Dc Eth Reflection(1)

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Friend TEACHING PORTFOLIO 1

0.1 Discourse Community Ethnography Assignment

Introduction

The second major writing assignment for the semester asked students to look out-

side themselves and analyze the writing conventions of a discourse community of

their choosing. Students collected genres, interviewed members of the commu-

nity, and analyzed how writing worked to provide a sense of togetherness within

the community. Many of them latched on to the idea of an expert and described

the differences between newcomers to the community and those who are estab-

lished and familiar. That element of this assignment transferred into the next pa-

per, their Analysis of Science Accommodation. Many students identified them-

selves as outsiders when analyzing the discourse conventions of a scientific arti-

cle. When grading this Discourse Community Ethnography, I provided a rubric on

the assignment sheet and used the same rubric for final evaluation. I also attached

holistic comments with an emphasis on suggestions for revision, as this assign-

ment should be submitted for their final portfolio. Scoring statistics appear in

Table 0.1.

Table 0.1: Grade Statistics for the Discourse Community Ethnography

Submissions 48

Mean Score 76.7

Median 79

High Score 94Low Score 51

Standard Deviation 11

The grade histogram appears in Figure 0.1, showing the distribution of scores

across possible grades. As intended by my rubric design, C grades (70–80%) were

the most common, followed in order by the higher grades. Five students earned

high failing scores, typically caused by an absence of one element from the rubric.

Below, I have included examples of poor, good, and excellent student sample pa-

pers, along with my scoring and feedback for each.

Reflection

The grade distributions for this assignment surprised me. The grading process

frustrated me because no student papers stood out as being particularly excellent,

and none interacted with collected genre samples as directly as I had hoped. The




0-10

10-20

20-30

30-40

40-50

50-60

60-70

70-80

80-90

90-100

0 5 10 15 20 25

S

c o r e

( a s

P e r c e n t a g e )

Frequency

Figure 0.1: Grade Histogram for Discourse Community Ethnography Assignment

papers routinely disappointed me, so I was afraid the grade distribution would be

woefully poor. That the average grade was the same as the previous assignment

reassured me that despite my underwhelmed reaction, my students showed they met the expectations for the assignment.

The next time I teach this assignment, I will be sure to demonstrate with stu-

dents how to pull examples out of their texts and directly cite them in their papers.

I also plan to emphasize their freedom to draw conclusions and provide insights.

Students seemed stuck on identification without being able to progress convinc-

ingly into analysis. I made analysis the emphasis on their next assignment, to force

myself to attend to it explicitly.



• • • • •



• •

• •




Discourse Community Ethnography Writing Sample (Poor)

My feedback on a poor sample Discourse Community Ethnography is below; the

student’s paper appears on the four pages that follow.

Grade

Figure 0.2 shows the completed grading rubric for this assignment submission.

Figure 0.2: Webcourses Rubric for Poor Autoethnography

Comments

These comments accompanied the rubric:

I don’t see a research question in what you’ve submitted. For revision: Make sure you

indicate what it is that you’re trying to discover through your research.

Then, work to more thoroughly analyze the group. Instead of simply assuming that

the coach has all the authority, see whether the team members trade off authority at

all.




Likewise, provide more examples of the lexis. You gave one example, which is a good

start, but how is that lexis used by the DC members? Can you show examples fromthe emails you’ve talked about?

Adding more detail and analysis discussion, along with a research question, is your

next step.



Poor Paper 1

Poor Example

Chris Friend

ENC 1101

October 28, 2011

UCF Swim Club

1. Introduction

Each organization has a community within that specific organization. That community

works together to complete an explicit goal that was set by the experts in the organization. In

order to ensure that the goal is completed correctly and efficiently, there is a lingo and a lexis

that aids the process. The University of Central Florida swimming club is an organization that I

found to be extremely interesting. The club falls into John Swales description of a discourse

community, “(1) it has a broadly agreed set of common public goals, (2) mechanisms of

intercommunication among its members, and (3) has acquired a specific lexis” (Swales, 1990).

