I have been thinking a lot about which discourse community I am going to focus on for my paper, and I am leaning towards my restaurant job. I'm already a part of the community, and I find the way we function to communicate and stress the importance of work together as a team very interesting.Because I am already a member of the community, I already know so much about how the restaurant functions. I know how everyone communicates with each other, our genres, lexis, and the specific restaurant code.
For my research, I do not really have an idea of which direction I will go with, but I have some ideas. I'm thinking maybe the process of assimilating into my restaurant, focusing on the hiring and training, then interviewing some servers that just were hired, and maybe the trainers that trained them. I could explain the communicative practices, literacies and values needed to be successful as a server, and what it takes for the new hires to enculturate themselves into the restaurant.
Our hiring process is very thorough, and each new hire has at least 5 shifts when they are training with their trainer. They have a day one with a manager which lasts close to 6 hours where they go over all the restaurant policies, and then at the end get to try a bunch of food. After they finish their training shifts, and before their first day they have to take a tests to prove their knowledge in the restaurant, and then they are allowed to have their first shift on their own.
Or I was thinking just focusing on the managers / or specific servers, but I don't know what I would make my research question. I'm worried to take on such a specific part of restaurant, and not coming up with enough research to complete my paper. I'm definitely looking forward to meeting with Professor Flewelling to get guidance on where I'm heading!
Hello Katie! Its good to hear that you have an idea of what you want to do your discourse community research paper on. I am in the same boat as you. Knowing what general topic you want to do a research paper on, but not exactly or specifically know what part to do it on. Anyway, It would be great to read about the restaurant community as I believe it is very interesting, considering the fact that every place has its own way of doing things. On television and movies, restaurants make it seem like there is plenty of stress and action going around. Personally, I am thinking that management questions or research would be interesting because it is what makes a restaurant work. But then again how cooks interact with each other is also interesting because they have specific vocabulary and ways of doing things and at the end, they make delicious food.
ReplyDelete-Orlando Galan