APPLIED ENGLISH
FOR THE
WORKPLACE

INTRODUCTION

Many demands are placed on individuals today. Each individual plays a variety of roles-worker, family member, organization member, friend, acquaintance, citizen. These varied roles require many skills: active communication, working together, problem solving, getting along, and being responsible. Rapid changes call for a shift in the language arts skills currently being taught on the secondary and post secondary levels.

Applied English for the Workplace is presently a senior level course designed to prepare these students for the communication demands of the information age. However, programs in Applied English are being piloted in grades nine through twelve in some Idaho districts in the 1991-1992 school year. The emphasis in Applied English is mainly workplace communication skills. The broader application in such courses should also deal with skills necessary for living a rich, full life in terms of relationships, career fulfillment, and creativity.

COURSE OVERVIEW

The skills taught in Applied English for the Workplace are organized into 15 modules developed by the Agency for Instructional Technology. These modules have been rearranged to provide a logical sequencing for building skill upon skill. Once introduced, the various skills are reviewed throughout the course. The individual instructor should determine which modules to include and their order and length.

Workbook readings have been chosen for content specific to the worker and the workplace. Instructors should enhance the modules with traditional literature selections from anthologies and other sources available to them. Such selections can emphasize not only work-related settings and themes, but also important life issues. An annotated bibliography of suggested literature selections has been developed in conjunction with the Oregon State Department of Education. These selections may prove helpful in research projects.

In addition to the literature, reading instruction will include techniques and practice in workplace applications such as reading charts, graphs, order forms, and other specific reading demanded on the job. The teacher will provide instruction and opportunities for practice in formal writing, business writing, and creative writing. Notebooks will be used regularly for gathering and recording data and reacting to ideas introduced in the modules and units. Practice in writing will emphasize modeling, brainstorming, drafting, editing, and revising.

Students will practice speaking and listening skills through small groups, cooperative learning, and role-playing. Teachers will provide direct instruction in interactive techniques which apply in both workplace and classroom settings. Students will practice group problem solving, negotiation and conflict resolution.

Spelling and vocabulary should be relevant to literature and business applications. Mechanics and sentence structure exercises should be generated from student writing. Teachers are encouraged to supplement the content of the course with a variety of outside resources such as field trips and guest speakers.

 The Module order has been rearranged in an effort to develop skills sequentially. However, modules may be taught in any order depending on how the course is set up.

MODULE 1: COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE

Goal: Students will communicate effectively in the workplace.

Objectives:

Literature
Students will use literature to:

1. identity differences between skimming and scanning.
2. analyze examples of effective and ineffective writing.
3. distinguish the differences between clear and obscure writing.
4. recognize different purposes for written communication forms.
5. analyze techniques for effective personal and public communication.

Composition
Students will:

1. examine the conventions of standard memo writing.
2. write and revise a memo.
3. transfer information from written form to chart or graph form.

Language
Students will:

1. brainstorm to generate ideas for writing.
2. participate in small group and partner peer editing.
3. role-play effective and ineffective communication.
4. discuss differences between slang and jargon.

MODULE 2: Gathering AND USING INFORMATION IN THE WORKPLACE

Goal: Students will gather and use information In the workplace.

Objectives:

Literature
Students will use literature to:

1. recognize different sources of information (CIS)
2. analyze the purpose in different written requests.
3. analyze how elements of language operate to achieve certain effects.
4. analyze how form operates to achieve certain effects.

Composition
Students will:

1. log personal observations on gathering information in the workplace.
2. record information in note form.
3. develop outlines for organizing information.
4. write a memo requesting information.
5. write a standard business letter requesting information.
6. create a personal action plan.

Language
Students will:

1. present personal writing for peer comment and response.
2. role-play the interview technique for gathering information.
3. respond to guest speaker by applying listening skills interview techniques.
4. use Standard English in appropriate situations.

MODULE 4: STARTING A NEW JOB

Goal: Students will be able to start a new job.

Objectives:

Literature
Students will use literature to:

1. examine employer expectations with new employees.
2. analyze personal expectations in a new job.
3. identify personal work environment needs.
4. predict sources of job stress.
5. analyze character in work histories and autobiographies.
6. compare character reactions to various jobs.
7. recognize character decision-making process.
8. justify or refute actions taken by characters.

