Our first three units of the semester have been a jumping off point for our last unit: an exploration of how discourse communities shape communication. Different communities call for different kinds of communication, and often there are different conventions shaping the nature of how particular genres operate. For example, if you were tasked with procuring a piece of communication informing kids about bullying, the design of the piece would vary depending upon the age of the students you wanted to reach. The desired outcome of reducing bullying is there, but if I'm presenting to tenth graders or fourth graders, the message and the overlay of the presentation would vary greatly.
Likewise, different working communities have specific conventions for communicating to help the organization / company / group achieve its goals. For example, a memo within the Starbucks Corporation will probably look different than a memo for FedEx Corporation. These memos will probably have similarities, but there are probably differences based on differing values, goals, and outlook.
For this initial posting, I want you to consider a community you have been a part of in the past, and brainstorm about the communication conventions for this community. You might have been part of the school debate team, a sports team, a church group, or perhaps you worked in an office or at a restaurant. Perhaps you were a part of the school band or were a member of the Girl Scouts. In any event, your task is to brainstorm about the conventions of communication for the community you were a part of.
As you explore the communication practices of a community you were a part of, consider the following questions:
1. What are some key moments of communication for the organization? For example, if I were writing about the Department of Writing and Rhetoric and my membership in this organization, there are several key moments of communication. We have orientation every Fall and all instructors and professors meet to discuss the direction of the Writing and Rhetoric program. There is a key note address done by the chair of the department, and there are several workshops about best teaching practices.We also have departmental meetings at least two to three times per semester and we will typically have a holiday party at the end of the year. Of course, each kind of meeting has its own set of tacit rules and understandings. Department meetings follow Robert's Rules of Order because these are formal and bureaucratic affairs calling for votes and decisions to be made regrading the direction of the organization. Workshops are typically laid back affairs where members actively share ideas about becoming better in teaching and research.
2. What are some of the genres used to communicate in this community? There are many genres shared by the Department of Writing and Rhetoric and some of those genres include course assignments, power points (these are usually circulated after workshops), a department newsletter (which is published about once every month), inter-office memos (which are usually documents procured by office support staff to ensure HR has documentation about teaching assignments and so forth. Of course there are lots of emails that can address many different purposes.
3. What kind of language or lexis is used? UCF's Department of Writing and Rhetoric has a laundry list of specialized terminology related to their work in the discipline of writing studies and rhetoric proper. Many of the terms we are learning in class are terms the community at large will use quite often. For example, the term exigence, (as we may recall from Grant-Davie) is a term that loosely means the need for something. However, other terminology, such as heuristic, kairos, and sympathetic fallacy are terms that people in the community are probably familiar with. Workshops are often laden with a very specialized lexis. This specialized lexis allows members to communicate about complex issues.
After addressing the three questions above, I want you to talk about the persona you assumed within a particular community you were a part of. Think of it this way, if you are a guy and you go out with your male friends for a bachelor party, you exhibit a different persona from what I would typically see of you in class. Likewise, I'm sure that if you go to church (maybe even the day after a bachelor party), your persona will be much different (at least I hope it is). How did you adopt the persona that the community called you to exhibit? Was there leeway for how to act or were certain characteristics mandated? Perhaps you act a bit different as a waiter at a local college town pizzeria than you do as a waiter in a fine dining restaurant in a bigger city. How well did the persona you adopted fit with what you deem to be a close representation of your conception of your true sense of self?
This blog response is due before 11:59pm on Sunday, 2/24/2013
A community that I am apart of is half marathoners/runners. I have been running half marathons for about three years now at all of the Disney races so I am part of the rundisney community. Key moments of communication of this organization are at the races and expos. The expos take pace the two days before the race day. During these expos they have key speakers like Jeff Galloway that discusses tips on running and recovery. They also have tons of running merchandise like running clothes, shoes, running food like cliff shots, and recover items. At the expos that’s where you pick up your half marathon packet that has your bib in it and information about the race and goody bag for the race. During these expos and races you really learn a lot about running. Disney world has about three half marathons a year so those are the times that rundisney community comes together for half marathons. The genres used for running/ half marathons are blogs, magazines like Running World, rundisney website for races(where you can register for races and find out information on the races) or the rundisney facebook page(where they keep you updated on the races and you can see peoples tips for running). For this community there isn’t really any special vocabulary that people do not know what it means. Most vocabulary for this community they use in different sports communities. I guess some words could be finish line, PR (personal record), running, bib, b-tag, miles, and running route. During races and expos I do not assume a different persona. I act like myself, I guess I might act like I am more interested in running then I really am. It’s kind of hard to assume a different persona in this community because while you’re running you’re not talking or acting differently because all you are doing is running.