The club’s goal is to succeed as a team in every competition setting. It is not about any

individual swimmer, every single person is equally important and has something to contribute.

This is the main principle that the team works by. In order to complete this goal they have

various forms of communication. The main source is email. The head coach of the club is single

handily responsible for writing the workouts for every practice. He then emails all the workout

outs for the week to every single person on the club on Mondays. The workouts are written in

short abbreviated lines that are straight to the point. They seem cryptic and confusing to those

who aren’t familiar with the notation but are as simple as a children’s book to an experienced

swimmer. Another form of communication is orgsync.com and the swim club Facebook group.



Poor Paper 2

These two sources are extremely similar and were made so the team as a whole can get

information out in a quick easy way. Both sites contain announcements on a “wall.” There,

members have the opportunity to comment into any decision.

After being a member of the swim club, I want to learn more about the lexis of this

group. The purpose is to figure out if our lexis is a contributor to the efficiency of our swim

program. With the amount of work that is required in order to be successful, is the lexis a key

component to that success?

2. Authority

Authority plays a major role within the U.C.F. swim club. Without this hierarchy, the

team would not be as successful. The top of the pyramid structure would be the coach. He

has the final say as to how everything operates, which solves conflict. The reason he is

respected as the leader is because he is most knowledgeable about the lexis. Although all the

members of the club can understand the lexis in the emails and posts on the website, the

coach is the one who is capable of writing them and creating them.

The next in line after the coach in order of hierarchy are the officers. They take

instruction from the coach, but help to govern the rest of the members. The officers are there

to be mentors for the rest of the swimmers as well. If another swimmer needs to ask a

question about the language, they can go to an officer instead of to the coach. This gives the

coach more time to dedicate to the team as a whole and the officers responsibility to help

their fellow teammates. Swimming being an individual sport, the lexis helps to bring the

team together and know that even if a swimmer is the slowest, they still can go to an officer

or someone higher up then them and get help. It makes everyone on the team accountable.



Poor Paper 3

3. Lexis

The lexis is one of the most important characteristics that set this discourse community apart

from others. Without this established lexis, the swim club would not be defined as a

discourse community. The lexis that is used in this community is not difficult to learn but

can be extremely confusing to outsiders. For example, the workouts that are emailed to the

team are made up of mostly numbers. These numbers signify the amount of yardage that you

are to do for a drill, as well as, the number of times that drill needs to be repeated. Although

this may sound extremely simply and outsider may not interpret “4 x 200, DPS 3:20”. To a

seasoned swimmer this mean two hundred yards of distance per stroke on 3 minutes and

twenty seconds, four times through. But as shown above, it is not that easy to make out.

4. Analysis

After studying this club for two weeks, reading emails, Facebook posts, observing practices and

swim competitions it is clear to say that the recognized lexis does play an important role in the

success of the club. The lexis allows for practices to run more efficiently without interruptions

or wasting any time on questions. As far as the emails, the lexis allowed for members to

understand specific details that would take up more pointless space in an email. Also the ability

to provide feedback through Facebook or email allows for new members to input their thoughts

and hopefully help the program continue to grow and succeed as the program.



Poor Paper 4

Works Cited

Swales, John. “The Concept of Discourse Community” Genre Analysis: English in Academic

and Research Settings Boston: Cambridge UP, 1990. 21-32. Print.




Discourse Community Ethnography Writing Sample (Good)

My feedback on a good sample Discourse Community Ethnography is below; the

student’s paper appears on the seven pages that follow.

Grade


Figure 0.3: Webcourses Rubric for Good Discourse Community Ethnography

Comments


You clearly show that this is a DC. Can you use that as a starting point and show how it

functions? For instance, in Meaning, you list many specialized terms completely out

of context. You say those terms “help the faculty to communicate about the needs

of their students and events involving staff members.” How? Can you show or docu-

ment that happening?




A similar snag caught you in Authority. You listed the positions of authority and

stopped short of an actual analysis of how those positions interacted. Does everyoneaccept that authority structure as-is? How does authority play out in their writing?

