Midterm Project

Initial Midterm Project

The Blue Collar Small Business World Defined as a Discourse Community
Daniel Griepp
April 11, 2013

Abstract

This study shows readers the integral parts of the blue collar discourse community by using authors John Swales and Elizabeth Wardle to examine their characteristics. It begins by introducing the definition of a discourse community and then introduces the community of study: blue collar small businesses. This study then lists the forms research on which this paper is based which include personal experience from the author and interviews with small business managers. The author then discusses his findings in great detail as he examines the blue collar world in light of Swales and Wardle's descriptions of what a discourse community is. One by one, he considers these concepts and finds that this discourse community fits both Swales and Wardle's models of what a discourse community. In conclusion, the authors discusses possibilities of other studies which would only include the dimensions of strictly small businesses or blue collar workers.

Introduction

A discourse community is a group of people who are associated with one another based on the characteristics that they share or have created. John Swales, a linguist best known for his work on genre analysis, has been helpful to understanding what a discourse community is. He states that it must be a body of individuals who share common goals, exhibit modes of intercommunication, uses these modes to provide feedback and information within the group, utilizes genres in attempt to further it's aims, develops unique lexis, and lastly only include members which have expertise relevant to the content discussed within the community. This generalized description is good for classifying a community as a discourse community while also acquiring a broad sense of what aspects make it one. Another linguist, Elizabeth Wardle, in known for her description of aspects of identity and authority within a workplace discourse community. She stresses the importance to learn the inner modes and genre's of a workplace when first confronted with differences.

In my study, I examined general, electrical, and plumbing small businesses which provide hands on service to business and residential customers. When considering this workplace community of people who work together to run small businesses in the blue collar workforce, I find no conclusive study which examines the characteristics of this community which make it a discourse community. Perhaps this is due to the fact that such a task requires analysis from an insider of such a community. It may be also because members of the blue collar workforce do not seem to be the type to set time aside and analyze their line of work in desire to find out what specifically makes it fit a discourse community's profile. As a former member of a similar community, I decided I would be well fit to examine this community and elaborate on the specific characteristics which categorize it as a discourse community and primarily what makes it unique. I became determined to produce a document that would give any reader from any background a fair understanding of how the blue collar discourse community functions.

Methodology

My main forms of information and examples come from past work experience which I acquired while working in a small business as a project manager on the field. This is where I learned many of the concepts which I will be examining and showing. In addition to that, I decided to interview an acquaintance of mine, Steve from ** Electrical Installations, who runs a small business from the office and has dealt with many internal issues to resolve them. These two forms give the reader a sense of how situations are managed and the forms of communication used in strictly the office or out in the field. I examined this discourse community within the framework setup by John Swales and further elaborated on certain aspects of the community which writer Elizabeth Wardle discussed. All together, my research was unique perhaps because a lot of it was already completed and merely had to be recounted. However, I think we will find that this work experience acting as research will serve to give us a clear understanding of how small businesses operate as a discourse community.

Results and Discussion

First and foremost, according to Swales, a discourse community needs a clear set of common goals which they work together to strive towards. It requires no professional experience to conclude that blue collar small businesses members share the common goals of completing jobs and working efficiently so that they will benefit financially. Their primary reason for existence is to provide a service to a costumer for a return of financial gain. They work together to coordinate the men working in the field and materials that they need, manage logistical information/billing and market their business to attract new customers to attain additional profit.

Next, we may examine the mechanisms of communication which small businesses use daily with each other to accomplish their goals. Small businesses often use forms of communication familiar to all of us such as emails, texts, phone calls and sometimes meetings. Consider also that it is not uncommon to talk to certain individuals with certain distinct forms while only talking to other parties in strictly other forms. While managing materials and job-sites last year, I coordinated with the material suppliers, builders, demolition teams, architects, inspectors, and engineers involved on the job. With suppliers, builders, and demolition teams, the form of communication was almost always through phone, not texts or emails unless I was receiving an order list. With Architects, inspectors, and engineers, the people who you almost never see, It seemed that the form of email and telephone was almost strictly, though not always, used. In addition to communicating with these parties, I had to still communicate with the office in person, or through email, text, or phone. Small Business owner Steve, when asked about mechanisms of communication, noted the use of Post-It's and electronic calender reminders in addition to using emails, texts, and phone calls. Though perhaps the most informal type of genre, Stave claimed that Post-It's are the fastest way to write something important down and give it to the appropriate person or stick it someplace in the office where they will see it when they return. All these mechanisms of communication exist to optimize efficiency and make jobs go smoothly as planned.

