The document summarizes the key genres used at a food truck - the menu, contact information on the truck, and the ordering process. It discusses how these genres work together to allow customers to view food options, learn about the business, and purchase food from the truck operators. The genres primarily serve the needs of the food truck operators by advertising their business and enabling sales, though they also provide value to customers by facilitating the ordering of food.
3. Where is the genre used? What kinds of activities
happen here? What kinds of people come here? Do
these people have shared objectives?
-The food truck is centered in the middle of the
academic buildings located here on campus.
Students and faculty come to the truck to eat and
mingle. The people who come to the food truck often
are looking for something to eat or an opportunity to
socialize with others.
4. What is the interaction it accomplishes?
-The menu at the food truck is a social
interaction and it allows customers to see what
can be ordered and for how much. The contact
information allows people to gather
information about the food truck and it
advertises for the business itself. The ordering
of food accomplishes the actual social
interaction of purchasing and selling food.
5. Who uses the genre and to do what? Does the user
change for each genre piece?
-The menu and contact information on the truck are used
by both the food truck operators to communicate their
operation to customers and they are used by the customers
to obtain information about the business and understand
their buying options. As mentioned above the genre pieces
are used by the operators and the customers but
everything involved with the truck is used by the
customers.
6. What subjects does the
genre discuss?
-The menu communicates price and items
to order, the truck itself gives contact
information and business name, and the
ordering accomplishes the interaction
between the truck operators and the
customer, it discusses how much the order is
and what exactly the customer is ordering.
7. What relationships does the
genre suggest?
The person reading the menu is the reader and the
menu is a genre piece, the relationship is that it
makes the person reading a customer. When a
person is ordering food this also makes them a
customer, and finally a person reading the truck’s
contact information and name creates another
relationship and it creates a “perspective customer.”
8. What roles does the
genre suggest?
-The person creating the menu is the food truck
operators role, the contact information is also a
role or responsibility of the truck operators and
the ordering and communicating of what is
needed/wanted is the role of the customer.
9. What kinds of languages are
used within the this situation
and genre piece?
-Writing the menu and the contact information on the truck
alone is a language because it is a way of communicating
ideas from the food truck operators to the customers. Also
an obvious one is the ordering of food, the verbal language
used by the customers to order their food is a kind of
language as well. The food truck itself is also a language
because the food options on the menu branch out to many
people.
10. How does the situation shape
the genre pieces?
-Ordering food at a food truck really
creates a “need” for the menu and the
contact and basic information on the
truck, therefore shaping the genre pieces.
Without the actual situation (the food
truck,) there is no ordering or customer
worker relationship.
11. How do the genres shape
the situation?
-The menu of the food truck is on a chalkboard in front of the
truck, so it really is the attention catcher for the truck and it
helps people decide whether they want to eat at the truck or
not. The contact information on the truck helps decide where
the truck goes and what kinds of customers visit it.
Finally, ordering actually makes the truck exist. This means
without the action of ordering, the food truck would cease to
exist.
12. What does the genre allow its
users to do and not do?
-The menu allows customers to see the options and it allows
them to decide if they want to dine at the food truck, it does not
allow users to set their own price. The contact information allows
potential customers to get in touch with the food truck operators
and even lets people see the name of the business. Ordering
food allows the customers to actually request, receive, and pay
for their food. It does not however allow the customers to
choose what goes into the food exactly and it still does not allow
them to change the price.
13. Whose needs are most
served by the genre? Whose
are least served?
-The food truck meets the needs of both the operators
and the customers, but ultimately it meets the food
truck operator’s needs more because it is there business
and way of life. The menu, contact info, and ordering
aspects are what helps both the customers and
operators. In comparison, the customer’s needs are least
met.
14. Does the genre enable its
users to represent
themselves fully
-Using a menu to order which is a set list of options to us
really shows that the customers cannot represent
themselves fully. Maybe since the operators created the
menu, they are representing the food that they like to
prepare and serve to the public, therefore representing
themselves.
15. Does the genre create
inequalities amongst its users
that lead to imbalances of
power?
-The only real imbalances of power we can see is
that the operators of the food truck control the
making of the food and the choices of food that is
sold (the menu.) All the customers control is the
ability to order what they want off the menu.
