Resourceful Research Journals

RJ #1
Sponsors of Literacy
Deborah Brandt
1. The satisfaction of the best paper is what gets me motivated to continue
to write and to learn how to write better. There has not been anyone who
has discouraged me, especially in poetry. I used to get a lot of negative
feedback, because the poems were dark and depressing, but only because
they were worried for my safety and well-being. They loved my writing!
2. There are hectic schedules in today’s standards. Time is scarce, and when
it comes to choosing literacy versus “every day” activities, such as jobs,
families, and entertainment, the latter section almost always overcomes
increasing literacy skills.
3. The word sponsor means a person or a company will support, represent,
and uphold a certain promise to the person they are sponsoring. In sports,
companies will sponsor an athlete to not only advertise, but also to
encourage the athlete to do well (and trust the athlete in upholding his/her
reputation).
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1. According to Brandt, the function of a “sponsor of literacy” is to be a figure
of standard or encourager to a person who is less familiar with literacy,
human or otherwise. The sponsor is generally more knowledgeable in a
particular area of literacy, whether it’s because the sponsor has been in the
field longer, or because the person who is under its care needs guidance in
general literacy. Brandt claims that “[the sponsors] lend their resources or
credibility to the sponsored but also stand to gain benefits from their
success”. An example would be a restaurant sponsoring or encouraging a
new employee to read over a handbook about their food costs, which helps
both the employee to further his/her knowledge in the role they play, as well
as increasing the wellness of the company.
2. Literacy is indeed in pursuit of all beings, as without reading and writing, a
person is almost completely incapable of communicating with the world. Due
to this, a person who is in need of being sponsored or pursued must submit
in some form or fashion to literacy. The sponsor can permit literacy
knowledge by refusing the willingness to work with the sponsored, such as a
language barrier. To permit literacy, the sponsor can provide resources
(anything from required reading materials for a job to the simpler access to
books that a wealthy family may have) to promote literacy knowledge.
3. The experience I have with literacy, and continue to have, is like that of
Raymond Branch. His work experience is very similar to that of school for
me, and I have had the near constant access to information that I desire. My
sponsors in the past have been my parents, English teachers, church
leaders, my restaurant job, as well as myself. I have had access to the
internet since I was 12, I have lived in a University town with a large library
for 11 years, I worked at the Public Library in town for just over a year, and
God has blessed me with the desire to know and understand more about the
life around me. The latter requires me to study, research, and experiment
with books and other available literacy resources.
4. As stated previously, the key sponsors are my parents, teachers, church
leaders, myself, work employers, the small but decent financial status of my
family, and the opportunity to live in a town with a University’s library. I
know these are my sponsors, as they have pushed me to excel and gain
more knowledge through studies and debates. The only way to understand
the issues at hand (such as information about work safety, essays for a class,
or what the Holy Bible states) is for me to work with the resources I have and
learn about the topics. This increases my literacy.
5. I have not been able to purchase a car, and that in itself can be an agent
that prohibits my literacy, due to the fact that it would be less convenient for
me to walk to a library than to drive. Aside from physical agents, I was also
unable to purchase information-vast textbooks because of the financial
situation I was in (with my parents providing all things that money required).
But because I was unable to purchase books or information that I desired, I
learned to save my own money. Now, I am buying my own school books for
college!

