READER REVIEW REFLECTION 2
“This reader review was kind of helpful but also a little hectic because there were like 2 groups going over my groups paper.
One group said that me explaining logos was good and made the paper clear, but another said it was unnecessary because everyone should know what that is and I should remove it. Honey, I disagree. I think the definition and explanation is important because this paper could be read by someone who does not know what the heck logos is. I know I didn’t. And you (Varty) said that we should not be writing our papers as if you are our only audience member. So, I just thought that was clueless. I will not be removing it.
I, personally, did not get anymore outstanding, made me raise an eyebrow, feedback from my peers. But with your (Varty) comments, I will take them up. I do think that changing my format a bit and adding more quotes would make my section of the essay more clear and easy to understand.”
GENRE ANALYSIS: STARBUCKS CUPS
“A discourse community, defined by John Swales, is a group of individuals who all share a common goal in the aspect of writing or reading. According to John Swales, a discourse community needs to have six defined characteristics before it is actually considered a discourse community. A discourse community must have: an agreed set of common public goals, must be able to communicate with other members, provide information and feedback, the community has one or more genres, has a specific lexis, and the community must have some experienced members and some not so experienced members. According to Swales, all of these characteristics build a discourse community.
Genres in a community are important because it gives a general understanding amongst the discourse community. Throughout this paper, I will be describing and analyzing a discourse community with a particular genre and lexis that, in which, I am a very active member in. The community I decided to analyze were the cups at Starbucks.
The main purpose of this genre in the Starbucks discourse community is to be able to communicate effectively between each other. So, picture this, you are a barista at your local Starbucks. That is of course the main setting where this genre is used. Suddenly a big rush of people come in and a batch of six cups are down your line. The cashier is telling you verbally what each cup needs. How are you supposed to remember that the fourth order wants a sweetened green tea latte with soy milk and two shots of espresso? Five more drinks come in. Five more verbal instruction, but you are still making drink two. That would virtually be very impossible to remember. This situation is the opposite of effective. This is where the handy cups come in.
Starbucks is my place of employment. Every day for about five, or sometimes seven, hours I look at probably well more than 100 cups. Without these cups I would not be able to tell who wanted what in their drink past the third order. I would not be able to communicate with my fellow baristas through the day, when we get extremely busy, or when we have to complete a huge order for an intern doing a coffee run. These, what seems like simple throw away cups, are the main form of communication between the baristas at Starbucks.
This genre goes both ways, co-workers and customer. Baristas being able to tell what the drink is, what customs are required (syrup, shots, milk, ect.), then we have a happy customer and both parties understand what the transaction was. Although, the only writers in this genre are the baristas; the customers are kind of like the narrative. The readers (baristas) have to understand the acronyms on the side of the cups in order to make the appropriate drink. The writers will change from barista to barista; as well as the readers. It really just depends on which barista is scheduled when and for what job. The main reason why this genre is so important in my job is that, we literally would have no form of communication without it.
Now, the exact same scenario but this time we have our helpful notes on the side of the cups in their appropriate format. You would easily just be able to look at the cup for two seconds and understand exactly what the contents were needed. Forget a little bit? No worry, just look at it again and move on to the next drink in the queue. Communication effectively distributed between customer, to cashier, to barista in one small cup. These overlooked paper cups are key in communication.
This genre has a very distinguishable pattern and format; it is extremely consistent. The cups are always from top to bottom, decaf, shots, syrup, milk, custom, and drink. The acronyms for the milks and syrups are always the same too. For example, ‘N’ will always be “Non-Fat Milk”, ‘4-CD’ will always mean “Four pumps for cinnamon dolce syrup”, and “CAL” will always mean “Cascara Latte”. This consistent pattern and the constant acronyms helps maintain the Starbucks lexis and help keep the discourse community between Starbucks baristas strong due to quick recognition.
When it comes to a customer’s drink, nothing is ignored or excluded. No details go without being written down. For example, a customer wants soy milk instead of the default 2% milk, and the barista ignores it and does not write down what kind of milk they requested. That could seriously affect that customer. They could have a milk allergy or they could be vegan. In a result of a barista ignoring a request, then the store that was responsible would get in loads of trouble. Maybe even sued. Nothing gets ignored. Everything written on the cup is extremely important to the customer, so that means it is important to us.