My focus as project manager was to keep jobs moving and efficient. If I failed to order materials that the builder had requested for the next work day, the builder would be left without necessary materials and would not be able to work. I had to stay on top of things with not only with builders, but also with the office and material providers to keep track of orders, costs, and delivery times. Steve's focus as office manager and expediter was described as almost the same. Running jobs and keeping them moving is a common goal, as described before, which all members are aware of and strive towards. Furthermore, he describes running the field as, “A grueling task for a highly motivated efficient mind. You have to communicate with everyone and everyone else has to make their needs clear to you,” Steve says, “If nobody communicates, time and money is often lost as a result.” All methods of communication are used, both in the office and in the field, in order to keep all members informed so that work may progress smoothly.

In addition to the way in which the business communicates amongst itself, all members of the blue collar workforce including office workers and field workers share a deep array of lexis. As a project manager, I always had to communicate to material suppliers and builders in their language - meaning their lexis. I would never consider asking Ron, my materials supplier, for, “A ten foot piece of wood, two inches thick, by four inches wide.” That, although the correct dimensions, is not the proper term for that piece of lumber. The proper way to describe that to Ron is, “I need a two, by four, by ten.” Ron automatically knows that the first two dimensions are in inches and the last dimension is in feet. Other terminology I used when I piped out an entire house this summer included, for example, PVC tee-wyes, couplers, and bushings. These are simply just words to describe materials. PVC is polyvinyl chloride and tee-wye is simply a PVC joint which resembles a T and Y put together. Additionally, couplers and bushings are just materials which join or reduce lengths of PVC.

Deep knowledge and proficiency with lexis is how other blue collar workers gauge you and how much of a professional you really are. Furthermore, dishonest materials suppliers will understand when they are speaker with a green person who has no knowledge of lexis and are quick to charge higher prices or coerce you into purchasing more than you need. If they know you have no clue about the lexis of blue collar work, they also rightly conclude that you are not familiar with standard pricing and standard quantity. This concept, though applicable to all blue collar workers, applies equally to the community of small businesses because of the people who work in them.

The knowledge of lexis is not learned in books, rather, it is learned by working with professionals in their fields who understand this lexis and use it everyday. These professionals are often, though not always, the crusty old timers who know just about everything there is to know. It is nothing less than hard dedicated work and willing to learn and ask all the questions that they can think of. From the age of five, my dad always had me working with him or with other professionals in one of the fields in carpentry, mechanics, electricity, or plumbing and because of this, by the age of sixteen, I had gained the knowledge because of the intense learning that I did. This was gained through asking countless questions and working with my hands to accomplish the same tasks that the professionals were doing. Thats what members must do if they intend to become well versed to the community of blue collar small businesses.

Now that we have considered how blue collar small businesses are discourse communities, we may further look at how other authors describe other aspects of them. In “Identity, Authority, and learning to Write in New Workplaces,” Elizabeth Wardle, Chair for Writing Outreach, Department of Writing and Rhetoric at University of Central Florida, for example, describes the aspects of identity and authority within a workplace. Also stressed is the importance to adapt and learn the inner modes and genre's of a workplace when first confronted with differences. When considering a blue collar small business workplace we may consider some of the concepts introduced by Wardle in order to better understand their genres and roles of authority.

The role of authority within a workplace is very important to the success of the company in which they work. The boss gives orders to respective workers and has them accomplish tasks because he is responsible for making sure that the business makes profit and is successful. Based on my working experience in blue collar small businesses, the boss is generally a individual who has experience, not necessarily age, and a deep knowledge of his profession. Unlike corporations or other businesses, workers will not get jobs easier if they have higher education. Everything is based on practical knowledge which will help a company progress. The boss is someone who has the most knowledge and all the members of the community respect the boss because they are well aware of his knowledge. Once a boss is seen as someone who does not know what he is talking about, workers lose respect for them.