RJ #7
My final research project is going to be based around food service at
Texas A&M – Commerce. More specifically how literacy makes an impact
upon the quality of food, and how literacy affects the service the employees
provide in presenting the food.
Looking at the artifacts the university library has in their
collections inspired me to look even deeper into the history of the food
service here at TAMU-C. The background of how food service was set up will
help me in understanding the development of its literacy now in 2009. My
ideas for WA2 are based around newspaper articles, columns, and letters to
the editor that helped to shape the condition of the cafeteria and general
food service that the students at TAMU-C now experience firsthand. I was not
able to find any direct articles from my quick search through the library
database, but I do know that I will be able to find old newspapers through the
Public Library’s digital and hard copies.
Upon observing the different maps, the very first thing I noticed was
how simple the first map was. Firstly, the picture looks incredibly hand-
drawn. The buildings are very sparse, and with minor detail to street names.
As the years progress, the maps become more and more complex. New
buildings appear, street details become apparent, and the quality of the
maps increase as the technology of the time gets better.
The oral histories were incredibly informative… and not all that boring!
The interviews gave insight as to how English really developed at the
university, particularly with a previous teacher who required that her
students rewrite their essays several times (which I would personally find
very irritating and aggravating) until a “respectable” essay was formed. The
mentions of William Mayo again made me proud to attend the university. He
respected his students, and expected his students to reach to their highest
possible levels of intellect.
I have not yet read in detail from the Field Working book, but I did scan
chapter 1. From what I can gather (at this point), this book will help me
construct my final project, and possibly even WA2, in a more formalized,
structured way.
Groundwork Activity
Fieldworking
1. Subcultures upon which I may study
-Dining and food experiences at TAMU-C
-Restaurants around Commerce
-Students’ choice of food, or lack thereof
-Employees of Sodexo
-Catering employees
2. Specific subcultures I will most likely study
-Sodexo employees
-Dining and food experiences at TAMU-C
-Student’s feelings about the cafeteria (Opinions, Letters to the Editor,
complaints, etc.)
3. Ethical concerns/constraints
-Offending employees based upon their level of literacy
-Offending my boss (John Offerle – Sodexo)
-Creating concerns about the food service that are unwarranted
3 1/2. Issues that I will encounter
-Not enough time to gather accurate and useful information. Between my
several research journals, separate Writing Assignments, my final project,
reading assignments, my job, and my 3 Honors classes (plus my 2 other
classes) coursework and projects, I have virtually NO time to gather a decent
amount of information to contribute to this assignment. I am really excited
about choosing this topic (especially because I am a business management
major and intend to pursue a career in food service), but I absolutely hate
that my WA2 will be – excuse the language – half-arsed due to time
constrictions. If I didn’t have RJs, research groups, and other reading
assignments, I believe I would be able to have a very nice essay/research
paper over this.
4. Issues that will affect my study
-I am both a student of TAMU-C and an employee of Sodexo. I work Catering
events, the cafeteria during summer camps, and at Einstein Bros. Bagels as
the morning baker and line checker.
-I also don’t want to create problems and ideas that weren’t apparent before.
If a student chooses to eat at the cafeteria for five meals a week, their
complaints about the food choices will be limited. But if I ask them to start
observing more closely the choices, tastes, and customer service, I believe
the student will begin to see things that they had not even thought about
before. From a researcher’s point of view (and a student who intends to
make her future business BOOMING on customer satisfaction), this is a great
idea. But the student may stop attending the cafeteria, spread the bad
reviews, and, from an employee’s perspective, this hurts the business of
Sodexo. If business decreases, then my hours do as well… which means less
pay. No bueno.

RJ #10
Step I
I ended up deciding upon an essay in Literacies in Context that was not
assigned to us. The essay is Mirabelli’s “Learning to Serve”, of which almost
parallels the work project I am discussing… how literacy interacts in the food
service industry. Though I have not pinpointed exactly what context I am
using, I am floating around the same idea I had for my WA2, which was how
the students are able to use their literacy through comment cards, email,
and newspaper articles to impact the quality of food and food service at
TAMU-C.
Step II
A. The location of the analysis was based in a diner style restaurant called
“Lou’s”, which was an Italian-American style restaurant.
B. The members of the group are primarily waiters and waitresses, though
some subgroups are also the cooks of the diner as well as the customers that
the servers wait upon. The waiters vary in experience. John was a 10-year
employee of Lou’s, and deemed unofficially by his coworkers as the “head
waiter”. Harvey has had 30 years of experience, though at the time of the
research had only been employed by Lou’s for 2 weeks. Because of his
unfamiliarity with the Italian-American style restaurant, he had some
difficulties conveying the menu and ingredients to the customers. The third
main character is Tony, the narrator. He worked as a waiter at Lou’s for a
total of 2 years. The cooks never directly speak in this essay, but appear as
intelligent and cooperative beings. The customers vary in attitude and social
class.
C. The main activities the three waiters are engaged in are reading the
menu, conveying the menu to the customer, reading the customer do
determine what interactions the waiter should pursue, as well as promoting
their own knowledge to have a sort-of power over the customer’s decision.
D. One action that really stuck out to me – especially because I am a
waitress myself and I love the interactions between myself and the customer
– knows how to respond to a customer’s body language (especially when a
higher tip is involved in the equation). A perfect example is when Tony, the
writer of the essay, describes his interaction with a “regular” whom he has
never waited on before.
Al, the regular customer, enters the diner with three other guests.
Tony has never waited upon Al or the three other customers, and is unsure
how to handle him. Al, being a regular, knows the menu, knows the majority
of the staff, and may or may not expect a certain level of service. Because
Tony is not sure what Al expects, and he doesn’t want to disappoint or offend
Al because he is a regular customer, Tony does his best to take the orders
and skip the small talk. I have experienced this way too many times,
especially because I have grown up in Commerce and know a lot of folks.
Occasionally, I have a difficult time deciding upon how to treat a customer…
especially if it’s the parents of a good friend. Do I address them like any
other customer: formal, friendly, to the point? Or informally, casual, and
chatty? I can totally relate to Tony.
E. Based just upon the essay, a regular physical item the waiters used was
the menu.
F. I have described the events in a previous response.
G. The events take place regularly, though the interactions between the
customer and waiter are more time-constrained during the peak hours of
meals, particularly at dinnertime. The interactions, depending upon the time,
can take anywhere from a total of 10 minutes throughout the course of the
meal or as little as one minute throughout the course of the meal. The time
period, the customer’s desires, and the availability of the waiter al determine
the amount of interaction.
H. The members of the group – the waiting staff – hope to accomplish a few
things. One is a good tip, as servers do not make minimum wage, but rather
(at this point in time) $2.13/hr, whereas the rest is made up off tips. Another
goal the members wish to accomplish is good service. A friendly atmosphere
(whether intimate and causal or very professional) coupled with knowledge
of the menu will help to promote a customer’s overall satisfaction, leading to
good service. Good service increases the likelihood of a customer returning
to the restaurant.
I. I have already responded to this question.