Can anyone in the school do something with their writing to challenge or increase

authority?

You’ve provided the material from which to develop and explore a question about the

inner workings of the DC. For revision, take this material and question something in

it. Challenge what you’ve found or ask how/why something works. That’s analysis.



Good Paper 1!Good Paper

ENC1101

Friend

October 3, 2011

The Discourse Community of a Middle School Faculty

Elizabeth Wardle and Tony Mirabelli, both recently did a study on discourse

communities. Wardle studied a newly hired computer specialist named “Alan” who had

difficulty learning the lexis, or the way of written speech, in his community (527). Alan saw

himself as having authority in his discourse community because he fixed the computers used by

his fellow employees, when in fact he had no authority in his community. Employees simply saw

him as a “tool”. In Mirabelli’s study, he focused on the discourse community at a local Italian

restaurant called Lou’s (538). One of the employee’s named John had been working at Lou’s for

many years and was viewed as the expert in his discourse community. Harvey however, was a

newly hired waiter, and was in the process of learning how to understand the menu terminology

used among his fellow waiters and customers. Mirabelli and Wardle’s studies both focus on the

identity, authority, and meaning of a discourse community. I recently studied a community of

middle school faculty members. I was able to observe how a middle school faculty uses identity,

authority, and meaning to function as a proper discourse community, while focusing on the goal

of preparing children for high school.



Good Paper 2!Identity

One characteristic that truly defines the identity of a middle school faculty member, is the

shared goal of preparing middle school students for high school content in a safe learning

environment. Each assignment given, whether it is bell work, or a full length written assignment

serves the purpose of helping students to reach a desired level of academic understanding. The

middle school staff have a distinctive form or written communication. All the teachers at the

middle school I observed used e-mail as their primary source of communication. They were able

to discuss upcoming meetings and daily activities through their e-mail messages. The use of

whiteboards is a crucial form of written communication in a middle school setting because the

daily assignments are usually written on the white board in front of the classroom, so that

students can clearly read and understand the instructions for their assignments. A third

characteristic is the use of lesson plans. Lesson plans are typed documentation of what a teacher

plans to teach her students. When writing these lesson plans, a teacher is required to follow a

template, and then send his or her lesson plans by e-mail to their administrator. The teacher that I

observed was required to submit her lesson plans weekly. A fourth characteristic that

distinguishes the identity of a middle school faculty as a discourse community is the way they

receive feedback and information. Teachers at the middle school I observed were required to

give their students written benchmark tests, which allow the teacher to see if their students are

progressing academically. Unit tests are also given to students, so that teachers can see if their

students understand the currently taught material. These unique forms of written communication

that are primarily used by middle school faculty members, ultimately assists the discourse

community in their ability to convey educational messages to their students and their ability to

successfully function as a staff.



Good Paper 3!Authority

Although there are many members of a middle school faculty, the principle ultimately has

the most authority over all staff members. The principal of the middle school I observed had

been working in public education for twenty years. She had the most experience in education;

therefore she was the expert in her discourse community just as John was the expert at Lou’s

restaurant in Mirabelli’s study (538). The principal is in charge of making sure the school is

functioning properly as a whole. Administrators are a secondary authority in a middle school

community. Administrators are responsible for evaluating other middle school teachers, and they

determine whether a teacher is successfully teaching his or her students the required curriculum.

Meaning

In Mirabelli’s study he discussed how Harvey, a newly hired waiter was having difficulty

learning the commonly used terminology regarding the menu, also known as a lexis (538). Lexis

and meaning are also used among middle school faculty regarding students and their financial

and academic status. Some of the terms used on written documents include ELL or ESL, which

refers to students who speak another language other than English as a primary language. The

term ESE refers to special education students. TDY refers to temporary duty-work outside of

school campus that is still school related. PLC stands for professional and learning community,

and IPDP means individual professional development plan, which is referring to how a teacher

determines which specific group of students to focus on for learning gains. These are just a few

of the words and meanings used by middle school faculty. These written terms are used only

among fellow faculty members, and are typically used in e-mail conversations or written



Good Paper 4!documentation which is filed. These specialized terms help the faculty to communicate about the

needs of their students and events involving staff members.