Among other things, main problems arise within a discourse community when the authority is questioned and or disobeyed. When asked to describe the importance of authority within the workplace, Steve recounted an experience he had with a worker that he was responsible for. This worker was unskilled in the work which Steve had him doing and was on a learning path to become a skilled worker. Although Steve gave him clear orders on how to stack the gang boxes in the storage garages and how to maintain them, the worker disregarded his command and did he best saw fit. This caused a problem in the workplace because gang boxes were not ready for workers and thus slowing down the workers when they needed to get them. To resolve this issue, Steve was compelled to fire this worker and find someone who would be willing to listen. One only belongs to the discourse community of a small business when they vest this characteristic of always being willing to learn in addition to learning the lexis and gaining a sense of how to function in the environment. Some people initially struggle with this concept because they refuse to accept that they are completely ignorant on the topic and fail to ask questions. This then debilitates their mind so that it does not progress and they do not learn. Believe it or not, this characteristic of arrogance is quite common with new comers in the field and is responsible for many short lived jobs.

Once a person overcomes this and gains a sense of how to belong to this community, it is essential that they next gain a sense from direction from authority of what role they play in the business. Wardle stresses this concept and states that clear job position separation is necessary to avoid confusion of authority. Different members of this community have different roles and with this comes different responsibility and authority. This is essential to making sure that everyone works in unison and everything gets done. When positions of members were unclear during my time as a project manager on the field, I often would ask two workers about something that had to be done and would get the similar response from both workers that the other worker was doing it. These issues were often resolved quickly by me telling one of the workers that it had just become their job and they were now responsible to do it. But when dealing with repetitive work such as paperwork within the office, these issues have much greater importance and sometime much greater consequences when considering a misunderstood duty may have involved payment to a materials supplier. I say all that to stress that authority and role definition is key to running a blue collar business small business efficiently and successfully.

Conclusion

To summarize, we first analyzed the characteristics found in blue collar small businesses in light of each of John Swales's six steps. In addition to concluding that this community fit the description fairly well, we found this evaluation to give us a better sense of how small businesses operate and most importantly communicate. Next, we reviewed concepts within a discourse community which were exemplified by author Elizabeth Wardle which included authority, occurring problems, and roles involved in blue collar small businesses. As we examined it, we found that one of the most important role within this community was indeed authority and great problems arise when it is disregarded. We ended on the importance of individuals gaining a sense of how they must belong to a community and how the role which they are given is important to the success of the business.

These findings and observations which I recounted and discovered seem to paint the picture of a closely knit group of individuals who would be distinctly either insiders and outsiders. Additionally, we may conclude that many of these concepts explained apply to many small businesses. It seems as though some of the concepts were mainly explained withing the context of small businesses. Perhaps if I were to redo this study, I would focus on the discourse community of strictly a small business office as a community without adding the dimension of it being blue collar. I now see that there is plenty to work with and examine when considering that a office is indeed a discourse community. It seemed throughout the project that I was trying to figure out if I was describing the blue collar world or the office world as many concept blend over but originate from different concepts. Overall, this study gave me a better understanding of how to view the office and field as two different discourse communities and how I would have been able to better explain them had a done them one at a time.

Work 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):

S. Griepp. personal communication, March 29, 2013

Revision Proposal

The audience reading my midterm project will gain a sense of what it is like to be as a project manager on a job-site of a small business in the blue-collar atmosphere. Additionally, I will be giving them instruction on how to be the best possible project manager on a blue collar job-site. This instructional essay will be based on my interview with a blue-collar business associate while mainly centered around my experience growing up in the blue-collar discourse community. My initial piece tried to give the readers a sense of how the blue collar businesses operate as a whole. But as I look at my current personal experience and interview, I believe that I can better give the reader a sense of how a project manager sees and runs the job. Essentially, getting the reader inside the mind of a project manager and forcing them to think the way in which they think.

I would like my readers to know what kind of communication does a project manager need to exhibit to be most effective, how must project manager manage work and both sides of the business (the office and field), and why does it require a capable individual to fill this position?