Composition
Students will:

1. log personal observations of new job situations.
2. write formal resumes.
3. produce job application data sheet.
4. write formal letters of request and reference.
5. analyze and fill out job applications.
6. outline work history of a worker.
7. write a personal work history.
8. compile an individual portfolio.

Language
Students will:

1. respond to guest speakers using interview techniques.
2. practice interview techniques when gathering a work history of a worker.
3. discuss character decisions in autobiographies.
4. share personal work histories in small group settings.
5. interpret interviewee's work history through visual art.
6. develop a dictionary of occupational specific terminology.

FOCUS UNIT I:

HISTORY OF WORK IN AMERICA

Goal: Students will examine the history of work In America through literature, language, and composition.

Objectives:

Literature
Students will:

1. determine method of organizing events and its importance to the work.
2. recognize flashback and analyze its importance to plot development.
3. predict possible outcomes.
4. identity cause/effect chain and complication in plot.
5. compare themes in novels.
6. analyze the crafting used in various selections to emphasize themes.
7. recognize novel, journal and non-fiction forms as chroniclers of the plight of the American workers in different eras.
8. Parallel problems of modern society with problems reflected in readings.
9. research historical basis of the readings.
10. research laws applicable to adolescents in the workplace.

Composition
Students will:

1. use mapping, clustering, and free writing to organize ideas before essay writing.
2. compare and contrast the workplace of 1890's and 1990's in a formal essay.
3. record research progress in research logs.
4. write short report on period of history researched.
5. write a prediction about the workplace in the 100 years.

Language
Students will:

1. brainstorm ideas with partner or small groups.
2. compile researched data with partner.
3. use peer response groups to revise written work.
4. interpret researched information through visual art.
5. develop composite history of American worker through oral presentation of research.

MODULE 6: PARTICIPATING IN GROUPS

Goal: Students will be able to participate in groups.

Literature
Students will use literature to:

1. recognize skills used in group process.
2. analyze group dialogue.
3. distinguish between their own opinion and those expressed in a literary work.
4. analyze character's roles in group dynamics.

Composition
Students will:

1. create a group and design invitation for new members.
2. analyze group roles in written report on group dynamics.
3. describe motives of group members.
4. incorporate group process skills into a dialogue/script of group interaction.
5. write dialogue which illustrates appropriate and inappropriate collaborative behavior.

Language
Students will:

1. interact with other members of group to practice skills.
2. examine the elements of group process in group observation.
3. critique the dynamics of an observed group.
4. develop listening and observation skills.
5. examine how choice of language may include or exclude one from a particular group.

MODULE 10: COMMUNICATING WITH CLIENTS AND CUSTOMERS

Goal: Students will be able to communicate with clients and customers.

Objectives:

Literature
Students will:

1. infer character motivation and attitude through action or description.
2. predict possible outcomes.
3. analyze client and customer motives.
4. identity different ways of responding to customer needs.

Composition
Students will:

1. log personal observations and experiences with customers.
2. analyze and outline customer needs.
3. write specially focused letters, memos, and announcements.
4. continue to produce a glossary of work vocabulary with standard English translations.

Language
Students will:

1. analyze customer/worker relationship in readings.
2. brainstorm in small and large groups different ways of responding to client needs.
3. demonstrate various responses to customer in job-specific role-playing situations.
4. use language appropriate to customer in both spoken and written responses.

MODULE 12: COMMUNICATING TO SOLVE
INTERPERSONAL CONFLICT

Goal: Students will be able to communicate to solve interpersonal conflicts.

Objectives:

Literature
Students will use literature to:

1. analyze conflict between characters in readings.
2. justify or refute actions taken by characters.
3. trace theme/conflict in story.
4. analyze character motivation.
5. predict possible outcomes.
6. identify themes involving conflict, and analyze sources of conflict.

Composition
Students will:

1. develop inventories of personal behavior in conflict situations.
2. illustrate author's crafting devices in a reflective essay.
3. write letters of apology and explanation.
4. write a personal narrative of a successful conflict resolution.

Language
Students will:

1. use small group sessions to generate alternatives to conflict-producing behavior.
2. role-play conflict situations to practice cooperative behavior.
3. use appropriate language to defuse conflict situations.
4. practice giving "I-messages" in conflict situations.

MODULE 5: COMMUNICATING WITH CO-WORKERS

Goal: Students will be able to communicate with co-workers.