A public middle school faculty uses identity, authority, and meaning on a daily basis,

and is therefore considered a true discourse community. Middle school teachers have a unique

identity due to their central goal of guiding their students in the right direction so they will be

prepared for high school. They also use different means of written communication, such as e-

mail, to convey messages to each other about their students and required faculty gatherings. A

middle school faculty is led by the principal, who is usually well-educated and has full

experience in the teaching field, which makes them the expert in the community. When

communicating through written dialogue they use code lexis words to describe their student’s

financial or academic status and to describe events. Overall, a middle school faculty is a

discourse community within society that is continuously working towards educating future

students who will ultimately become the adults of tomorrow.



Good Paper 5!

Works Cited

Elizabeth, Wardel. “ Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces.” Writing

About Writing. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2011

520 - 534. Print.

Tony, Mirabelli. “Learning to Serve: The Language and Literacy of Food Service Workers.”

Writing About Writing. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St.

Martin’s. 2011 538 - 555. Print.

Swales, John. “The Concept of Discourse Community.” Writing About Writing. Elizabeth

Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2011 466 – 479. Print.




Discourse Community Ethnography Writing Sample (Excellent)

My feedback on a excellent sample Discourse Community Ethnography is below;

the student’s paper appears on the six pages that follow.

Grade


Figure 0.4: Webcourses Rubric for Excellent Discourse Community Ethnography

Comments


The language problems that plagued your autoethnography are all but absent here.

I’m curious to learn why there’s such a difference.1

You do a great job of portraying the establishment and the interactions within it.

There’s room for a bit more analysis. I think the biggest area of opportunity is in the

Discussion section. Re-read your intro, see the question you say you’re researching,

1This student’s previous essay was riddled with word-choice problems that made her meaning

unclear and her sentence structure collapse. After I provided the feedback and grade shown here,

we discussed her first paper in person, concluding that she was “trying too hard” to use academic

language that does not come naturally to her.




and see if you’ve answered it definitively through the Discussion. I feel like they’re

not quite aligned. Another thing to look out for: transitions and coordinated ideas. Moving into the Au-

thority section is a sudden lurch. Most notable was moving into the Menu section:

You discuss nonverbal communication among employees (Did you ever provide ex-

amples?) then jump r ight into written info for customers. Seems odd.

Clarity issue: “Pasquale & Sons are known for their zeppoles which are not known by

most common people.” Wait. Known or not known? Pick one.



Excellent 1

Excellent Paper

Chris Friend

ENC 1101

October 7, 2011

Bon Appetit

Introduction

“Now serving order number 302.” This phrase might sound foreign to many but to an

everyday Pasquale & Sons employee this is something they say on a daily basis. To most,

Pasquale & Sons would seem as your average Italian restaurant, but it is much more than that.

Pasquale & Sons Italian Restaurant is a discourse community. According to John Swales’ “The

Concept of Discourse Community”, “[a] discourse community recruits its members by

persuasion, training, or relevant qualification”(Swales 471). He details that a group, whether it is

a business, team, or even club, can fall under the category of a discourse community if they meet

all six qualifications.

The discourse community must first have a common goal that is shared by all the

members and methods of communications whether they are written or recorded. A discourse

community also consist of specific genres and specific lexis, where members communicate

between each other in a way that an average person may not understand. Lastly, it should be able

to provide information and receive feedback, and have an identifiable expert (Swales 471-73).

These six characteristics, outlined by Swales, can be seen in Pasquale & Sons Italian Restaurant.

It meets all the six qualifications. I was able to observe and interview “Leigh,” a counter girl at

Pasquale’s, to gain inside information. However, I specifically was trying to discover what



Excellent 2

qualities outsiders need to know in order to be a part of the Pasquale &Sons discourse

community.