I want to completely change the purpose of this paper to explaining to a reader how to be a great project manager. This will give me a more tangible audience so I can write specifically to that certain group. This will allow me to be more direct when pitching to the reader what he may gain from reading this. If I do not properly write this to my specific target audience, then my paper will be meaningless and worth something to only someone who wants to waste time. If I can accomplish this goal, I will have a beautifully constructed piece which readers will be able to refer to and learn from.

Additionally, I want to to develop a certain set of main rules which a project manager unconsciously follows. Essentially, like a certain amount of main principles which project managers do and have to follow in order to ensure that each job is carried out to completion and properly. This is important because it will not bore the reader and it will give the reader main concepts to retain after reading. If main concepts or ideas are not present, then my piece will just be a boring paper which will seem to say nothing.

Finally, I intend to properly integrate previous articles, such as Maribelli's, into my piece in such a way so that readers will understand the reason for me putting it there. I do not just want to include references to former articles because it was part of the assignment, I want to make sure it is effective because I know it can be. Failure to do this will result in my references to other authors as awkward and out of place; it is important to making sure that I do this right because it will strengthen my midterm.

Revised Midterm Project

The Blue Collar Small Business World Defined as a Discourse Community
May 21, 2013
Daniel Griepp

Abstract

In this following article, I look at the importance of project managers in small businesses and their respective traits which make them good at what they do in order to give readers a sense of what it takes to be the best possible project manager. First, I discuss the role of project managers within a small business and proceed to introduce three main characteristics which are important. Next, I discuss the importance of communication which a project manager must show in addition to the results of what happens when communication is not clarified. I then look at the topic of lexis important to a project manager and how it related to how you are perceived. Finally, I stress the importance of making sure authority is established in a clear way and use many examples to discuss the implications of overlooking this aspect of managing.

A Project Manager

Running blue collar general, electrical, and plumbing small businesses, which provide hands on service to business and residential customers, requires a wide array of communication and knowledgeable members. Ranging from the owner, to the office workers, to the field workers, a small business operates like a well tuned clock as the success of the business depends on every component. Indeed, most blue collar small business consists of a group of workers who physically do the work and a group of people who work in the office and orchestrate the jobs and finances. Due to the nature of their jobs, project managers have by far one of the most important positions in a small business because they are the link between the office and the field work.

A project manager is the man on the job-site who makes it happen. Essential to a blue-collar small business's success, the project manager orchestrates the inner workings of every job site. They are responsible to make sure that proper materials are delivered on time, to meet and satisfy building inspectors and furthermore, ensure that the builders construct in direct accordance with the blue-prints. Essentially, as a project manager, you coordinate and set the pace of entire job sites and ensure that each one is brought to completion; all of these components are often juggled with many different job sites running synonymously.

Despite their importance, few outside of the blue collar world understand what is involved in being an excellent project manager. As a former project manager of a similar blue collar community, I decided to examine the specific characteristics of the job that makes it unique and challenging and the necessary skills for an individual to be a successful project manager. I became determined to produce this article that would give anyone, from any background, a fair understanding of how a blue collar project manager must work and how you must communicate with the rest of the company as one. Successful project managers share three main traits which I will discuss, mainly because I think this will give us a broad sense of what is involved in being an excellent project manager.

My main forms of information and examples will be coming from work experience which I acquired while working in a small business as a project manager on the field; this is where I learned many of the concepts which I will be examining and showing. In addition to that, I interviewed an acquaintance of mine, Steve from ** Electrical Installations, who runs a small business from the office and acts part time as a project manager. These two forms of information will hopefully give us a clear sense of how situations are managed and the forms of communication which project managers use.

Communication

The first characteristic which I find important to the success of a project manager is excellent communication. For anything to go according to plan, there has to be a plan in the first place and it has to be articulated to everyone who will be completing it. It is the job of you as a project manager to make sure that everyone knows the plan and is following it. This can only be obtained through communication and this fact explains why as a project manager, you have to be a great communicator. Although communication is certainly important to your success as a project manager, knowing which types of communication to use in different situations and with different people is equally important.