Objectives:

Literature
Students will use literature to:

1. infer character motivations and attitudes in readings.
2. identify characters' conflict-producing behavior.
3. justify or refute actions of characters in readings.
4. trace theme/conflict in stories.
5. analyze differences among verbal, dramatic, and situational forms.

Composition
Students will:

1. create dialogues demonstrating active listening.
2. analyze and revise negative statements to enlist the cooperation of the receiver.
3. log personal reflections of behavior in conflict situations.
4. analyze personal prejudices which may interfere with communication.
5. analyze problems which jargon creates in the workplace.

Language
Students will:

1. demonstrate cooperative skills in job-specific role-play situations.
2. evaluate peer writing to elicit suggestions for revision.
3. use peer response groups to edit inappropriate jargon from written and spoken language.
4. discuss ways in which slang or jargon may exclude members from participating in a group.
5. discuss and role-play language appropriate to different job situations; communicating with supervisor/co-worker; stranger/friend.
6. continue to develop dictionary of occupational specific terminology.

FOCUS UNIT II: WORK AND PERSONAL WORTH

Goal: Students will be able to assess work in terms of personal worth through literature, language, and composition.

Objectives:

Literature
Students will:

1. recognize key elements of poetry.
2. identity various crafting devices used by writers of poetry.
3. compare different points of view used by the non-fiction writer.
4. differentiate facts, inferences, judgments, and opinions.
5. infer character motivations and attitudes through action or description.
6. analyze physical and psychological traits of characters in readings.
7. analyze dilemma of characters in readings.
8. determine the relationship between self-fulfillment and work.

Composition
Students will:

1. log personal observations, reflections, and questions about poetry selections.
2. observe, recall, and classify personal experience in prewriting activities.
3. incorporate sensory imagery in poems.
4. rewrite a prose piece as a poem.
5. apply different points of view to create poems with a variety of narrators.
6. prepare lists of possible interview questions to elicit specific responses.
7. write a formal interview of a worker imitating style of readings.
8. write a character sketch using information gathered in interview of a worker.
9. compare/contrast self-worth and mentality of workers in readings in a formal essay.
10. prepare a list of personal short-range goals.
11. prepare a list of personal and professional long-range goals.

Language
Students will:

1. brainstorm to develop a small group composite of what constitutes self-fulfillment through work.
2. brainstorm to develop a small group composite of what constitutes self-fulfillment through voluntarism.
3. brainstorm for lists of possible interview questions.
4. create visual interpretations of themes in poetry.
5. use small group sessions to analyze themes, characters and crafting of poetry.
6. compare/contrast interviewees' insights on work and self-esteem.

MODULE 14: UPGRADING, RETRAINING, AND CHANGING JOBS

Goal: Students will be able to upgrade, retrain for and change jobs.

Objectives:

Literature
Students will use literature to:

1. analyze guidelines for researching jobs.
2. recognize relationship of personality types to occupations.
3. identity sources of information on specific occupation/career.
4. analyze how particular jobs enhance or diminish a person's character and outlook.
5. analyze the choices that specific jobs require in terms of travel, family life, safety and stability.
6. analyze the volunteer opportunities in a community.

Composition
Students will:

1. write creative piece on "dream" occupation/career.
2. analyze self interests, skills, experiences, and occupational preferences.
3. produce formal essay comparing personal strengths and weaknesses.
4. analyze personal strengths and weaknesses in terms of suitability for running own business.
5. write formal research paper on specific occupation/career. [Use I - Search Model]
6. write letters of request for information.
7. research a career by writing an interview report on a retired worker in that career (including such issues as single parent worker, changes in that field job description, retirement, and job satisfaction).

Language
Students will:

1. use interviewing techniques to gather primary source information on owner/operator career.
2. present oral report on owner/operator occupation researched.
3. use standard English in all written assignments in this unit.

MODULE 9: PRESENTING YOUR POINT OF VIEW

Goal: Students will be able to present their points of view.

Literature
Students will use literature to:

1. identity the role of persuasion in the workplace.
2. analyze audience to determine approaches to persuasion.
3. categorize different kinds of supportive evidence.
4. discuss the relative success of various characters' persuasive techniques.

Composition
Students will:

1. develop effective outlines for persuasive messages.
2. incorporate supportive evidence into persuasive letters and memos.
3. evaluate persuasive messages for effectiveness.
4. compare different persuasive approaches and evaluate their effectiveness.

