Jarrell |1 Cheyenne Jarrell Megan Keaton ENG 111-06 8 July 2013 Discourse Communities Essay Communication is important in all

communities. There are many different ways to communicate and how the information is relayed will be based on certain characteristics in the community. Here are two examples different communities sharing one member, along with the similarities and differences in the forms of communication between both communities and how they impact the audience. Scheduling service appointments for a car dealership is an interesting task, especially since there is a large network of people that can be affected. Additionally, the information being relayed is very important. The layout of this service department can be segmented in two areas. The first area is the actual service drive where customers will drive into to meet with service advisors that will assist with their vehicle and put it into the service bay, also known as the shop. That department has one manager who covers the service bay and the service drive. There are typically between 8-10 service advisors, and 15-20 service technicians, commonly referred to as advisors and techs within the community. The second area of the service department is the BDC which stands for Business Development Center. The BDC consists of 6 people who are in place to assist when a customer calls into the dealership for the first time and presses the option for the service department. They help to ensure that a clients phone call will be handled in a reasonable manner and to help accommodate the service advisors with their busy schedules. This group of people works with

Jarrell |2 the service department by scheduling the appointments and managing what their schedule will look like throughout the day, week, or month. They also help to keep up with loaner vehicles, also known as loaners. Due to the many constraints on scheduling an appointment, there is form of communication that is implemented to keep both sides of the service department up to speed and understand each other. The main form of communication that is used throughout the entire service department is called XTIME. XTIME holds all of the customer information and gives the service coordinators (the BDC) the ability to add in special notes that service advisors will use and be aware of, either when they are meeting with the client face to face, or when viewing the customers profile for any reason. To use XTIME, the advisor or coordinator will pull up a customers information by the following: Name (displayed last name, first name), phone number, VIN (vehicle identification number), DMS ID/customer number (a number given to clients in the system to make them individual from other people based on phone numbers or names), or email address. XTIME will only respond to all CAPS based on the program ERA (the dealership management system), in which all the information in XTIME is pushed into ERA. The information that can be found in a customers profile will be up to three phone numbers, one email address, the current street address of the client or business, as well as the year and model of the vehicle in question. To help the service department, the VIN (vehicle identification number) is also stored in XTIME, and will provide the entire service history from that particular service department. When the customer calls in and speaks to the BDC, the conversation will usually start by stating the need to schedule an appointment. From there, the BDC will locate the customer profile via any of the sources stated above, and ask the customer which services are needed. In XTIME there is a complete list of different pre-made options, from tasks as simple as a North

Jarrell |3 Carolina State Inspection (NCSI) to more complicated concerns such as a vehicle stalling while at idle and a transmission light occurring. As the customer explains the concerns to the BDC, all of the notes are being added as short-hand text into XTIME in the appropriate section where they belong (eg: transmission concern goes to Transmission Malfunction, oil leak goes to Engine Performance Issue). A note written in XTIME may read like this: C/s oil service check and advise. C/s stands for customer states, oil service, short hand for vehicle is in need of an oil change, and the implied check and advised aimed directly at the advisor. These notes are written this way to be professional, to the point, and to save time while on the phone with the client. Time is a very important factor in the BDC. Once the BDC has all of the notes and concerns added in for the customer, the appointment will be set. There are two calendars at the bottom of the page in XTIME, one for the current month, and one for the following month. There are also options for the transportation needs: wait, drop-off, loaner and shuttle. The customer may have a preference on the service advisor they work with, so there is an option to either choose the service advisor by name, or choose no preference. Once those questions of transportation and advisor preference have been answered, the BDC will then narrow down and date and time that accommodates the customers needs to set the appointment. All information added into XTIME will post immediately. If there are special needs that the customer has, there is an option to add that to the appointment notes in XTIME. If there was a specific issue the BDC had with the customer, such as the customer being pushy or manipulative, the BDC would add that to the dealership notes. XTIME will automatically generate an email to send for confirmation to the client, and anything in appointment notes can be seen by the client, while anything in dealership notes can only be seen by the dealership. When the customer comes in for their appointment, the