Project managers often use forms of communication familiar to all of us such as emails, texts, phone calls and sometimes meetings. Consider also that it is not uncommon to talk to certain individuals with certain distinct forms while only talking to other parties in strictly other forms. While managing materials and job-sites in 2012, I coordinated with the material suppliers, builders, demolition teams, architects, inspectors, and engineers involved on the job. With suppliers, builders, and demolition teams, the form of communication was almost always through phone, not texts or emails unless I was receiving an order list. With Architects, inspectors, and engineers, the people who you almost never see, It seemed that the form of email and telephone was almost strictly, though not always, used.

In addition to communicating with these parties, I had to still communicate with the office in person, or through email, text, or phone. Small business owner and project manager Steve, when asked about mechanisms of communication, noted the use of Post-It's and electronic calender reminders in addition to using emails, texts, and phone calls. Though perhaps the most informal type of genre, Steve claimed that Post-It's are the fastest way to write something important down and give it to the appropriate person or stick it someplace in the office where they will see it when they return. All these mechanisms of communication exist to optimize efficiency and make jobs go smoothly as planned.

My focus as project manager was to keep jobs moving and efficient. If I failed to order materials that the builder had requested for the next work day, the builder would be left without necessary materials and would not be able to work. I had to stay on top of communication with not only with builders, but also with the office and material providers to keep track of orders, costs, and delivery times. Steve's focus as a project manager was described as almost the same. Running jobs and keeping them moving is a common goal, as described before, which all members are aware of and strive towards. Furthermore, he describes running the field as, “A grueling task for a highly motivated efficient mind. You have to communicate with everyone and everyone else has to make their needs clear to you,” Steve says, “If nobody communicates, time and money is often lost as a result.”

Speak their Language

In addition to the way in which you communicate, you must also make sure you articulate your desires in a language and proficiency which all members of the blue collar workforce, including office workers and field workers, will understand. This is not saying that as a project manager, you have to dumb-down your speech. In fact, as we will see, it is quite the opposite. As a project manager, I always had to communicate to material suppliers and builders in their language - meaning their lexis. I would never consider asking Ron, my materials supplier, for, “A ten foot piece of wood, two inches thick, by four inches wide.” That, although the correct dimensions, is not the proper term for that piece of lumber. The proper way to describe that to Ron is, “I need a two, by four, by ten.” Ron automatically knows that the first two dimensions are in inches and the last dimension is in feet. Other terminology I used when I piped out an entire house this summer included, for example, PVC tee-wyes, couplers, and bushings. These are simply just words to describe materials. PVC is polyvinyl chloride and tee-wye is simply a PVC joint which resembles a T and Y put together. Additionally, couplers and bushings are just materials which join or reduce lengths of PVC.

Deep knowledge and proficiency with lexis is how other blue collar workers gauge you and how much of a professional you really are. Furthermore, dishonest materials suppliers will understand when they are speaker with a green leader who has no knowledge of lexis and are quick to charge higher prices or coerce you into purchasing more than you need. If they know you have no clue about the lexis of blue collar work, they also rightly conclude that you are not familiar with standard pricing and standard quantity. This concept, though applicable to all blue collar workers, is most important to project managers because of the significance responsibility and weight of your job.

The knowledge of lexis is not learned in books, rather, it is learned by working with professionals in their fields who understand this lexis and use it everyday. These professionals are often, though not always, the crusty old timers who know just about everything there is to know. It is nothing less than hard dedicated work and willing to learn and ask all the questions that they can think of. From the age of five, my dad always had me working with him or with other professionals in one of the fields in carpentry, mechanics, electricity, or plumbing and because of this, by the age of sixteen, I had gained the knowledge because of the intense learning that I did. This was gained through asking countless questions and working with my hands to accomplish the same tasks that the professionals were doing.

Authority

Perhaps not as obvious a topic to bring up when discussing a project managers success, this is a topic which requires two angles of consideration. The role of authority with respect to the position of the project manager is important in two aspects: how the project manager responds to those in leadership above him and how workers respond to the leadership of the project manager.