Language
Students will:

1. present formal persuasive reports in large group setting.
2. use small groups for brainstorming approaches to a problem requiring persuasion.
3. evaluate persuasive techniques in movie, radio, television and printed advertisements.
4. role-play different persuasive approaches and evaluate their effectiveness.
5. evaluate persuasive language used in advertising.

MODULE 8: COMMUNICATING WITH SUPERVISORS

Goal: Students will be able to communicate with supervisors.

Objectives:

Literature
Students will use literature to:

1. analyze different problems of communication with supervisors.
2. recognize different supervisory styles.
3. evaluate different responses to supervisor communication.
4. recognize expectations of supervisors.

Composition
Students will:

1. write descriptions of supervisory styles.
2. write memos and letters for different purposes to supervisors.
3. evaluate personal skills in communication with supervisors.
4. create short report with charts and graphs for presentation to supervisor.

Language
Students will:

1. role-play active listening and open questioning techniques used in communication with supervisors.
2. evaluate effectiveness of verbal and non-verbal communication.
3. use small group sessions for feedback on effectiveness of communication with supervisors.
4. practice using standard English in communicating with supervisors.
5. practice stating requests and complaints in a firm, yet non-threatening manner.

MODULE 13: EVALUATING PERFORMANCE

Goal: Students will be able to evaluate their own and others' performances.

Literature
Students will use literature to:

1. identify components of different kinds of performance evaluations used in the workplace.
2. analyze the evaluation process.
3. recognize different responses to an evaluation.

Composition
Students will:

1. evaluate personal strengths and weaknesses on the job.
2. write a formal job description.
3. create personal progress reports in chart form.
4. respond to job evaluation with goal setting chart.
5. write a formal evaluation of an employee.

Language
Students will:

1. respond to guest speaker on topic of the use of performance evaluation in the workplace.
2. role-play evaluation interviews in small group setting.
3. practice interviewing techniques while gathering information on kinds of job evaluations used in a workplace.
4. role-play discussing a written evaluation with an employee.

FOCUS UNIT III:
OCCUPATIONAL CULTURE IN THE
WORKPLACE

Goal: Students will recognize the expressive, cultural dimension of work--its occupational folklife.

Objectives:

Literature: Byington's Working Americans Spradley and McCurdy's The Cultural Scene
Students will use literature to:

1. recognize informal communication in the workplace.
2. document techniques, ceremonies, and/or verbal arts.
3. describe informal communication in a cultural scene.
4. evaluate the importance of understanding occupational folklife.

Composition
Students will:

1. draft a preliminary description of cultural action.
2. revise the ethnographic description with worker/researcher.
3. organize a cultural scene description approved by insiders.

Language
Students will:

1. learn terminology of outsider (skill, ceremony, story) and insider ('good hand', 'retirement party,, 'war story').
2. learn to ask questions about work processes and expressions.
3. develop a command of ethnographic description.

EXTENDED COURSE OF STUDY FOR FOCUS UNIT III

OCCUPATIONAL CULTURE IN THE WORKPLACE

I. Introduction

Every work environment demands special knowledge to not only accomplish the necessary goals (construct a building, cite a proposal), but also to survive in the workplace. As this knowledge is handed-down within a particular trade or industry, this knowledge defines the occupational folklife of a work group. Welders, for example, wear leather chaps and gear for protection, drink skim milk to settle their stomachs when welding galvanized metal, and tell stories about legendary welders of the past who survived slag burns of incredible proportions. It is important to be aware that each sup-group or sub-culture in the workplace (clerical, administrative, shipping, public relations, production, etc.) has this special body of informally; learned knowledge which is learned on4he-job, not from formal training. It is also important to keep in mind that this occupational folklife is often known only to group members and expressed in opposition to other groups within the workplace, particularly management.

II. Examples of Occupational Folklife

A. Work Techniques

The real skills and actions developed informally by workers to accomplish their work and survive in the workplace comprise the occupational techniques of a group. Fire fighters advance hose lines into buildings and throw ladders; tool and die makers shape dies out of solid metal to create stamped forms; and day care providers schedule activities and divide responsibilities along task lines to care for their children. In order to discover the informally generated techniques in the workplace, a good place to begin is with the flow of work itself. Most service and production jobs begin with a client or raw material and end with a satisfied customer or a finished product. The flow of work from the initial to the finished stage is made up of hundreds of work techniques which are informally learned and subtly controlled by workers.

