Sean Branick: "Coaches Can Read Too"

We were tasked with reading a paper on the ethnography of football coaches by Sean Branick, a former student of the University of Dayton. We then had to outline his steps in introducing, validating, and discussing his topic: the existence of a complex discourse community within a football team, and that it is lead primarily by the coach of said team. 

Establishing the territory

Sean Branick states within the first few lines of his paper that he studied and is now discussing the ethnography of the discourse community of a college football coach. He then specifically establishes territory by making general statements about studies on coaching: papers on the aspects of a good coach, strong coaching methods, etc.

Establishing a niche:

Sean establishes his niche when pointing out that studies have been done and essays have been written about coaching, but no one has made a point to examine football coaches with regards to a complex discourse community with multiple literacies. He then asserts the existence of such a community,  

Explaining how to fill the niche:

Sean Branick finally gets to the meat of his paper: detailing what he sees as the complex discourse community evident in the life of a college football coach. Breaking down several areas of his research, Branick examines and explains his findings from interviews with coaches and his own observations. He deals extensively with “reading” a player: knowing when they are ready to play as well as the most effective way to motivate and encourage them. 

Tony Mirabelli and Learning to Serve

“What is a menu and what does it mean to have a literate understanding of one?” This is a question Tony Mirabelli asks in The Menu section of his writing Learning to Serve: The Literacy of Food Service Workers. He declares the menu to be a genre in itself, placing great importance on its existence and the use of it. The knowledge and understanding of the menu is paramount to the successful operation of the diner, as waiters, customers, chefs, and managers make use of it; essentially everyone involved with the diner. Mirabelli seems to base the majority of his data in this section on personal experience, referencing several instances from his two years of work at Lou’s to illustrate several points. And these include not only his own experiences but those of coworkers at the time.

His primary finding is that a menu is not just a piece of printed text used to catalogue the meals a restaurant serves. It is a literacy held by those who work at that restaurant; an understanding of the meals and options offered. In his work as a waiter, Mirabelli had to hold down a considerable wealth of knowledge about every meal and specialty at Lou’s. Having a literate understanding of the menu and every bit of information on it is central to the success of a waiter/waitress, and helps the restaurant to succeed.

Discourse Community Ethnography: AIGA

For my discourse community ethnography paper, I was considering writing on AIGA at Ohio University. AIGA stands for American Institute of Graphic Arts. It is a national graphic design group, and I am apart of their student group here at Ohio University. It is currently made up of juniors and seniors in the Graphic Design studio, although anyone may participate. As I understand it, a lot of the draw of being apart of AIGA is to network with designers at both the local, state, and national level, as well as at varying positions in the design field (students, teachers, free-lancers, art directors, etc).

I think it would be interesting to take a look into AIGA for a variety of reasons. Foremost amongst them is to gain a stronger grip on this group for myself. I didn’t join the AIGA group on campus until earlier this year. Having only been accepted into the program this past spring, there obviously wasn’t much point in joining at the end of the year. For that reason, and because the group only meets twice in a month, I’m still very much getting my bearings figuring out what this group is all about and what specifically they do and work on. Also, I think AIGA is a great opportunity to examine how a discourse community can exist and function on the various levels mentioned above (local, nation, student, professional, etc). I think it will be immensely interesting to see how all of these groups are connected and how those connections function in regards to what we’ve read about discourse communities in Writing About Writing.

I obviously intend to use Swale’s six characteristics of a public discourse community.  This will give me a quick and easy plan to breakdown and analyze the discourse community within AIGA, at least on a basic level. A good place to start, if nothing else.

Elizabeth Swardle’s writing regarding the enculturation of newcomers to a community will also feature in my paper.  Her points about engagement, imagination, and alignment were particularly interesting in describing this enculturation process, where a newcomer earns acceptance and finds their place in a community.

With using Swales and Swardle, it goes without saying that Gee’s input and opinions on the community situation will make an appearance. His ideas regarding dominant literacies and sub-literacies could prove interesting when applied to the design community and the hierarchy therein. Ann Johns will also feature, as she directly responds to the statements made by Swales and Gee, while adding her own take.

Finally, I think Dennis Barons Pencils to Pixels could prove interesting. It deals with the potential changes to discourse and writing in general with each new technological innovation. Design has experienced many technological upheavals in its short life, the foremost being the advent of computers. Many instructors find the computer to be foreign to the process, going so far as to deem it an obstacle and obstruction to proper design. All contemporary designers are all the while being taught to work heavily on computer, with only small amounts of work or preliminary work done outside of it. It could be real interesting.

The writers I will reference from WaW:

Dennis Baron

John Swales

Elizabeth Swardle

James Paul Gee

Ann Johns

Swardle and the three keys to enculturation

In Elizabeth Wardle’s Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces, she lists three methods used by new members of a community so as to integrate themselves into it. The three methods are Engagement, Imagination, and Alignment.

Engagement occurs with the discovery of a “common enterprise”, as Wardle calls it. This is shared between a newcomer and old-timer(s), and is essentially both new and old working towards the same common goal. In Wardle’s account of Alan the tech guy, the engagement would most likely be the interaction between Alan and the faculty/students he works with in providing technical stability and support. The faculty/students need help from Alan so they can go about their duties, and Alan provides the support so they can do just that. In the Design world, this relationship very much so exists between client and designer. The client wants an advertisement flyer as well as designed a certain way, and a designer uses his/her knowledge and technique to produce an advert that is appealing as well as appealing to the client.

Imaginination has to do with just that: the imagination of the newcomer regarding how they think of themselves and their work within the community. This can be either positive or intensely negative as well as crippling to ones enculturation. , Alan imagined himself to be in a position of great power and authority; even going so far as to say he was a “God around here”. His beliefs were misplaced, as Alan had little power and respect in his workplace. In the design world, you could think very highly of yourself and your work, but in reality your work may not be that good or may indicate a lack of technique and/or skill that you are completely oblivious to because of how you imagine yourself.

Alignment seems to ultimately be the point where you decide whether you really like the community there and its conventions and expectations. In Wardle’s example, Alan refuses to alter his behavior and business etiquette to the preference of the University where he works; thus clearly choosing to not align with the community. In my research of the design group AIGA, I would probably define alignment as whether or not you “conform” to the loose styles and guides of the design group you are working with. This could include insisting on using elements and design techniques that are considered cliché or “trashy” to the point where you are resisting the group heavily.