Community Purposal

After reviewing the possible communities, I have found that the most logical and accessible choice would the restaurant community, both fast and sit down. Although this was not my first choice, I decided it would be easier to go to a restaurant than go to Italy to study Italian culture. I have worked in the fast food community for the past two years and would like to find out all the similarities and differences between fast food restaurants and sit down restaurants. I would also like find out the pros and cons of working and eating at each.
One reason I chose the restaurant community is my easy access to both kinds of communities. I will be able to observe the fast food community through my own work place as well as through my friends work places. I will conduct interviews with employees, managers, and customers. I will be able to get their perspectives on the fast food community and the customers opinions on the food and service. I can get a feel for what its like to work in the morning serving breakfast opposed to working in the afternoon or at night. The managers can give me an overview of what their responsibilities are and what a typical day as a manager is like. The combined observations and interviews will give me a better view of the fast food industry as a whole.
I have a friend that is a top waitress at a sit down Mexican food restaurant and she as offered to hep me with my research. I will be able to sit down and observe the waitresses and cooks and see what it's like to work in the sit down restaurant community. I will also be able to observe the quality and time of arrival of the food.
After observing both the fast food and sit down restaurant communities, i can compare the two and find the different pros and cons of each. I am an insider in the fast food community and an outsider of the sit down restaurant. Even though i am a part of the fast food community, i the share the same views on fast food as many others. Fast food is cheap and a lot of the time quality is not a huge worry. Sit down restuarants tend to be nicer and take more pride in the food they make. The food is not only made to customers standards but it is cooked to their standards as well. I expect to observe all aspects of the two communities and put to test the stereotypes of each one.

Questions for the restuarant:
1. What are some duties as a waitress in the sit down community?
2. What are the working conditions of both?
3. Which job seems harder in the eyes of the employees, managers, and customers?

WE2

It's weird how we can be part of something and not even know it. Community is something can include you without any effort at all. A community is a group of people with a common interest, belief, or similarity. In Rick Zollo's Friday Night at Iowa 80, he studies truckers and the trucker community. First who are the members of this community? Well a common misconception would be that only truckers are part of the trucking community. It can be seen that there are many more members to this community rather then just the truckers. The employees at truck stops are also part of the trucking community. Really when we look at it, anyone with some kind of interaction with a community can become a part of that community. By interviewing the truckers and truck stop employees, Zollo becomes a part of the trucking community.

The truckers within the trucking community must face many hardships that make their jobs harder than they are made out to be. When thinking of driving a truck as a profession, the details seem quite clear. A driver drives a truck from point A to point B, drops off the load and is done. In actuality there are many hardships in the job. When a trucker is driving, they drive for many hours non-stop. Long distance truck drivers tend to show signs of premature aging from the stress and lack of sleep. Another concern is the growing number of truck drivers that must unload their own truck. A trucker typically only gets paid for the actual transportation of the goods. The stores or warehouses where the trucks is delivering are not providing a person to unload the truck so the trucker must either unload the truck themselves while not getting paid, or they must hire someone to unload it for them and pay this person out of their own pocket. Many truckers admit that these problems are only going to get worse.

As I stated before, it is not hard to become part of a community. Any kind of interaction with the community can make you a member. I have found myself in numerous communities such as the teenage community, the sports community, the computer community, the music community, and many others. Within in these communities there can be sub-communities which can be different genres or different factions of a group. Within the sports community, I would be part of the football, and basketball sub-communities. Though I can not relate to either of the readings Dumpster Diving or Friday Night at Iowa 80, I can relate to being in different sub-communities. In Dumpster Diving, there were different groups within the homeless community. Many homeless people search the trash for food and valuables while other search for cans to trade in for a little bit of cash. These would be sub-communities within the homeless community. It can be concluded that we all belong to different communities and sometimes become part of them without even knowing it. The different communities we are a part of are what makes up who we are and shows us the similarities that we have.

Reader Response 2

Rick Zollo works for the University of Iowa and reports on the trucker community. Truckers drive large loads of goods across the country for hours without rest. They are only paid for the the time they are driving. This has become a concern to many workers because many truck drivers are being forced to unload their own trucks which can take hours, hours of unpaid work. Many truckers own their own truck and consider it their most valuable possession in the profession. Others value their log books which must be "altered" to keep within the legal constraints.
The author gathers his information by spending a day at a widely used truck stop. His research is composed of numerous interviews with a diverse group of truck drivers. The author is an obvious outsider and points this out numerous times. The truck drivers are very wherry of him at first because they believe him to be a "spotter" for a trucking company or a government worker. After proving himself friendly though, the truckers are happy to give out their feelings on the industry and trucking in general. The author is neither objective or biased because his entire essay is a series of interviews. The opinions and ideas of the truckers however are very biased towards the truckers and how they are treated and the problems with the industry.
The author presents his data in a formal fashion. He talks about his experiences at the truck stop and describes his interview with the different truckers. This is the kind of essay you would see in an academic setting. This is proved by the fact that Zollo works for the University of Iowa. Zollo somewhat tells a story with his interview. He explains what he did throughout the day and how he got into his conversations and interviews. This gives us a true view of the personalities of the truck drivers and how i can be sometimes difficult to obtain information from people. It was an interesting read and showed me the life of a truck driver. I was opened to new things about truck drivers and gave me a background of their everyday lives.