B. Ceremonies

Members of work cultures generate unique customs and ceremonies to mark the movement of people into, through and out of the work group. "Rookie" fire fighters and police officers must undergo hazing activities like being sent for nonexistent tools ("hose stretcher", "out of town hydrant"); or must undergo a physical initiation like doing all the cleanup in the station house for a year prior to acceptance into the work group. Once an individual has been in the work group for a period of time, advances up the career ladder are also symbolically marked by group members. Promotional dinners, changes in clothing (white shirt traded for blue), and other symbolic markers of rank like parking spaces or offices with a window are provided. Finally, when person retires, a dinner and a verbal "roast" in which fellow workers recount stories of past incidents and remembrances are held. All of these events ceremonially provide both the individual making the change, and the group left behind with a mechanism for addressing change.

C. Verbal Art and Narrative

Initiation into the workplace begins with learning the jargon. The names of tools and work processes, nicknames given to individual workers and various parts of the work environment ("tool crib," "watch desk") have specific references which have meaning to insiders. Beyond this special language of work, critiques and stories about legendary characters, unusual customers or memorable incidents comprise the normal banter around the lunch table or the break room. In some cases, such as retirement dinners or reunions, workers tell extended narratives about their past experiences. These worker autobiographies are valuable records of occupational history because few have been recorded or made a part of business labor or community histories.

III. Documenting Occupational Folklife

A. Getting Started

Once you have identified many of the ways in which people in the workplace exchange inside information, you have the basis for a writing project that will be beneficial to you in your search for information about particular jobs. (Consult Module Ethics in the Workplace prior to conducting this project.) The best place to begin a research project about work is with the workers themselves. labor unions. joint labor councils and relatives who pursue a job in which you are interested are good places to begin. You will need permission to visit the workplace and the people listed above can lead you to the correct person. Once you have decided on a work group, you will need to have some guidelines prior to doing your project.

B. Pursuing a Cultural Scene

Although many of us share physical space and social relationships in such varied surrounding as classrooms and football stadiums, we may not be sharing cultural points-of-view. Members of a work group, particularly those who work together over long periods of time, do share cultural expectations, language and habits and it is this sharing that you want to explore. During lunch breaks, while critiquing a particular job or after work around a cup of coffee, workers both reflect and shape their work worldview. When these recurrent social situations become repetitive, we refer to them as cultural scenes. Your job is to be present during one of these scenes and record it either by taking notes or by using a tape recorder. As an example, let's take the coffee break of a group of welders in a sheet metal shop.

1. Physical Setting

The environment which surrounds the welders--a section of the shop screened off from other work areas by large flash screens and high metal tables. Welding leads and cables snake across the floor and the welders sit on empty welding rod boxes around the work station of Jim, the most experienced man in the shop.

2. Context

Each break period has a tone or a mood based on the attitudes and reactions of the people in the group. A tight deadline, a power surge that causes sloppy welds, or simply an argument with another worker, may create an expectation on the part of the group members that certain stories, jokes, or language will be used during this brief scene.

3. Content

Someone sets the scene in motion: Jim lights up a cigarette or offers gum to the members of the group and begins by saying:

Jim: That darned short arc-job is too stop and go for me. I like to start a bead and just keep on running it. With those little boxes you have to start and stop, start and stop....

Al: Better that stuff than those flimsy toilet partitions. Man, that stuff is so light you just touch it' and you got a hole as big as your hand.

Jim: You know, I haven't worked on a job like this since we moved into the new building. Seems like all of this custom stuff used to go to old Red Darby when he worked over in the other shop. Now there was a case. You ever meet him?

Al: No. He was way before my time....

Jim: I remember once when we had all that galvanized pipe to do up. Hundreds of little seams to weld like that' and he told ol' Smithson that he would quit that summer if he didn't let us have a fridge. And the old man says, "What you want that for?" Some place to put your beer? What you think this is a resort!" An' old Red says, "Not beer, you jerk. We need a place to keep our skim milk. Otherwise we'll be sicker'n dogs welding all that galvanized pipe."

