Methodology
The Marching Band at Ohio University includes 110 members on the field plus more. As a discourse community they have a few of there own written rules and way to contact each other. We interviewed a few of the members of the Marching 110 (a nickname for the band) to get a good perspective what happens in the life of a Marching 110 member.
We interviewed a member named Derek Dickson. This is second year as a 110 member and when asked what he thought the purpose of the 110 was he said, "I believe that the purpose is to entertain the audience as well as well as have fun doing it." The audience is a big part of the band life while performing at football games on Saturdays. The audience is also a major way to receive feedback from a performance. We asked Derek how the band receives feedback on their performances. He tells us, "We all look at YouTube videos, we can kind of analyze that, people in our squad can give us constructed criticism if we mess up or things like that so we know what to work on." The audience watches the many viral videos that the Marching 110 puts out and shows them how dedicated the fans are. They also help the band to see how or what they messed up on as Derek mentioned.
Another think that makes Marching 110 a discourse community is the certain lexis they have within the band. Derek explains," Get Jacked, is a term which means,'Everybody lets get excited now' and we use Drive It to basically say 'Give it your all'". Walking around campus you can hear people say, Get Jacked for the game tomorrow which tell us that they are probably a Marching 110 member. So this is one of the six characteristics of Swales' discourse community.
Swales states that for something to be a discourse community they must have an expert or novices. We asked Derek what the hierarchy in the Marching 110 was. He responded, "You have the regular members then you have the staff, people like section leader, uniform crew, equipment crew then you have the dance commander and then field commander and then the directors." The director is the main person. He runs rehearsals and basically runs the Marching 110. Even though he is the hierarchy within the band everybody else has their own special purpose on the field.
We interviewed a member named Derek Dickson. This is second year as a 110 member and when asked what he thought the purpose of the 110 was he said, "I believe that the purpose is to entertain the audience as well as well as have fun doing it." The audience is a big part of the band life while performing at football games on Saturdays. The audience is also a major way to receive feedback from a performance. We asked Derek how the band receives feedback on their performances. He tells us, "We all look at YouTube videos, we can kind of analyze that, people in our squad can give us constructed criticism if we mess up or things like that so we know what to work on." The audience watches the many viral videos that the Marching 110 puts out and shows them how dedicated the fans are. They also help the band to see how or what they messed up on as Derek mentioned.
Another think that makes Marching 110 a discourse community is the certain lexis they have within the band. Derek explains," Get Jacked, is a term which means,'Everybody lets get excited now' and we use Drive It to basically say 'Give it your all'". Walking around campus you can hear people say, Get Jacked for the game tomorrow which tell us that they are probably a Marching 110 member. So this is one of the six characteristics of Swales' discourse community.
Swales states that for something to be a discourse community they must have an expert or novices. We asked Derek what the hierarchy in the Marching 110 was. He responded, "You have the regular members then you have the staff, people like section leader, uniform crew, equipment crew then you have the dance commander and then field commander and then the directors." The director is the main person. He runs rehearsals and basically runs the Marching 110. Even though he is the hierarchy within the band everybody else has their own special purpose on the field.