First-Year Researchers Make an Impact!: English 102 at Texas A&M-Commerce

Rachael Story has been offered a summer internship at D Magazine!

For her final project (an ethnographic analysis of literacy as it manifests itself in a particular context), she chose D Magazine, interviewed participants involved with this site, conducted several field observations, and otherwise got to know the people and skills involved with the technical aspect of the magazine's production as she learned to negotiate the complexities of writing and research at this level.

The project wasn't easy, but as Story says, "No experience in life is easy. That's where growth comes from!"

According to this researcher, the ethnographic project "changed my life. . . . I now know what I want to do with the rest of my life, and this project and presentation were the deciding factors!"

Upon hearing the news, Dr. James Klein (Dean of Arts and Sciences) told us, "It doesn’t get much better than this – I remember visiting with her. Sometimes we forget as we get bogged down in life’s routine that we really do change lives."

(Class: English 102, Instructor: Maryann Whitaker)

This is what it is all about. Students are actively engaged in projects that make a difference.

Dr. Mary Hendrix, Interim Provost 

For his final project, Tyler Lucas chose to examine the various literacies associated with "customer service" at Brookshire's Grocery Store in Sulphur Springs, Texas. Currently, he is an employee there and found it interesting that so many people continue to shop at this location when their prices are consistently higher than the alternative in town (Wal Mart).

He interviewed several customers and determined it was Brookshire’s particular brand of “customer service” that keeps them coming back; Brookshire's Grocery Store is "customer service literate.".

The impact: Brookshire Grocery Company in Tyler (the headquarters) has requested a copy of his final project

When asked what learned from the experience, Lucas offers this rather poignant advice:  "Never bring groceries around college kids."

(Class: English 102; Instructor: LeAnn Nash)

The Celebration of Student Writing was outstanding. The students who participated were excited and eager to talk about their projects, and this event was a great venue for them to share their work with a live audience outside their classrooms.

Dr. Bill Bolin, Department of Literature and Languages

At the Federation Rhetoric Symposium last February (2007), Stephen Williams presented a paper (with Dr. Shannon Carter) based on the early results of his ethnographic research project: a study of how two, functionally illiterate (but smart and highly successful) men negotiated the paperwork required by their jobs—one a highly paid supervisor for a local company that installs and repairs telephone lines, the other a builder and co-owner of a highly lucrative contracting company.

This summer, he will be revising this project to submit to the national, peer-reviewed journal Young Scholars in Writing: Undergraduate Research in Writing and Rhetoric.
(Class: English 102; Instructor: Lauren Glenn)

 

Stephen Williams, “Defining the Literate”
       This ethnography explores the lives of two men who have been labeled “illiterate” according to the traditional definition. This project questions current constructions of “literacy” as they apply to the success of people who, despite evidence that they cannot read or write, are very successful when integrating into subcultures in the business world. It also demonstrates their particular practices in overcoming traditional literacy in non-traditional ways.

CSW 2007, Program

Williams, waiting for the event to begin (and for his artifacts and research portfolio to arrive).