Blog 5: Discourse Community

Hello! It's been awhile since we have had to write a blog, so welcome back! Lets get right to it. Discourse Communities. Trying to decipher exactly what a discourse community was kind of confusing for me at first, but as Professor Flewelling started to explain exactly what defines a discourse community, it made more sense to me and I realized I am a member of a few different communities.

Basically, according to Swales, a discourse community is a group of people that all hold the same characteristics, and follow the 6 guidelines that each discourse community follows.

As we were going over these in class, I kept applying it to my job at a restaurant. We all have the same goal, to first off, make money, and then to give good service. I am cross-trained in many different restaurant positions, so I get to view the restaurant differently when I am doing something different. I host, banquet serve, lunch serve, bar serve, and drink run.

Restaurant people form their own Discourse community. All servers, as well as smaller discourse communities in each restaurant. There are thousand of restaurant memes that apply to me every day I walk into work. The 6 guidelines that Swales determined characterize a discourse community apply to us restaurant people to a T.

1.  Agreed set of common public goals. Basically, when we get to work, we want to get through the shift as easily as we can, hope for good tips, busy but not slammed, and to not get terrible rude people at your tables. 

2.  Has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members. At my restaurant, we work as a "team" and are constantly communicating with each other throughout the shift. We are lucky enough to have a really cool computer system that we use to put in our orders to the bar and kitchen. But we all make mistakes and then have to verbally communicate to each other. My entire kitchen is staffed with cooks that speak Spanish. I always struggle with trying to use my best Spanish and Spanglish to communicate with them.

3. Uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback. Working in a restaurant is a very social job, as we are constantly communicating with everyone we work with, and our customers. We are expected to give good service, which includes socializing with our guests like they are family. Our managers stress giving excellent service, which also means better service = better tip.

4. Utilizes and hence possess one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims. Like I said before, as a server I am constantly communicating with others around me, and I have to switch genres if I'm informing my customer about the menu or to my busser to bring out waters. We also have an app that posts our schedule online, this is the only was to access our schedule. Our managers post important information through the messages, and we can release and swap shifts with our co-workers.

5. Has acquired some specific lexis, in addition to genres. Us restaurant people have a whole language of terms that we use everyday, and that other people would have no idea what we were talking about. Just a few: phased, bus, ALOHA, 2-top, clear, expo, hands, side work, I could go on for hours.

6. Has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise. My restaurant has a whole system of hiring people. The new employees start out their first shift with other new hires and a trainer, and basically get a summary of how everything works, and then they sit down for dinner and get to try a bunch of food. Then they have about 4-5 training shifts and will finish off their process with a test to make sure they are knowledgeable before their first shift.

Blog 4: Op-Ed and JSTOR

Goooood Morning classmates! Here we are already on week 3 of classes.. As the semester picks up the time goes by faster and faster. Hearing that we are already being introduced to our first paper really made me nervous because I did not know what a JSTOR or Op-ed article was.

Once I started reading the articles I realized I have actually read articles like this on my own time. So bring it on!

I am more familiar with Op-ed articles because I come across them more in my daily life. Scrolling through Facebook, everyone has those friends that are "knowledgeable" about the election and other current events, who use their Facebook page to post their opinions about these topics. Most of the time, they have attached some sort of media, a meme or an article to support their claims. This is where I have stumbled upon some opinion articles. Basically, Op-ed articles are articles written to inform, but are full of the author's opinion as well. I feel like these are easier to read than JSTOR articles, because they feel less academic, but still arguing about a particular current event. I read all the Op-ed articles and this genre is really important. The articles are short and get to the point fast, and their argument is easily recognized. Anyone who stumbles upon these articles can quickly agree or disagree with the author. Because of the election and the publicized rape cases, these Op-ed articles follow along with the current events, disguising news with the author, or websites opinions.

On the other hand, this was my first time fully reading a JSTOR type article. This genre of articles is very similar to the Op-ed articles, just subtract the opinions! These articles reminded me more of a academic research paper, just shorter. Its almost like a summary of a scholarly journal, so it reminds me of an abstract of the journal that you read to determine if you want to read the whole thing. The author gets straight to the point, provides the evidence you need to determine whether their argument is valid or not. Even though these articles are short and precise, they were still harder for me to actually read and not gaze over. These articles also follow along with current topics, but provide an unbiased report with evidence and claims to their audience. They are not trying to persuade their audience, just provide the facts so they can form their own opinion.

Im not sure which genre I will chose to write for my first paper. I am leaning towards Op-ed because they seem more fun and creative. I would be writing in a way I'm not used to, and be able to include my own opinion on a topic. Op-ed would probably be more of a challenge. Writing a JSTOR daily article could be easier because I am so used to writing in a structured way, not providing my own opinion and summarizing different journals and other scholarly articles. We will see which way I go in a few weeks....

Blog 2: Genres

When thinking of genres my mind definitely first went to the different media genres. I think because our generation is constantly surrounded by technology and multiple outlets of media, we now crave media and the entertainment that comes with it, like TV, music and movies. There are so many different genres of these media outlets, to appeal to all different types of people. Even TV shows and specific genres of music are created for a certain audience, and the producers have to be aware of the genre they are trying to appeal to.

The way Devitt writes about different genres in everyday life got me to reflect on the different genres of communication I use everyday. When communicating with my friends and peers I obviously speak in a more casual tone, using slang.. even cussing more than I should be.. On the other hand, I work in a restaurant and when I am serving in the dining room, or hosting at the front desk, my language genre is very professional. When in the dining room, the customer expects to be wined and dined, so I put on an act of a professional server that has so much knowledge in the food and wine industry.. But in reality, I just turned 21, I can barely taste a difference between wines, and have only been serving for 8 months and barely know all the ingredients in our food.  I also work in the bar for more causal dining, and my way of speaking even changes from the professional dining room server to a different tone. People in the bar come for a more casual dining experience and I can speak in a more casual genre to all my guests. "Good evening and welcome to the Brigantine, My name is Katie and I will be your server. I was wondering if I could offer you a glass of our house pinot noir" turns into "Hey how's it going! My name is Katie. What can I get started for you to drink?" 

I believe that even the appearance and clothes of a person plays a huge role in determining the genre and tone of an interaction. When serving in the dining room my uniform is a white Oxford button up shirt, and in the bar I wear a blue v-neck shirt. Even in the same restaurant, I can use two different genres of serving. Going back to the different genres of music, the appearance of the artist sets the tone for the genre they are appealing to. A rapper would not be wearing a cowboy hat and boots. I feel like stereotypes of different media genres also correlates with the genre awareness of the artists.

I think that Devitt emphasizes such an importance on genre awareness because if a person uses the wrong communication genre in the wrong interaction, two people cannot communicate effectively. I probably would not use the same language that I use with my friends that I would if I was serving a table of 6 old women. 

When writing for school assignments, my writing style is very formal and structured. Writing for educational and professional purposes give off a different genre of writing than a casual Facebook status or text message, I would not write out an email to my professor that I would send a text message to one of my friends! It would be inappropriate and come off as disrespectful and unprofessional. 

Writing and communication genres play a huge role in everyday communication and Amy Devitt proves how important genre awareness and using the correct genre in a situation can be.