First, a project manager must always obey the authority of the boss or owner(depending on the size of the business). As a project manager, it is easy to begin to develop an attitude of arrogance because of the authority which you have over the job-site workers. But this must always be checked and kept in submission by you as project manager having to take constant orders from the boss. Don't forget, you are there to make sure that the boss's wishes, not yours, are completed. Although you have immense responsibility, you are once again, the middle man, and the one who articulates the boss's orders to the workers. I can remember working on a job-site a few years ago on a concrete project when a project manager was not obeying the boss's orders and was rather completing the job which he best saw fit. Naturally, he was relieved of his managing duties vie a pink sheet of paper because of his haughty actions. As humans, we always believe we know the best way to complete something. As a project manager, you must subdue this tendency and learn to follow authority.

Much of these concepts may also be applied when considering workers who have to listen to project managers. As a project manager, you have to be aware of how you are coming off to workers and making sure that they understand the line of authority. I can remember when I was sixteen and working on a domestic siding job, the site boss ran out to get something and told me I was in charge of the job-site while he was gone. But he only missed one thing, he did not tell anyone else that he left me in charge. When I began to give instruction to workers as the youngest man on the job, I was respected by some because they understood, despite my age, that I was the most experienced. Others rejected my authority, one in particular began shouting threats and telling me I was a “wanna be” and such. I was forced to shut down the job0site to ensure the safety of the other workers because of the volatile situation which had been created. When the boss returned, he fired the bombastic worker and proceeded to clarify that I was the one in charge when he was not. All this resulted because of a breakdown of communication which resulted in a question of respective authority within the workplace.

When asked to describe the importance of authority within the workplace, Steve also recounted an experience he had with a worker that he was responsible for. This worker was unskilled in the work which Steve had him doing and was on a learning path to become a skilled worker. Although Steve gave him clear orders on how to stack the gang boxes in the storage garages and how to maintain them, the worker disregarded his command and did he best saw fit. This caused a problem in the workplace because gang boxes were not ready for workers and thus slowing down the workers when they needed to get them. To resolve this issue, Steve was compelled to fire this worker and find someone who would be willing to listen.

Authority is one aspect that should never be overlooked by a project manager whether it is authority which he has to submit to or authority which people have to submit to him. As seen in these examples, when authority is not clear or questioned in any way, the outcomes are not positive. As a project manager, it is very important that you are clear in your obedience to your boss and that you are perceived as someone who deserves to be followed.

How to Begin

As we have seen, these three main principles of communication, lexis, and authority are key to understanding and working in a project managers role. But what can you do from here? You may be wondering: what should I do if I want to get into the plumbing or electrical industry and want to become a project manager? Of course, since you may not grown up working on construction sites, you can start at any age. The best project managers are generally ones who have working their way up the ladder, from any age, and display a deep knowledge of the job-site. There is nothing that a worker hates more than a project manager who has no clue what he is talking about. Project managers who have little experience in the actual job usually end up making unreasonable demands because they have never actually done the work themselves.

Workers will respect you if they know that you, as their project manager, are capable of doing everything that you ask them to do. If you want to be a project manager, you need to expose yourself to the field of whatever line of work you wish to manage so that you can confidently instruct others. Essentially, work your way up the imaginary ladder so that one day people will listen to you because they know what experience you have under your belt and will respect you because of it. If you consider these characteristics presented and act in accordance with them, you are sure to be a good project manager who your bosses above you and workers below you respect and love.

Works Cited

S. Griepp. personal communication, March 29, 2013

Revision Self Assessment

When I first looked at my Midterm Project and what I had to do, I thought about how much work this was actually going to be. The more I looked over my midterm, the more I was confused on what I needed to change. I kept looking back at my revision proposal as a reference because I knew that what I had proposed was the bases for my revision. The first thing I did before doing any revising was try to get strait in my mind what I was trying to say. I fluctuated between whether I was going to address the whole field of Blue collar workers or just the aspect of being a project manager of one. After further examination of my midterm, I realized that half of my midterm was already pitched from the perspective of a project manager because that was my experience which I had in the field. This gave me the confidence to completely shift the paper from being centered around discourse communities within blue collar small business to being centered around project managers in the blue collar workforce.