4. Evaluation

Once you have recorded your scene, you need to show it to the people you documented and let them correct it. Your job is to evaluate the entire experience of entering the workplace, establishing enough rapport to record this slice of occupational folklife, and recording what actually occurs. What did you learn from this experience? What did workers share with you and what did they ask you not record? Why? Do members of your family bring home stories like these? If so, do they sound different from the ones you collected?

IV. Additional Reading

Green, Archie. Only A Miner: Studies in Recorded Coal Mining Songs. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1972.

Kusterer, Ken. Know-How on the Job: The Important Working Knowledge of "Unskilled" Workers. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1978.

McCarl, Robert. "Occupational Folklife: A Theoretical Hypothesis," in Robert H. Byington, Ed., Working Americans: Contemporary Approaches to Occupational Folklife& Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985, pp.3-19.

MODULE 11: WRITING AND RESPONDING TO REQUESTS

Goal: Students will be able to write and respond to requests.

Literature
Students will use literature to:

1. recognize appropriate communication skills in spoken and written requests.
2. analyze different types of requests in the workplace.
3. evaluate the effectiveness of written requests.

Composition
Students will:

1. write job-specific requests for different purposes in memo and letter form.
2. adapt written request into purchase order form.

Language
Students will:

1. use small group peer response for feedback on effectiveness of requests.
2. role-play job-specific situations with oral requests.
3. use standard English in making requests.

MODULE 7: Following AND GIVING DIRECTIONS

Goal: Students will be able to follow and give directions.

Literature
Students will use literature to:

1. identity characteristics of effective directions.
2. analyze sequencing in set of directions.
3. use a systematic approach to following and giving directions.
4. evaluate effectiveness of different kinds of directions.

Composition
Students will:

1. write written directions for different purposes.
2. design graphic directions for different processes.
3. rewrite directions for better understanding of receiver.

Language
Students will:

1. role-play giving and receiving directions.
2. present oral instructions for a process.
3. use specific, precise language when giving directions.

MODULE 3: USING PROBLEM SOLVING STRATEGIES

Goal: Students will be able to use problem-solving strategies.

Objectives:

Literature
Students will use literature to:

1. identify work related problems and possible approaches to a solution.
2. evaluate solutions to a problem.
3. analyze approaches various characters take to problem solving.
4. identify results of unwillingness to use problem-solving strategies.

Composition
Students will:

1. write a summary report outlining a work related problem and a possible solution.
2. develop problem-solving charts to determine information needed and possible resources for solutions.
3. develop a flow chart or manual for problem-solving strategies within a specific company or job.

Language
Students will:

1. participate in problem-solving groups to solve a job-related problem.
2. present group solutions to the class.
3. use appropriate language and strategies to invite solutions to problems from supervisors and/or co-workers.

MODULE 15: IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF COMMUNICATION

Goal: Students will be able to improve the quality of their communications.

Literature
Students will use literature to:

1.recognize changes in today's workplace.
2.identify time-management techniques.
3.analyze strengths and weaknesses in attempts at communication.
4.rewrite actual business memorandums to ensure clarity and conciseness.

Composition
Students will:

1. develop charts to effectively organize time.
2. write product recommendations
3. adapt written information into chart and graph form.
4. rewrite inadequate attempts at communication to ensure success.
5. rewrite an earlier paper to insure more effective communication.

Language
Students will:

1. deliver oral presentations on products using language appropriate for the audience.
2. role play different departmental roles in a business to gather information on a product.
3. analyze form and tone of signs and symbols in the workplace. Make suggestions for improvement

FOCUS UNIT IV:

ETHICAL RESEARCH IN THE WORKPLACE

Goal: Students will conduct workplace research in an ethical and respectful manner. Objectives

Literature: Spradley and McCurdy's Cultural Scene Byington's "Strategies for Collecting Occupational Folklife" in Working Americans
Students will use literature to:

1. select a strategy for documenting a workculture
2. define the issues of worker rights to informal knowledge
3. analyze the issues of control in workplace research

Composition
Students will:

1. take notes and develop rough draft of scene description.
2. select specific narratives or actions for documentation.
3. return draft to insider for critique.
4. revise draft and return to work community.

Language
Students will:

1. develop descriptive terminology for cultural description.
2. use critical language to evaluate rights to information.
3. negotiate through written/spoken language accuracy of presentation.
4. discuss with insiders value of cultural project.
5. enlist the aid of a retired worker or insider for a project.