Communication Devices

Pasquale & Sons Italian restaurant has been around for over 25 years and now has three

different locations: Coral Ridge, Coconut Creek, and Royal Palm. The main location that is the

focus of this study is Coral Ridge. This community shares the general goal to have the best pizza

in Coral Springs and provide outstanding customer service that result in tips. This goal has been

accomplished every year by winning the number one pizza award. This award is their motivation

to provide the best food in their area.

In order for this community to operate there must be some sort of communication that the

members do amongst one another. This business communicates in various ways. One way they

communicate is by orders. The usual routine of a waitress/ waiter walking up to a table and

taking orders is not the concept Pasquale & Sons follows. Orders are computer generated where

they are entered into the computer and immediately printed in the back for the cooks to read.

Here is an example of an order that was taken:



Excellent 3

Viewing this order we can see how by this piece of paper the community routinely,

without noticing, has come up with their own way of conveying information. The orders are

abbreviated in ways that only the cooks are able to interpret. If an outsider was to take a glance at

the order slip, they would have no idea what it meant.

Another communication mechanism is through deliveries and party slips. When a

customer makes an order to be delivered, it is written on a delivery slip and given to the kitchen

in the back, which is then given to the delivery boys to take to each proper customer. When a

customer makes a reservation for a big party, the information is written on a paper slip and

posted on the “famous bulletin board” which the employees are obligated to check regularly. The

bulletin board is called “famous” for if an employee is unsure of something or needs information,

the bulletin board always has the answers. The employees in this community communicate in

ways that an outsider would not understand if seen for the first time. They can communicate

nonverbally which impacts the restaurant’s ability to function as a discourse community.

The Menu

The menu is the main source and genre that provides information to the customers. The

way the menu is displayed shows how important appearance is to the restaurant. It is neatly

organized into section with each dish thoroughly described. The sections include courses, sides,

drinks, and desserts that the customers are easily able to follow. The customers can either take

the manual menu or read the big menu portrayed above the counter. Whether it is at hand or on

the wall, the customers are able to see each available course given at the restaurant.

The food at Pasquale & Sons is well presented in the menu, yet what always has the

customers puzzled is one of the dessert entrees. Pasquale & Sons are known for their zeppoles



Excellent 4

which are not known by most common people. Through the observation, about ten times it was

seen that the employees were asked exactly what are zeppoles. The employees expected to

described what this famous pastry is to the customers. It is, as Leigh described, “an Italian donut

that is fried and covered with powder sugar.” As shown below, it clearly states what zeppoles

are, yet customers still ask.

It is mysterious as to why this simple pastry is loved by so many customers that they are

the most commonly ordered itemed on the menu. Not only were the zeppoles generally ordered,

but also the pizza. The restaurant serves regular pizza with a “normal” thin crust and brings that

Italian New York style with their Sicilian Pizza. Sicilian pizza is describe, as Leigh stated, “a

deep dish pizza yet with a thicker crust than a normal pizza has.” The Coral Ridge menu does

not provide the 20 inch pizza for delivery that the Coconut Creek location does. Since the

Coconut Creek location is the newest out of the three, they are given bigger pizza boxes that can

hold the 20 inch pizzas. This may be a small setback for Pasquale & Sons in Coral Ridge

because customers who are looking for 20 inch pizza will order from the Coconut Creek location

more often.

By providing information via the menu to their customers, the customers are then given

the chance to offer feedback to the restaurant. Feedback can be through the tips the restaurant



Excellent 5

receives. The tips are placed in a jar at the counter. Feedback can also be seen through comments

by the customers themselves. The comments can be about anything whether it is about the

service or even the food itself. The customers provide this feedback by filling out a survey. The

survey is located on the Pasquale & Sons website under the contact section where they are given

room to write their comments and provide their email address so they can be rewarded with

coupons. Coupons consist of deals such as, $5.00 dollars off for a $25 dollar purchase. This gives

the restaurant a win-win situations where they receive critical advice and returning customers.

Authority

The power of authority is a struggle in restaurant business. Elizabeth Wardle, author of

“Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplace ,” explains how the power of

authority can be misread. Wardle describes authority as a complex issue amongst co-workers.