ReplyDeleteThe distinct community I am apart of is The Seventh Day Adventist Church. I was born in this faith but for the last 10-12 years have been serving in Church leadership. I have been for the last 3 years the Head Elder and acting pastor for my current Church. Running a Church has alot of key moments of communication. Some of them have to do with the operating of the Church and some are simply service or congregational orientated. Some examples of operating moments of communication are Church Board Meetings. These are monthly meetings by leaders of departments in the Church used to give reports of individual departments of the Church,vote on future proposals,and share financial and calender information. The meeting is chaired by myself mostly and the pastor.There is alot of discourse in these meetings as each leader must express their departments views and request to the group. Since there is room for opinion it can get pretty spirited sometimes. Another example is Church Business Meetings. This is when the Church Boards rulings are brought to the Church body for information and final vote. The leaders now have discourse with the Church members.Some of the genres of the Board Meetings are:printed out meeting agendas given to each board member wich states items that will be covered in meeting,financial reports handed to each board member by the treasurer,and If there is a special presentation for example a request for more technology equipment sometimes a slideshow or powerpoint will be used.In the service part of the church a church bulletin is given to each person coming into the church wich list the order of service as well as announcements and other pertinent information for the member to know. In the service the discourse is usually the platform participants to the congregation.There is alot of different language and terminology used in this community. During meeting the language is alot more formal and almost legal as if in a courtroom. Votes art taken and motions made and all is done orderly. During the service of Church the terminolgy is more Biblical with alot of Biblical references and phrases used in the Bible. Very often popular phrases from the Bible are used by the speaker to create participation from the congregation to finish audibly together. I definately have a different persona when in Church. Not to be fake or anything but at Church I'm known as Elder Grace the head Elder and to many their Pastor. There is a since of reverence or respect given to me at Church so I must act and speak appropriately. More important is the fact that I realize I am God's spokesmen and that is an awesome responsibility. I still try to be down to earth but there is definately a change in my demeanor.Though there is a change both personas and communities are apart of me.
ReplyDeleteIn my line of work, the community determines the linguistics that rule the discourse I must use to project my ideas. A simple sign on the door reads: “To avoid a $15.00 late fee, all payments due on Monday.”, conveys, “Pay your bill on time so you don’t have to pay that friggen late fee!” As the rhetor, I consider the audience, English and non-English speakers, the educated as well as laymen. Parents are bombarded with discourse from the moment they enter. Everything from daily reminders to those that encourage parents to “get on board” with education.
ReplyDeleteThe main exigence of my discourse, however, is to make my case to those parents that still see the childcare profession as babysitters rather than educators. The sign that reads: “We offer Free Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten, sign up today!”, might as well say: “Free babysitting for three per day, five days a week.” It is my job to show them using solid proof, like assessment scores to prove that argument. Parents get excited to hear and see the progress their child makes each time they are tested. It still amazes me to see the non-English speakers be so involved in their child’s experience.
The monthly newsletter is a challenge. Children look for their names in the announcements for birthday greetings and special awards. Parents use it as a way to be aware of upcoming events and days when school is out or the center will be closed. It must be user friendly on many levels and clearly convey the messages I want to communicate. The trick is to be accurate in two different languages!
The organization I have been a part of for a little while now is my church’s nursery. I work alongside my best friend and quite a bit of other girls; that are all under the age of 13. Communication is a huge part of taking care of kids, especially ages zero through two. Some key moments of communication for this organization is when we have to prepare snacks for the kids. We all have to communicate and know which baby has been fed, their own food, or needs food. Also when we go out to the park and the girls aren’t paying attention I communicate and inform them for keep an eye on the babies and not just socialize.
ReplyDeleteA very important genre is the sign-in book. All adults are told to sign their children in before they leave the kids with us. This book tells us the kid’s name, age, if the kid has allergies, as well as the parent’s name. From the sign-in book we write down the names on wristbands, our second genre, making it easier to know which child is which. Without the wristbands all the volunteers would be clueless to most of the kid’s names. Knowing a child’s name is so important especially when dealing with such young kids that are still learning their name.
We do not have a specialized lexis. The only thing I would say is a specialized lexis is how we try not to use the words mom or dad because a lot of babies know the meaning and begin to cry if they hear the word.
For the most part my persona does not change. I am usual the same Imani that I am around my friends but I do acknowledge how old the other girls are and that our minds think totally different. Of course I don’t curse because I’m in church with babies but I do my best not to even outside of the nursery. I often put on a mean, concerned, mother persona because a lot of the girls skip church to go play with cute babies and not really take care of them. I believe that the parents have entrusted us to take care of their children and give them back unharmed and in one piece. Ergo, whenever I have a baby and there is a baby getting into something they shouldn’t I inform the girls sternly that they have to pay attention to these babies. My concern is the safety of the children, not to make friends so my persona is very nonchalant when it comes to the girls thinking I’m mean because frankly I don’t care. I don’t like to come off mean or rude otherwise so I guess my persona does change.