Jarrell |4 service advisor will then pull up their information and see everything listed at that time and know how to properly address the clients needs. The entire purpose of XTIME and its communication is to have all of the customers needs listed in the same place at the same time so they do not have to repeat themselves more than once ultimately delivering an efficient and pleasant experience with to the customer. A less efficient form of communication, but the only one possible for another community, would be writing a letter and sending it by mail. One particular circumstance that requires letters by mail is for a family with one of its members in prison. Because inmates in prison do not have access to the internet, writing a letter is the only possible form of written communication. Anyone writing to the inmate has no restrictions on whether they write with a pencil or pen, nor on what color ink they use. The letters for this family are very informal and will be in a very joking and light hearted manner to help lighten the situation. The letters will always start with a nickname that is usually different depending on the family member writing to the inmate. The people in the family that keep communication up well are the Father, the Aunt and the younger sister. The father and son will joke more in their letters and talk more about the future for plans they have when he is free. There may be a request from the son to the father to send money orders or have a book mailed directly from a distributor, since mailing books or gifts directly is not allowed. These letters are always typed on a computer because the father has a hard time seeing to write by hand. Because the letters are typed all of the words are written out fully and the sentence structure is complete and does not include slang. These are probably the most formal letters written out of any that the family will send. The letters between the father and son occur at least three times per month.

Jarrell |5 When the aunt and the nephew correspond with one another, there is mainly talk about religion. These letters are hand-written and are usually on legal pad paper written with a pen. These letters are usually about 2 pages long on front and back written in cursive. Because these letters are hand-written and the aunts speech is very proper, these letters are also written with complete sentence structure and without slang. The aunt is a devout Christian, and wishes her nephew would be the same. She will send him bible verses and always include messages about Gods forgiving grace. The aunt is also a gossiper and will write about family affairs such as how everyone in the family is doing and any big events they may have or be happening. She also wants to know what he is doing; what kind of school he is attending, what job he is doing or any activities he is doing to occupy is time. Once she has this information she will relay it back to the rest of the family. There are definitely a lot of questions sent to the nephew to provoke a response. They will send letters back and forth at least once a week. When the sister and the brother correspond it is incredibly informal. These letters are hand-written on notebook paper with a pen and will occur about twice a month due to the sisters lifestyle and her availability to return letters. The language used includes slang terms such as whaddup for Whats up? or playa which is a silly name they call each other to joke around. The brother and sister are very close in age and shared the same group of friends growing up. Due to this relationship, there is usually gossip about the neighborhood they grew up in and where all of their friends have ended up. The sister will also try to keep the brother up to speed on technological advances in the world, due to the amount of time that has been spent and will be spent in prison. The family does have to be careful of what they say, due to the rules of the prison each letter has to be read before it is delivered. If anything comes across as cryptic or difficult to

Jarrell |6 understand, there is a chance the letter would not be delivered and could be returned to the sender. On the other end of the spectrum, if they say too much it could jeopardize any chance the family member may have in a future hearing or with an affidavit (sworn statement of fact in a legal document), and be used against the person in prison. There also cannot be any song lyrics, or any inappropriate or enticing language (meaning sexual). Lyrics are not allowed in the prison due to the gang-related messages that can be relayed from songs by other people. Due to the difference in musical taste, and the family connection they share, the family has never run into any issues sending letters. Birthday and Holiday cards have become a difficult task; they have to be very simple and plain and can come across as rather boring. The family member in prison learned to be more crafty based on the cards they have access to, and will have people inside (meaning they are in prison also) help make cards and make them more exciting and lovely. They can only be created with crayon or pencil because it is all they are given access to. These letters take about two days to be delivered and arrived. Within both of these communities there is a level of support that is being supplied. One form will be used throughout the entire community and is there for the entire community to have access to. The other form is more personal and light-hearted, but is intended for only two people (the person writing, and who it is being written to). Because the purpose of both of these forms of communication is to relay the information one time, and get a response from whatever party necessary, they both require a lot of detail. The difference is how it is written; in complete sentence form, or in short hand language and all caps. The service department community is more intended to be an internal source of communication, but it still allowed the clients to have access to the information as well; they may just not know what they are looking at. The letters in the second community will be physically mailed and read by one person. Needless to say there

Jarrell |7 are more constraints for the first community dealing with a larger group of people than there are for the second community sending personal letters back and forth aimed towards one specific person.