But now that I had figured out what I was going to be writing about, I needed to figure out my audience and and the purpose of the paper. These two concepts went hand in hand in my paper because I wanted my paper to be helpful to my audience in some way. I wanted my midterm to be useful and actually helpful to a certain group of people. After long consideration, I decided that I would write pitch my midterm towards prospective project managers in the blue collar workforce and give them a sense of what it really takes to be a good project managers. This led me to switching my genre from a research project to a article because I wanted to give the reader a sense of being secure in the information which I presented. I did not want them to think that I was an outsider trying to figure out how the blue collar world works. I wanted to make sure that the readers of my article were sure that I was an insider in the blue collar workforce and that my words actually meant something to them. I decided that I would be able to present myself as more of an authority figure if I did this in an article genre. And so I began.

I started reading my midterm from the beginning and began to delete sections that no longer applied to project managers within the blue collar workforce and which no longer applied to the research paper genre. My initial midterm basically proved that a blue collar business was a discourse community and examined the different modes of communication and aspects within it. I needed to change it to examining the role of a project manager and looking a three main aspects which are important to project managers. I had all the information, I just had to reword it to make sure that it was now all pitched towards my readers, my genre, and my goal. This was a lot of painstaking reading and deleting…and then deleting what I just rewrote and rewriting it again. I ended up deleting my whole introduction and starting from scratch because it was based around my former aspects I was trying to show and because that had changed: I rewrote it to fit my new goal. This carried on throughout the whole paper but mostly at the end and the beginning. Throughout the body of the paper, I found that much of what I had wrote was already based around project managers so all I had to was make sure all the writing fit my genre, audience, and purpose. But as stated before, my main changes were at the beginning and end; it was in these parts which I spoke directly to the audience in attempt to give the reader a clear sense of what was I was going to tell them and what they could learn and benefit from reading this.

When I considering the success of my revision, I should note that it was halfway through my painful revision when I finally realized that I should introduce the purpose of the article, base my body around three main aspects important to project managers, and then leave the audience with a clear sense of what they needed to do in order to become a successful project manager. This was a huge success to me because I finally had developed a clear purpose and audience. Furthermore, I had discovered a plan for the whole paper and how I could make it extremely clear to the reader. When I finally realized this, although perhaps a small step, it was huge in my mind because the revision was no longer painful. I knew what I had to say now, it was just a matter of typing. My revision became much more pleasant after that huge mental breakthrough which maybe should have been more obvious before. This was success! I could end up with a clear piece to my readers with a clear purpose.

Overall, I find it incredibly helpful to not look at writing assignments as an assignment but looking at them as if they really do mean something to someone. I think as a student, it is really natural to get bogged down into just getting done with an assignment and trying to make it good for a teacher without actually thinking about what the writing we are producing can be good for. I found it extremely helpful to look at my writing, not as an assignment, but rather as just writing to a known audience and articulating my ideas specifically to them. When I did this, my writing seemed natural and I was able to speak directly to them in, what I believe to be, a very down to earth genre.

In retrospect, my least successful revision procedure was beginning to edit before I believe I had my genre clear. This was a mistake because I spent plenty of time on editing my midterm and revising it in terms of a research paper when I finally realized, more towards the end in fact, that I was no longer writing this in the genre of research papers but that of an article. Much time was wasted as a result; but I cannot help but think that it was the tedious amounts of time I spent trying to make my paper work as a research paper that it had to take me to understand that this did not work as one. In other words, I had to struggle with it to understand that that I needed to change it. When I looked back at my proposal, I found that I completed my first couple of goals by getting my audience clear and my purpose clear. However, I see I had originally wanted to integrate in other authors into this paper in a better way than in my first midterm. After struggling with my paper and trying to fit them in, I realized that references to these authors would take away from what I really wanted to say. Remember, I wanted to be the authority: my experience was the authority. I felt that if I tried to put them in there to reinforce what I had said, it would seem unrelated and weak because of the huge gap of topics which really were not related to each other. Furthermore, integrating other authors into my article made it feel choppy and awkward in places which resulted in me taking them out completely.

Overall, I feel good about how my revision turned out. I believe that I ended up with a clear audience, purpose, and genre which resulted in what seemed to be a clear article which described three characteristics of project managers and how a prospective project manager could become one.

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