I think my persona at church is good because my main concern is the babies. I am truly the motherly caring type outside of the nursery. Sometimes I can give that tough love and seem rude but I have nothing but the best concerns for my friends and family. Therefore I feel my persona does not change too much.
The past 5 years I've been playing tennis. A few years ago I was on the High School tennis team and played with them for 3 years. During my years on the high school tennis team, we would play against other schools to see which team was better. But during the days where we are not playing tennis all of us would be doing other stuff compared to tennis. For me I do some training with a different coach, my personal coach was an ex-pro player and he would give me lessons to help improve my game. Using the lessons I learned from him I would use them competing in tournaments. There was this organization called USTA. It was a league of tennis players who play against others to get to the final match. We would always play at this complex called Lake Kane where almost every USTA event took place. They had everything for a tennis player, they had a store where players could buy their gear such as tennis shoes, rackets, tennis balls, and apparel. The community there is just amazing and the environment around it is just fantastic when playing tennis over there. They even have personal trainers there where you can hire one of them to teach you the ways of tennis. Sometimes they would do events to help out a cause such as Cancer awareness, they would host games and in order to play you would have to pay and half of what they received would go to the cancer awareness organization. They would also sometimes hook players or families tickets every march to visit the Sony Ericsson down in Miami. I was one of those people who got hooked up to go see the tennis tournament. I got an opportunity to see Pro tennis players battle it out for the top spot. I got to see some of the best players in the world practice and play games. I got to see Rodger Federer and Serena Williams practice together on the courts. During my stay there they also did a charity event contributing to Cancer Awareness. They would host a match that would involve most of the pro tennis players and the would sometimes have special guests such as ex-pro tennis players and even celebrities. Being around the tennis community was a fantastic thing.
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ReplyDeleteThe community i consider myself a part of would have to be at work.(CalvinKlein). Being a lead cashier requires a lot of communication with everyone on staff. From the moment I walk through the doors at 9am, I begin by seeing what tasks I need to complete for the day. From there I zone people to a section in the store and then assign breaks. Communication with the back people in charge of stock is also especially important so that I know what Im working with in the store. In the case that I am missing any product I would compose an email to let them know. Once the day is going my goal is to reach high numbers in sales. With the help of the sales people on the floor this becomes a very easy task. My persona in this community has to be a determined, responsible, and strong kind of attitude. I have to gain the respect of my workers so that they can help me out in a days work. I have to be strong willed so that they can also see my motivation and want to do good in the store as well. We also have vocabulary that only someone working in sales might know. Such as UPT (units per transaction) POS (point of sale) Conversion Percent, etc.
ReplyDeleteThe community that I am in would have to be at my work place. I am a security guard for Target. Every store I have ever worked at the security department which is called Asset Protection also referred to as AP has a very distinctive goal and that is to stop theft. In order for everyone to do our jobs effectively we have to use a lot of different types of communication to get good results. All of the AP personal has a website that we all use to communicate to each other to make sure that each person who steals from a store is put into a data base where it is visible to every person who works in Assets Protection. The great thing about this website is that it not only shows what is going on in Orlando but every Target in the world. We also use telephones that have a push to talk button (PTT) that direct connect use to every store in the district so if something important happens where can alert everyone immediately. There are also weekly meetings in this job where all the AP employees meet up at their current store they work at and discuss things they have seen trending in the store. The meeting is usually very fun and everyone shows up to share ideas with one another. Then there is meetings for people of a higher stature that have conference calls to every store once a month to talk about better ways to prevent theft from happening with the stores. These meetings are very dry and serious not very entertaining but good for new ideas to help improve the system we use. There is actually a lot of different terminology in the security department I work for such as PMR, KTR, PIT log, App, etc. Most everybody in the normal work area that works around the security department doesn’t have idea what these terms mean, unless they have been working around the security for a while. I would say the persona that I present would be a very serious and focus driven person. I did not need much training at doing this with my past experience in the military so it was easy for me to adapt. Even though it was easy for me to adapt to the persona I would not say it is who I really am. I tend to be very relaxed and open to everything that’s going on. So it does take effort for me to transition when I go in to work each day.