However, in this case the perspective of who has the most authority ranges between customer

versus employee and also employee versus employee. One might think that the customers have

more authority since the restaurant cannot function without customers. Yet, on the other hand,

some might think the employees do.

Since this restaurant carries out their orders through the computer, it can be seen that

customers sometimes have more authority. The customers are given the choice to pick where

they want to sit whether it is a booth or table. The customers also have the privilege to come up

to the counter when they are ready to order. Through one’s perspective this can be seen as giving

the customers excess amount of authority, leaving the employees having little say in this case.

Yet even though the customers get to choose when they want to order, when they ask about a

certain type of entrée, the counter girl’s description of the particular course can affect the



Excellent 6

customer’s final decision. For example, as stated before, the customers always ask about the

zeppoles. In most cases, through observation, the customers were always persuaded to order it.

The roles of authority seem to have a see-saw effect where the power of authority can switch

according to the scenario.

Authority also exist between the employees themselves. The experts in this industry are

the bosses and managers. “Mike” is the manager of Pasquale & Sons, where he is respected by

his peers. The employees always refer to him when there is a problem in the restaurant. What

makes Mike the expert in this case? He has the most experience than the other employees. He

has been working for over seven years and also extremely educated with how the business

works. He is familiar with the menu like it is the back of his hand. Mike is responsible to teach

the beginners how the business works. They must also be able to recite most of the items on the

menu. He does not only manage the business but also cooks the meals in the back. Even though

his authority can be overseen when he is getting messy with sauce in the back kitchen making

food, it is what brings this discourse community even closer.

Lexis

The main quality that highlights this restaurant as a discourse community is the language

use among the employees and even customers. Specific terms referred to as lexis’ are only

understood by the members within the community. Pasquale & Sons Italian restaurant have

many terminologies that are understood between the employees and even some terms between

the customers.

All of the orders are organized by order numbers. When the orders are up and ready to

be picked up at the counter by the customers, the counter girl announces “Now serving order



Excellent 7

number …” By announcing this familiar term, the customers know to pick up their food. Also

when customers order pizza, the counter girl usually ask “reg” or “sigi?” The customers

understand that these terms mean regular pizza or sicilian style pizza.

Terms use among the employees are even more unique. When an order is ready in the

kitchen, the cooks yell “get some!” The counter girl now knows that she needs to go grab the

order and announce it on the microphone. Another term use amongst the employees is “heard.”

In some business we assume okay as “ten-four.” Yet in this restaurant, instead of saying okay

they say “heard.”

Since business is going great for Pasquale & Sons, they are constantly delivering food all

over town. When certain employees are notified that the delivery boys are on their way back to

pick up more deliveries, they yell “green light” to the kitchen. The cooks automatically know to

get going on making that specific order so it can be ready in time. In order to keep safety within

the restaurant, the employees say “behind” to watch out behind each other when there is

extremely hot food. These simple, yet distinctive terminologies are what make the restaurant and

member special and their own discourse community.

Discussion

Pasquale & Sons is a unique Italian Restaurant that has caught the eyes of Coral Spring.

Food and service are the main goals of this discourse community and it cannot be possible

without each individual. Everything within this community serves as a purpose. The menu is

included to provide valid information on what exactly this discourse community has to offer. The

menu outlines all the main focuses of the community. The management skills the expert displays

sets an example for newcomers in the discourse community. Authority also stood out as the



Excellent 8

major issue in this discourse community, where authority power would sway from customer to

employee. The Pasquale & Sons Italian restaurant is its own discourse community where the

members, whether it is the customers or the employees, meet at the same place and come for the

same reason, to enjoy the delicious food.



Excellent 9

Works Cited

Swales, John. “The Concept of Discourse Community.” Genre Analysis: English in Academic

and Research Settings. Boston: Cambridge UP, 1990. 21-32. Print.

Wardle, Elizabeth. “Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces.”

Enculturation 5.2 (2004): n. pag. Web. 18 Feb. 2010.

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