WE1

I am always looking for something to do with my free time and always end up dropping what ever i pick up. The one thing I always seem to run back to is my computer. My interest in computers has led me to a career path in computer science. Computers can be used to anything and are becoming more advanced everyday. I like finding new things to do and improving what I already have. The cool thing about computers is that they fit into almost every community because almost every community uses computers. My career choice uses computers to write programs for and they are becoming more advanced.

Computers are so complicated that they are a science. The physical part of computers include all the hardware which includes the power source, motherboard, RAM, ROM, cooling fan, ports, etc. If you have a tower rather a laptop, you will also need a computer monitor to see what you are doing on the computer. These are what make the machine function and run. In addition there are many other things that are not essential to the computer but can be added on for the users enjoyment. Speakers can be added to enjoy music on your computer and here things programs are telling you or informing you of. There are also countless numbers of usb and firewire devices that can be used to enhance your computer experience.
Software programs are the programs that make the machine do what you want it to do. An important program is the operating system which is the platform for the rest of your programs to run from. Windows, Linux, etc would be examples of computer operating systems. Windows is a widely popular operating system (os) but what os is used is usually determined by the users own personal preferences.
Then there are your usual software programs that we use to do our everyday jobs. The program does what the code it written to do. This could be anything from adding up the amounts from your bank accounts to telling your sim to walk the dog. computers have come a long way and programs can do almost anything today.
I would consider my self an insider in the computer community. But really, everyone is a member of the computer community. Everyone in one way or another must interact with a computer and almost all households have computers these days. Even though i have been using computers for years, there are still many things i do not know about computers. The code that is used to write programs can be complicated but once it is understood, there are countless things you can do with it. My path to a career in computer science will show me how to deal with many of these thingss but it would be greta to have a background on them before entering the classes.

Reader Response 1

The author talks about the homeless community. The homeless are forced to find alternate ways of finding food and income. This makes anything that has any amount of worth valued in the homeless community. Any edible food is essential to living. Also any items that can be fixed or are in good condition can be sold. For some cans are a main source of income. The author is his own source on the subject because he was once a homeless person. He uses his own experiences as examples for his work. This makes the author an insider because he was a part of the community. He has more experience on the subject then that of someone just studying the homeless. The author is quite neutral when talking about the homeless but tends to to be biased on some issues. This is a result of the authors past experiences as a homeless.
The author presents the homeless as not a lesser group, but a group that does what it needs to survive. Dumpster diving is some what of an art that a person gets better at with experience. The writing was informal because there were no interviews or formal ideas in the writing. All the experiences of the story were pulled from past memories and experiences. The writing did not have a typically researched topic. The topic of homeless people and garbage diving is not one usually found in an academic setting. The author presents the topic in a mild manner. It was more of an informative essay than a opinionated essay. This is better for the readers because it gives an overview rather then trying to persuade the reader that the dumpster diving is good or acceptable. I found it informative and it gave me a view of what homeless must do to survive without a home.

Letter Back To You

Dear Sarah Soebbing,

English has never been my forte. This is one reason why I chose computer science as my major; I hoped it was a major that required me to take a minimal amount of English classes. I was unsure of my abilities as a writer at the beginning of my first semester at Eastern Michigan University (EMU), and as a result I took English 120 to get an idea of where I stood. Though I did well in the class, I concluded that writing still wasn’t the thing for me. I am taking English 121 as a general education requirement so that I may further pursue my major. If I’m lucky it will be one of my last English classes at EMU.

While taking this class, I hope to gather a better knowledge of how to affectively conduct research and compile it into a structured and well thought out essay. When conducting research for essays I have a problem determining what information is important to the subject and what information can be left out. I’m also never sure if I have enough information to write a strong enough essay. Once I actually have the information though, I am able to affectively express my views, ideas, and back them up with my acquired information.

In English 120 I was able to pick up some valuable skills that will helped improve my writing. I hope to use what I have learned and what I will learn in English 121 to prepare me for the genres that will be laid in front of me in the real world.

Sincerely,

Adam DeVergilio