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Illie Y. Benavides
Mr. Zack Warzecka
April 10, 2016

AN ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH ON BOTH SIDES OF THE BORDER

Linguist John Swales defined discourse communities as "groups that have goals or
purposes, and use communication to achieve these goals." (Borg, 2003). The purpose of this
ethnographic research is to analyze the communication in a specific community that shares the
same goals. For my ethnographic research, I chose a discourse community that does business in
two countries, Mexico and the United States. One of the reasons that I chose this specific
community its because even though it shares the same goals, the community does not share the
same country and therefore is exposed to different settings, environment and regulations that
affect their communication and writing.
The Corporate Office, which from now on I will refer to as Main Office, is based in
Ciudad Juarez, Chih. Mexico. The subsidiary and warehouse, which I will refer to as
warehouse, has its address in El Paso, TX. In my visit to both the Main office and the
warehouse, I was able to make observations and also interviews. Currently in the Main office
there are 6 employees which, for privacy issues, I will refer to only by their position titles and
not their names and are as follow: Manager, Clerk, Sales Rep. 1, Sales Rep. 2, Sales Rep. 3. The
other person not mention asked not to be included in the observations, but I did feel it was
important to mention her presence. The warehouse employees also asked not to have their names

mentioned in this research paper. There are only two employees in the warehouse, and I will
refer to them as Clerk 2 and Storekeeper.

Community Goals:
The main objective of this firm is to create a long term relationship with their customers
and ensure their satisfaction. The firm is an intermediary that attains anything their customers
might need and building rapport between the firm and the client is very important. Because their
business depends in this relationship, communication is vital.

Type of writing and communication:


My first observations were done in the Main office on March 25, 2016 starting at 9:00
a.m. and went on until 2 p.m. I was able to observe that email. is their most common mode of
communication. According to Clerk 2 emails allow us to communicate and at the same time
have proof of the conversation in writing (Clerk2, 2016). Phone calls also play an important
role in this community, but their preferred mode of communication is email. The intention of
conveying messages in writing is to use this messages to create the orders and ensure the
necessary product is being order according to the clients specifications. From the moment they
open the office, until the closing time, they have their computers on and they constantly check
their inboxes to ensure there are no new orders. The Clerk makes constant revisions also to the
junk email folder to make sure no important emails are gone without being read.
Both the Main office and the Warehouse have to go through the same process of verifying
no important emails are lost. Some of this correspondence are requests for a product, some are
invoices and some are complaints or messages from distributers. Most of the communication
between both offices is done by phone, unless they are requesting a specific product and they
need information on the products size, model, or quantity, they focus on phone calls.

Roles:
Because how a community functions is greatly related to the roles and identities of each
individual, it is important to define these roles. How a person acts, how rules are established,
how information is conveyed from one hierarchical step to the other, all are aspects that mold the
way a community is able to function and communicate.

Who is who:
The roles of each person in this specific community are very well established and are as
follow:
a. Manager: he is also the owner of the company. His role is to supervise both
offices and establish the communication patterns that the rest of the members of
the community should follow.
b. Clerk: her main role is to answer phones, revise emails and set appointments.
c. Sales Rep. 1,2, and 3: their job is to find new customers and build a relationship
with the new customers or build upon the already existing relationship with the
established clients.
d. Clerk 2: aside from answering phones and revising emails, her job is also to
update the list of products that have been order so that the sales rep. may be able
to find the product to compare the prices as well as collecting invoices to ensure a
correct accounting procedure.
e. Storekeeper: receives and stores product that arrives in the warehouse and keeps
the inventory accounts.
Writing is greatly influence by the roles of each individual in this firm. Even though
each individual has their own role and position within this community, they still have differences
in the way they view themselves within it. To provide an example of this disparity when I asked
the Clerk what her position was and her role within the company she answered I am the

Managers Assistant. I provide support for the Manager. When he is not here I am in charge of
making sure everything is in order (Clerk, 2016). When I ask Clerk 2 what Clerks role was
within the company according to her, her answer was very simple, she answers the phone,
checks the emails and makes the invoices (Clerk2, 2016).

Credibility:
To become an effective member of any discourse community, one needs to be able to
perform according to the communitys standards and expectations. In the case of the firm, this
could be either in communicating verbally or in writing.

