Megan Bailey Vetter Project 4 May 2, 2013 Ethnography in the Exercise Physiology Field

Introduction The language and tone in the following three messages are
strikingly different. My research gives hints as to why. When discussing ethnography in her article, Accessing Communities Through the Genre of Ethnography: Exploring a Pedagogical Genre, Mary Jo Reiff said that students conducting mini-ethnographies (554), benefited from rhetorical strategies related to purpose, audience, and persona giving rise to a number of rhetorical features and conventions. This statement is very helpful because it puts the entire concept of discourse communities and ethnographies in perspective, because each message in any discourse community (at least that I have observed) has a purpose, audience,and persona. The following are three different genres of writing that are actual quotations from athletic trainers dealing with the broken leg of a student. The first is a text message from a trainer on a football field to a parent; the second is a report by the President of the Ohio trainers organization, and the third is from a Trainer Outreach Coordinator of a local Childrens hospital. (The names have been changed.) Text Message:mrs smith- i know you cannot answer the phone but i need to inform you that jamie has hurt his leg in the game. he is getting proper care and he will be taken to riverside hospital where he will be

x-rayed. i will stay with him. please call my number when you can. rest assured, he will be fine. EMAILto StateTrainersAssociation: Jamie Wilcox broke the lower part of his femur during a football game. Another player landed on top of him. I elevated and immobilized the leg, and put ice on it to reduce the swelling and waited for the ambulance.

Presentationto HospitalBudgetCommittee: It is imperative that we provide our community athletic trainers with thorough instruction and current technologies in caring and treating injuries sustained during high school sports events. The pain and suffering of a student athlete can be significantly diminished with swift and proper medical attention. From both a fiscal and personal perspective, it is my opinion, after over twenty years in the field, it is imperative that more money must be spent on high school athletic trainers so that both the needs of the students and the school districts are addressed. With recent complications due to core body
temperature and prehydration, all aspects of training must be improved.

These three messages sparked the foundation of my research. Anis Bawarshi, in her article, Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities, relates this to the study of genres when she says, Teachers, students, and researchers gain ethnomethodoligical access to discourse communities through

genre analysis, which enables them to observe how and why individuals use language in specific settings to make specific practices possible (552). So both the ethnographers and the genre researchers are stressing the importance of setting (audience), purpose, and speaker. These are basic ideas of the study of rhetoric. Interestingly, while doing specific research for this project, I came across an article by Liane Robertson, Kara Taczak, and Kathleen Blake Yancey called Notes toward a Theory of Prior Knowledge and Its Role in College Composers Transfer of Knowledge and Practice in which the authors discuss prior rhetorical knowledge, genre knowledge, discourse community knowledge, and content knowledge ... (2) as foundations for good writing in a college classroom. It is important here, because prior knowledge from a high school English class made me comfortable talking about the rhetorical concepts of audience, message, and messenger sometimes learned as the Aristotelian Triad. The rhetorical triangle suggests that a person creating or analyzing a text must consider three elements: The subject and the kinds of evidence to develop it; the audience - their knowledge, ideas, attitudes, and beliefs; and the character of the rhetor- in particular, how the rhetor might use his or her character effectively in the text. (Roskelly 7) Chris Davies and Maria Birbili look at this study of classical rhetoric in a more practical way. Basically they say that one cannot really learn the ideas of rhetoric in an English class , ... there are limits to what can be learnt about writing in school, and it will always be necessary to take that learning further in any new context, and especially

in the contexts of work (430). This takes us to the context of work, in particular, the work of an athletic trainer. What genres of writing are used most in this discourse community? What role does audience play when people from this community communicate with each other? with those outside of the community? Does the writer change his or her persona when writing to different audiences? Did their schooling help them in the skills they need in this community? Do writing skills effect success in this community? Based on all the research regarding audience and setting, I surmised that the trainers would adjust their use of language to appeal to their audience, inside and outside their community, both in tone and word choice. The research was not clear as to what genres were most used in this profession; my guess was medical reports were the most common. All the research however, did lean toward a conclusion that writing, in some form would be an important skill in this and most discourse communities. As far as English classes being helpful in the work place environment, the research indicated that it was helpful, but that real life experience was the best teacher. That seemed like a logical conclusion and I assumed that is what the feedback would be from the trainers.

Methods My first choice and preference of subjects for this study was in the
field of nutrition, however I had access to two professional high school athletic trainers with whom it was very easy to speak to as well as visit their place of employment. An extra bonus occurred when one of them was promoted to a hospital outreach position which broadened the scope of my study out of the field and into a boardroom. This allowed me to examine the discourse community on several levels with several types of

audience both within and outside of the particular discourse community of trainers. So trainers became the subjects of my study. The concepts of the rhetorical triangle and how they fit with ethnography and genre provided me with ideas I found interesting and could understand. I also felt that by combining the classical ideas with modern research in a field that dealt with health issues, my findings should or could perhaps also apply to my particular interest of a nutritional discourse community. The research readings from class provided me with necessary background to begin to focus for my study. The idea that most attracted me was adjusting the message to the audience in the discourse community and how writing contributed to success. My study consisted of field observation, personal interaction, and interviewing two prominent athletic trainers in Columbus, Ohio, labeled in the study as Trainer 1 and Trainer 2. Trainer 1 is a female trainer in Catholic high school where she is well known and respected by the staff and students. She also has a job in an Ortho Neuro center where basically she gives physicals and does follow-up check ups on injuries. Trainer #2 is a male who started as a high school health teacher, became a trainer, was voted as president of the State Trainers Association, and has recently been hired by a Central Ohio Childrens Hospital as full time outreach coordinator for trainers. I conducted a pre study interview and a post study interview. To be honest, my pre interview was general and not very focused, but the post interview was better because I had more knowledge about the topic and was more confident in my goals, as well as a closer relationship with the subjects.

