreds of discourse communities can be found in the average citizen’s daily life. Anything from a sports team to a small business could be considered a discourse community as long as it fits the list Swales imposed. For this assignment, I chose to follow a soccer team midway through their season to find out just how good of a discourse community a soccer team is.

I believe a soccer team is the perfect example of a discourse community. Although a soccer team may seem simple, it can be quite complex. In soccer, there are no time outs and little stoppage of play, so communication with the coaches is limited. For a soccer team to play well, each player must know their responsibilities on and off the field. Swales first point states the “discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals,” (471). The common goals of a soccer team are pretty rudimentary; score but don’t let opponents score. In other words, when their team has the ball, every player already knows to help advance the ball to the goal. As soon as possession is lost to the opponent, the team switches into a defensive mentality. In this ever-changing game, players must constantly be aware of their surroundings. Every player knows if they lose track of their surroundings, they could make a mistake which could lead to a goal for the opposition.

            To stop mistakes from happening, a senior member of the discourse community is chosen to act as the captain on and off the field. Having a captain is a necessity of a soccer team. With no team captain, there is no leadership on the field. The captain can be compared to a conductor of an orchestra. He knows how the team performs best and can execute the goals of the team well. He manages the team and makes them work to the best of their abilities. To differentiate between the captain and a player, a keen eye is necessary. During a match, the captain will be wearing either an arm band or a leg band that says captain. Seeing the difference between a coach and a player is normally easy. Coaches tend to be a lot older than the age group that is competing. They have acquired the most knowledge and experience and can teach the team how to reach their goals and minimize the mistakes made in the process. Between the coaches and captains, newcomers to the discourse community have multiple mentors to learn the necessary lexis and knowledge of the community.

From my interviews, I found out about some specific lexis within the team. If a player was directly to the left or right of another player on the field and wanted to call for a pass, he could simply shout out “square”, and the ball carrier would know there was somebody ninety degrees to his left or right who was open, looking for a pass. Instead of simply yelling “left” or “right”, “square” is used so only people in that  discourse community know what is being foretold. In soccer, the key to winning is being able to anticipate the opposition’s next move. Thus, if a player just called out “left” or “right”, the next move of that team is known. Another example of lexis in a soccer team is when a person calls for a “through ball”. This means a player is asking the person in possession to pass the ball not directly to him, but in front of him so the player has the ability to run into space and then receive the ball, instead of having to dribble through a defender to reach the same space. Lexis carries over practices and meetings into games and begins to take its rightful place in the vocabulary of the player. Once the lexis is embedded in the brain, it makes communication easier and faster for the team and can positively alter the outcome of games by eliminating little mistakes which could add up to a costly error.

Besides using specific lexis to communicate with each other, players and coaches use e-mail, phone calls, texts, and even letters to communicate times of tournaments, games, scrimmages, practices, and meetings to every person within the discourse community. Modern technology aids communication between coaches and players a lot. Before cellular phones, people could only be contacted at their place of residency, but with modern phones, people can be reached almost anywhere at any time. This technology makes it very easy to communicate and transmit information within the discourse community. If a member of the discourse community did not know a specific piece of information, it is likely that member’s fault. In modern times, the abundance of technology makes it very easy to communicate with others.

After spending some time watching soccer games, interviewing players, and dissecting the game, I think a soccer team is a great example of a discourse community. It is obvious that the team has common public goals. They include scoring on their opponents and not letting their opponents do the same to them. They have specific lexis that is used on and off the field like “square” and “through ball” to help communication between the team. This lexis is important because it helps hide the intentions of the team and leaves the opposition guessing. There are constantly new players joining the team and people leaving the team, so captains and coaches have the responsibility of teaching the new players the lexis and knowledge of the team. Finally, members of the discourse community communicate using modern technology like cell phones, e-mail, texting, and other forms to communicate. After researching a soccer team and performing multiple interviews, it is clear a soccer team fits Swales definition of a discourse community.