Questions about my Research Project

A. My major research question deals primarily with the interaction of
students with the food service at TAMU-C. Essentially, I want to discover how
students use their literacy to make an impact upon the food service, whether
through comment cards, email, and review both online and in newspapers. If
time allows, I would also like to see what students – if any – use the text
messaging capabilities on their phones to spread the word about the food
service.
B. The proposed research site will obviously be centered on the cafeteria.
With further prompting and maybe some reassurance from Dr. Carter, I
would like to extend this research to accommodate for the Food Court (which
holds Einstein’s Bros Bagels, Grill 155, and the Marketplace) as well. I am
both a student who regularly eats in the cafeteria as well as an employee of
Sodexo (in Einstein’s and as a cashier/lobby director). The reasons for
choosing the cafeteria versus a site such as the concessions stand or even
The Club (where many students choose to eat their to-go meals) is because
the comment cards and comment board are located inside the cafeteria…
this is my focus point for literacy (at the moment).
C. I have almost unlimited access to this community – I am both student and
employee. To greater increase my access, my dad is the retail manager for
Sodexo (overlooking Einstein’s, concessions, and any and all grab-n-go) and
my mom is the general manager for Einstein’s.
D. I will conduct my research mostly in the cafeteria, though I will bring all of
the information together in a quiet location such as my apartment or the
library. I plan on sitting near the comment board over a period of time to
evaluate how many students actually stop at the comment board and notice
it, and may select a few to interview if they have time. I also plan on sitting
near the register/entrance which is where the comment cards are located. I
want to see how many students actually pick up the cards, and how many
are aware of their location. At some point, I may also stand near the exit
(inside or outside the cafeteria) and do a quick survey to find out how many
students are actually aware of both the comment board and the comment
cards.
E. The main point of contact will be the head director (and my boss), John
Offerle. I will first send him an email (of which I have been neglecting)
announcing what my intentions are. From that point, I will schedule a time to
get meet with him in his office so that I may personally answer any questions
he may have. Depending upon the meeting, I hope to get his written
permission to conduct my research at this time.

RJ #16
Chapter 5 Analysis
Chapter 5 was lengthy, but very helpful (as I have discovered all of
the chapters to be). Because my own project will require so many interviews
– “oral histories”, if you will – I found this chapter very beneficial for my
overall ethnography project. I really took the quote from Henry Glassie to
heart: “Ethnography is interaction, collaboration. What it demands is not
hypotheses, which may unnaturally close study down, obscuring the integrity
of the other, but the ability to converse intimately.” The reason this hits me
so hard is because my area of research, the cafeteria, is already a very
familiar place to me. It’s almost like a second home. When I think of this
quote, it reminds me to play the role of an outsider while I do my research,
and when I do interview and gather oral histories of students, staff, and
management, I need to “converse intimately” and not just ask questions.
Discovering the different ways to ask questions (closed and open), I
realized that the way I phrase my questions will determine the answer.
Because ethnography requires that the researcher ASSUMES NOTHING, I
really need to be careful in which direction I lead my interviewee. An
example: I should ask something like “Have you ever had a bad experience
in the cafeteria?” as opposed to “What was your last bad experience in the
cafeteria?”
Part of the chapter discussed relating good listening and body
language together. Again, this is a HUGE part of my research and it really hit
home. I understand I use this phrase “hit home” quite a lot, but I wouldn’t
use it unless I didn’t mean it. A segment of my research is involving how
students “read” the cafeteria staff… by body language. If a cashier greets
them with a smile, no hostility, and cheery voice, what kind of impact will
that first impression have upon the student’s experience? How will that
change their taste of the food?
In the story “I Can Read and I Can Write”, other than the incredible
story itself, the most noticeable factor for me was the way Edwards left the
dialect of the culture in the oral history. By keeping the dialect the same, I
felt immersed into the culture and I could picture the interaction, I could
picture the story. And that’s exactly what it was: a story. This wasn’t another
essay that described a story, and the way Edwards phrased the entire
selection was just marvelous. I enjoyed reading this because every detail
was in the description, every part of me was involved in the culture of this
history.