Methods (cont) My data collecting was in the form of notes from the
interviews and observations and also in direct email conversations with the subjects. I also researched some background information on athletic trainers.

Discussion After I gathered the data from my interviews, shadowing, field

visits, and emails, I started to compare the comments and information between the two trainers. My first surprise was the amount of texting and use of social media that both trainers engaged in. Although I saw some of it firsthand, personal and email interviews from both trainers confirmed that texting was the critical and most used written method of communication. Trainer #2 said, Because the information often needs to be shared quickly, it is done via text messaging. As is evidenced by the text message in the beginning of this paper, grammar and punctuation do not seem to be important. Trainer#1 said , In an emergency, the tone of the message is more important than the correctness of the message. In other words, good writing skills are less important than making the receiver of the message feel comfortable and confident that things are ok. That made sense, but more surprising to me was that the type of audience did not seem to matter. Trainer # 2 said with a laugh, Unfortunately, when texting, my writing style doesnt change whether I am talking to a kid or a board member. We all kind of understand that its well, texting. The second genre of writing that they both engaged heavily in was emails. Here, there was a difference between the two. Trainer #1 still maintained that tone was the most important factor and she said her emails did contain better writing (grammar, punctuation, etc. was more correct), but most of her email correspondence was to

parents and her main purpose was to encourage and instruct them how to deal with the injury received by their child. Trainer # 2 did say that emails to parents were less formal in tone, but that he tries to present a more professional style of writing. Although some of the emails went to parents, in his broader discourse community with the hospital clients and board, his emails were much more formal and as he says, contained more of the talk ... the lexi of the profession. Except for the email in the introduction of this paper, neither trainer was willing to let me print any of the emails they showed me. The third main genre was medical and insurance forms. Both trainers said that these took a lot of time and in no way did English classes help them. It is an important part of their job, but definitely on the job training. The final genre that the trainers write in is in the form of a report. Trainer #1, again, does not change her style of writing regardless of the audience, which for her, is usually the principal or athletic boosters. Trainer #2 writes reports for a higher level of professionals in his discourse community, and as the excerpts at the beginning of this paper illustrate, he does change his persona for each audience. He uses more specific word choice relating to his community; his style is more formal, and in the last example, he uses classic examples of persuasion: appealing to emotions, logic, and credibility. Both trainers said that the lessons they remember from English classes did help them when organizing reports, in particular, basic ideas like the importance of organization (intro, body, conclusion). Neither had background in the basic concepts of rhetoric, nor did they understand the notion of the interactions of the rhetorical triangle.

Results For the most part, my study supported the research, (except in a few

cases with Trainer # 1). First of all, Reiffs quote from Freedman that Studying genres within equal contexts of their use- with real human groups requires insider research (553), is a very important insight. My study shows how many various genres are used in this field, but it also shows the importance of seeing first hand how these genres are effective or ineffective and how the setting effects the language. The texting and email genres were exactly as Davies and Birbili described, The increasing amount of writing being done online reveals weaknesses in the written word (in some areas email is a complete joke, with no grammar, no capital letters, and words in the wrong place) (429) Trainer #2s response that everyone accepted that, is an excellent insight into that discourse community; there is an unwritten rule that there are in fact no rules in texting. This is something they all accept. I doubt if that occurs in all discourse communities. Despite the texting data, based on my study and previous research I still believe that the idea of adjusting the message and the persona to the audience is essential for success in this discourse community. Trainer #1 presented a casual, often sloppy type of language use to any one in her discourse community she was writing to. Her employment has stayed the same for twenty years. Trainer #2 who adjusted his vocabulary, rhetorical strategies, tone, etc. in his emails and reports to fit the people in his discourse community, was much more sought after professionally. Both have a solid reputation as trainers, but my observations indicated that Trainer #2 had much better written communication skills, which I believe contribute greatly to his success. These results can be important to professionals in the Athletic Trainer profession because the results show a need for improved writing skills in the discourse

communities. I think every profession should take a look at texting and use of language and determine that writing skills are indeed important in every genre. For individuals in the discourse community, I think the results show the importance of knowing the audience and being aware of writing strategies that will most effectively communicate the message. In the English teaching profession, the study shows that two very different types of writers did in fact benefit from basic writing structures taught in a classroom setting. For me, the results show the importance of basic language skills, understanding audience, and understanding the standards of the discourse community. I also became aware of the variety of genres specifically related to the community. I am also kind of proud to be able to say I conducted a mini ethnography study .

Works Cited Davies, Chris; Maria Birbili. What Do People Need To Know About Writing in Order To

Write In Their Jobs? British Journal of Educational Studies, V olume 48, Number 4, pp.429-445. December 2000. Devitt, Amy; Bawarshi, Anis; Reiff, Mary Joe. Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities. College English, Volume 65, Number 5, pp. 541-552. May 2003. Reiff, Mary Jo. Accessing Communities Through the Genre of Ethnography: Exploring a Pedagogical Genre. College English, Volume 65, Number 5, pp. 553-557. May 2003. Robertson, Liane; Taczak, Kara; Yancey, Blake. A Theory of Prior Knowledge and its Role in College Composers Transfer of Knowledge and Practice. http://www.addthis.com/bookmark Roskelly, Hephzibah. Everyday Use Rhetoric at Work in Reading and Writing. Pearson Publishing New York, New York. 2005.

Appendix

Trainer 1 Pre Interview. Pre Phone Interview Interview-Main. Trainer 2