Learn to write:
The way a Sales Rep. writes to a customer, and the way Clerk writes to Clerk 2 is very
different. The emails that are for the clients are very formal and follow an establish template of
sorts. Employees need to follow the conventional patterns for writing emails to the clients as
established by the Manager. Because this is a very small firm, there are only a few employees,
most of which have been with the firm from the beginning. As time has gone by they have
established their own way of communicating with their clients as they build rapport.
As a new employee enters the firm, the Manager provides guidance with a set of
templates of email so they can follow them and they can make sure all the information needed is
in the email. As mentioned before, this way of writing gets modified with time as the relationship
seller-customer grows, making them more personal as to improve the connection. It is important
to note, as Clerk 2 mentioned to me, the importance of reading the emails in detail so to not miss
anything. If she or any of the Sales Rep. feel something is missing, they should do a follow up by
phone.

Lexis:

Each community creates their own lexis as to facilitate communication. Because this
company works as an intermediate between a supplier and a customer, and because the variety of
products they carry can be greatly diverse (from a simple AAA battery to a complete machine for
assembly in a factory) I will not be able to provide a list of abbreviations or acronyms. Because
the models, sizes and material vary as well, I can only explain to you, as explained to me by
Clerk 2 how they are able to memorize some abbreviations and concepts, The first time you
read an email with information of a certain product you have never order before, you actually
just google it. Most of us had to do it for the first time. Sometimes such piece is never order
again and you just forget it. Sometimes it becomes a recurrent order and you memorize even the
serial number. (Clerk2, 2016).

Tools and Technology:


Every community needs a set of tools to function correctly. Tools can be anything, from
having good communication skills to experience in certain area, it does not always mean
physical tools. They are important to allow people to work correctly. Some communities, such as
this specific community, requires the following tools and others are not required but preferred.

Paper, pencils and computers:


Since the most widely used method of communication is the email, computers are a very
important aspect in this firm. As I was able to observe, all of the employees of the company are
very much obligated to know how to use the computer. It is the first thing they have to do as they
arrive at the office, they have to turn on their computers and read their own emails as well as the
Main office inbox to see if no orders were made, delays in products, or concerns from customers.
They use the Internet for communication between offices, companies and clients. They are,
however, considering adding an Intranet network for their own staff. Currently, as I was able to

observe, they each have their own email account provided by the company as to be able to have a
personal line for the client. This email is, however, available for the rest to see.
The only other moment in which they dont use the computer is when they are making
any other types of notes, I observed that most of them when researching a product tend to make
annotations of prices or quantities or providers. But everything else is done via computer. When
they are not in the office, because they have to meet with a client, they use the phones provided
by the Manager and the company to write or read emails.
When it comes to keeping records of products, or clients, or invoices, another tools are
used. Clerk 2 is in charge of all of those lists, and she has to keep a good record for accounting
purposes as well. The following is part of my interview in which we talk about the tools she uses:
Me: What type of programs do you use in this company?
Clerk 2: I dont know in the Juarezs office, but right here I use Excel and QuickBooks?
Me: Can you explain to me what you use them for?
Clerk 2: Excel I use for almost everything. I have to keep a list of clients with phone
numbers, email addresses, merchandise they have order -present and past- and even the rate we
give them depending if they pay on time or not. QuickBooks I use for accounting purposes.
Me: Do you ever use anything else like Evernote or OneDrive to keep all the information
in one place for all the company to share.
Clerk 2: No, never. They have to be nice to me if they want the list for anything.
I was also able to ask Clerk about the programs she uses, especially because it is in Juarez
where the invoices are created. The invoices are created by a template, but even though they do
have other programs installed in the computer, they dont use them.

Conclusion:

This discourse community is very specific to the type of work they do and it is greatly
based in information. What they do is write and read information all day long, and they follow a
specific type of writing method so the information can be clear. As in any community, there are
some gaps in the communication methods, but as I was able to observe, it functions properly. As
in any community, the outsider is always able to observe things that the members of the
community cannot, and because this is a company that works in both sides of the border, they
have some discrepancies, but they find a way to work them out.

References:
Borg, E. (2003). Discourse Community. ELT, 398-400.
Clerk. (2016, March 25). Ethnography . (I. Y. Benavides, Interviewer)
Clerk2. (2016, April 1). Ethnography. (I. Benavides, Interviewer)

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