ReplyDeleteThe distinct community that I am involved in would have to be working with and being apart of the LGBT community and the GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance). As an active memeber of GSA we always have meetings every other Wednesday, where we discuss things like Gay pride parades, fundraisers or anything in the lines of the gay community. These meetings are key in our communications because without them, we would never know what was comming up for us to be apart of. There are many genres that we use in the GSA community, most of which being email or facebook to spread the word of the next meeting or anything else that has come up. There is a lot of lexis used in the GSA community, the acronym GSA being one of them. Also, along with that LGBT is also a term used. I take on the persona of a lesbian woman and a leader in a sense because i am able to speak freely about being a lesbian or about anything along the lines of my sexuality. I dont have to be wary about what i say or do that might offend someone because in GSA everyone understands and gets along very well with who I and everyone else is. As for the leader bit, i take on this persona because i am the chairman of the group that meets every other wednesday. I didnt really have to "adopt" these persona, per say. I really just kind of fell into them because for me, it is very easy to be a lesbian because that is who i am and it is also very easy to be a leader because that is also in my characteristics. These persona have fit pretty well and are very close to who i really am because i dont have to try to be something i really am not to fall into these persona.
ReplyDeleteChet Rosenfeld
ReplyDeleteI belong to a community of bankers and more specifically a community of financial fraud investigators. I exist in this community daily. I entered into this community almost six years ago. I attend monthly training sessions with other fraud investigators and law enforcement. We discuss trends and cases. In this situation we all speak the same language. It requires that I know the law but it also helps to think like a criminal. My job is to find and stop fraud, both external and internal. I have to pay attention to things happening in my community. It helps to share this with other investigators because they may be fighting the same type of things in their organizations. I also am responsible for training crewmembers of my organization how to spot fraud. This requires me to teach employees how to read the various signs of fraud, since they are on the frontline. If I can educate the crew, we can stop more fraud. I also lead training sessions with customers of our organization. These are the victims of fraud. I want to stop the criminals from taking advantage of our customers. I communicate via emails, power point, in-person conversations, instant message, telephones and webinars. I use words like phishing, vishing, identity theft and identity fraud, counterfeit and unauthorized transfer. I work with various federal and state regulations and statutes. It is my job to know the Uniform Commercial Code as adopted by Florida Statutes. I have to communicate with both experts and beginners. My role is to be the expert in my organization. I work with a small team within my organization. I have certain topics that I am the go-to person. I have to be available daily to answer questions for those who have never dealt with fraud. These people are often emotional and angry. It is my job to keep them calm and help them. I enjoy the community that I belong to.
Just like most any other college student, I split my time between classes and work. I am a customer service representative, which is just a fancy term for cashier, at Victoria's Secret. Being apart of the Victoria's Secret community automatically makes me belong to a bigger community- limited brands. Like most companies, we have an online database in which we can communicate to see our schedules,inquire about persons picking up a shift, etc. Since it is company ran and our managers are on it as well, professionalism is a must. The communication that matters most though is both the verbal and non-verbal communication I put forth to a customer. I need to make them feel welcomed since they are shopping for intimate items, and i need to come across as well-educated since no one wants to waste their time. A key in customer service is even if you are dealing with a tough customer, you must always do what you can to help them. There's many different "insider words" used to make the day run smoothly- need a price check? you ask a person on the floor for a "SKID". Someone says over the headset to check conversion? Simply means that the amount of persons coming in and the amount of sales being made are not optimal. All these terms are things I learned over time and now I say them like they are second nature.
ReplyDeleteThrough out my life one of the most important communities I have belonged to was Sarasota Crew. That lasted about 3 and a half years before I had pinched a nerve in my spine and ripped my obliques. It was also one of the more disciplined and socially organized of the communities I have belonged to. Majority of the key moments of communication took place at practice from 4 to 8 on monday through friday and 8 to 1 on saturdays. Before we would start our workout pieces on the water we would watch videos of ourselves during races to help perfect the flaws in our technique. This helps keep the boat balanced and everyone in sync while rowing through the water. If one persons balance is a hair off or one person is a second off from pulling the oar out of the water the entire boat will fall to one side. We also spent a great amount of time after practice cleaning and repairing our equipment for the best performance which all helps play into building team chemistry which is the most important part of communication in a team from my point of view. Then when it came down to which boat you were in for which race they would judge your speed and endurance from your 2k or 5k time. A lot of time they would post the final line ups on our billboard at the team site or we would receive it through an email or newsletter. These letters or daily posts would also contain a morning work out routine before school in the morning and any team updates or dates of a erg-a-thon or other fundraisers. Which brings me to the specialized lexis of the sport, such as erg-a-thon. These were marathons on a mechanical rowing machine called an erg. The sport contains plenty of more work out equipment specialized for rowing only. Then once we're in the water its as if we're speaking a completely different language. Left and right become port and starboard and every workout plan has its own name and the coxwain steering the boat has a microphone to shout out our status in the race and where we need to apply more power to help steer and when we need to push every last ounce of power out to win the race.
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