So for example, the cup above shows a tall cascara latte with two shots of espresso, one pump of cinnamon dolce, two pumps of cascara, steamed non-fat milk, and whipped cream on top. I, and other baristas, can easily translate those one to three letters into an entire order. As stated before that ‘N’ means “Non-Fat Milk”, and ‘1-CD’ means “One pump of cinnamon dolce syrup”. The barista would pump the 2 different syrups, pour the espresso shots, pour in the non-fat milk, and then add the whipped cream.
The next example would be a little trickier because the cup has every box filled out and there are more acronyms to decode.
This drink is a tall sweetened, double dirty decaf, green tea latte with steamed almond milk, whipped cream, and matcha power sprinkled on top. The ‘X’ in the “Decaf” box means that this person wants espresso, but they want it to be decaffeinated. The ‘CL’ stands for “Classic” which refers to the signature classic Starbucks syrup. In the custom box it reads “WC/MATCHA ON ^”. That means that the customer wants whipped cream and matcha powder sprinkled on top of their drink. Without those little code slapped on the side of the cup, then the barista would not know how to make the drink that was presented to them.
My last example is an iced drink. This drink is a little easier to understand because there are that many requests. It is extremely simple because there are only about four modifications.
This would be a tall caramel iced coffee, with a splash of coconut milk, one shot of espresso, and with some room. The number of shots do not always have circle around it. It is just a habit that many baristas have. So, the “shots” box has the number one written in it. That means that the customer requested just a shot of espresso. The “C” in the syrup box means “Caramel”, so this drink would get the default number of pumps of syrup in a tall drink, which is three. Then, the barista would pour iced coffee to the third line on the cup, put a slash of coconut milk, or more if the customer wanted, into the drink, and a tall scoop of ice. Then, the customer wanted room. That means that they want a little bit of space that is empty in the cup. So, they do not want their cup to be full. In this situation, a barista might pour out a little coffee or put less ice then normal. The customer might want add more sugar to it, and the drink might over-flow if there is not that space of room between drink and lid.
These requests and understanding these acronyms might seem difficult for people who are not a part of the Starbucks discourse community and have no understanding to our written lexis. But, when you are someone who is a part of the community then you can easily decode the letters and numbers to make someone’s drink the way they wanted it to be.
Can you imagine hearing, “We need a tall sweetened, decaf double dirty green tea latte, with almond milk, whipped cream, and matcha sprinkle”? And then three seconds later hearing “Tall cascara latte with two shots of espresso, one pump of cinnamon dolce, two pumps of cascara, steamed non-fat milk, and whipped cream on top.” That would be too much information to have to be able to remember, especially in the time of a rush. The barista would get overwhelmed, drinks would be made wrong, customers would be angry. Nothing would ever get done. It would be impossible. There are just too many things that could go wrong if Starbucks did not have these helpful cups.
Overall, all these things come together to help prove that the basic Starbucks cup is the most effective and main way of communication between each barista. Every trait comes down into creating a few letters and numbers on the side of a paper cup. Without that, how else would you get your venti no whip, almond milk, quad shot, extra caramel, caramel macchiato?”
SWALES AND THE WAYNE WRITER RESPONSE
“As I was reading the two passages I was assigned, I started making connections with the two. For example, both Swales and the Wayne Writer mention genres. They both explain that genres are important in setting an environment. Swales states that we should think of genres as, “textual tools used by groups of people as they work toward their desired ends”. The Wayne Writer describes the doctors office as a discourse community with various genres (i.e prescriptions, referral notes, and letters to insurance companies). Swales also says that all discourse communities use genres. So, both medias are similar with their ideology of discourse communities and their use of genres.
The two also mention genre analyzing. The Wayne Writer states that in order to analyze genres, you must: collect samples of that genre, find how that genre is used, identify the rhetorical patterns of that genre, and determine what these patterns say about the people who use it and what “scene” it is being used in. Swales says that there are six characteristics you should be looking for: common goals, the community intercommunicates with each other by meetings or newsletters, they provide feedback, the community has one or more genre in terms of communication, acquired a specific lexis, and finally with constant change of members in the community, the discourse still remains.”
INFOGRAPHIC
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