I. Introduction

Occupational Folklife, there is a tremendous body of knowledge controlled by workers from stories and jokes to ceremonies and work techniques. Yet most of this information is covert; it is the means through which working people survive in the workplace using inside information known only to them. This section analyzes what rights (if any) outsiders have to this information and how to document and learn about work culture without compromising the covert nature of much of the information you collect.

II.Directions for Students

A. History of Work/Worker's History

Every industry and occupation in this country has been built by experience, knowledge and skill of its workers. Yet even a cursory glance at general and even many labor histories reveals that the cultural contributions of working people are subordinated to the biographies of industrialists and union leaders. It is important to create a view of history from the worker's perspective, but to do so demands a more democratic view of history itself.

B.Workplace Dynamics

The workplace defines the cultural center of an individual worker's world. Yet the tensions that exist between worker and worker, worker and management, union and management extend beyond the shop floor to the national and international marketplace. A miner in north Idaho, for example, may draw on knowledge he inherited as being the member of a family with generations of miners. Yet his daily employment is linked directly to silver prices fixed on an international exchange. The skills he uses to extract ore are bound on the one side by tradition and history and on the other by profit margins and efficiency. The student may not be able to thoroughly document this dynamic, but it is important that they have some notion of how labor and capital interact in a laissez faire economy. The information that students collect will be in tension between competing interests (those who own the means of production and those who control it informally on the shop floor).

C. Ethical behavior

Students and teachers should also be aware that as an ethnographer entering the workplace, you have a responsibility to make your own motivations known. It is important that the workers in your study know that students' documentation will not be published or archived without their permission, and that you are sincerely interested in what they do, say and feel about their work. Remember, you have a point-of-view about the work of others. Your perspective might be based on stereotype (all fire fighters are men), media or popular culture image (all police officers daily engage in armed combat), or family experience (sales people are just fast talkers). You need to negotiate with the members of a trade to find the people behind these preconceptions. Just as you have expectations and suspicions about work and workers, they too have preconceptions about ~~siders asking questions and "hanging out."

D. Retired Workers as Contacts

Possibly the most efficient and ethical way to enter the workplace as a student is through the aid of a retired worker. Through senior centers, hiring halls, or the retirees association of a local union it may be possible to attend a monthly meeting, state your reasons for doing a research/writing project and enlist the cooperation of a retiree. With his or her help you can gain access to the workplace, get to know people in the occupation, and (perhaps most importantly) learn what information should remain inside the trade. Also, many retirees have scrapbooks, photos and other materials from their work experience. These can provide valuable links to significant stories and historical incidents surrounding work

E. Retired Worker as Advisor

Once you have done your collecting (taken pictures, transcribed tapes, written your descriptions) sit down with your advisor/retiree and look carefully at what you have done. Is this information something that should be returned to the group for their use? If your class is compiling an archive for this material, do you have a written release of the information? If people are named, should you remove their names and put in initials or pseudonyms?

F. Whose Information is it?

Once you have looked over your work with your advisor, you must show it to the people from whom you collected it. Make extra copies for them and their families. The main thing to keep; in mind is that the information does not belong to you, it belongs to the people from whom you collected it. They are the ones who should decide what to do with it.

G. Points-of-View

You should also keep in mind the variety of point-of-view generated in a work culture. Members of different generations have differing perspectives about work and authority in the workplace. What role do you unions play in the workplace, for example. Also, members of ethnic and gender sub-cultures have divergent attitude towards work and other workers.

H. Review of Methodology

Finally, you should consider why you are doing this project in the first place. Who will profit from your work? Certainly an open and honest attempt to document the day-to-day experiences of work is a useful activity; particularly on the part of a young person who may soon be entering the marketplace. Yet at the same time, you should ask yourself if you have asked questions that you yourself would like to have asked of you. Have you treated the people you are interviewing as people, not simply representatives of their trade. And most importantly, have you treated them and their occupational folklife with respect and an awareness that the personal narratives you collect today may become the labor history of tomorrow.

III. Suggested Reading:

Applebaum, Herbert, Ed. Work in Market and Industrial Societies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1984.

Byington, Robert H. "Strategies for Collecting Occupational Folklife in Contemporary

Urban/Industrial Contexts," in Robert H. Byington, Ed. Working Americans: Contemporary

Approaches to Occupational Folklife Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985: 43-56.

Garson, Barbara. All the Livelong Day --The Meaning and Demeaning of Routine Work New York: