,Final Preliminary Analysis
Background:
Aquarists are animal care professionals focused on fish and marine mammals in marine and aquatic environments. As part of their work they have a wide array of responsibilities focused on maintaining the highest possible quality environment for these animals to thrive in. An aquarist’s duties can include cleaning and repair of tanks and equipment, monitoring water quality and temperature, providing educational information to visitors, observing animal behavior and preparing and distributing food each day. I know this first-hand because I have been an Aquarist intern at the New England Aquarium for the past two years. While these opportunities allowed me to experience the commitment, knowledge, and passion that aquarists share, I had never thought of them as a “discourse community.” When offered the opportunity to investigate the activity system of the aquarist community and learn more about how particular genres of literature and communication have helped form the ideas within this discourse community, I was intrigued. I saw this as an opportunity to understand better how interactions among my aquarist peers enabled them to focus on accomplishing a common goal through the exchange of knowledge and information in their writing, research, and communications.
Introduction:
As a discourse community aquarists communicate professionally with each other and the public and as such, are required to communicate both very scientific information as well as information about science. This dichotomy requires them to communicate effectively through research and through both written and verbal communication. This analysis seeks to highlight some of the required skills and practical ways that an aquarist must function within their discourse community to be most effective.
Approach:
To better understand the language aquarists use and any challenges they may have faced in communicating their work, I partnered with Tory Stoddard to conduct this preliminary analysis comparing genres of communication that they use. An interview was conducted with Hannah Cutting, Senior Aquarist at the Quincy Animal Care Facility of the New England Aquarium. The discussion was focused on language and information shared between her and her peers, what differences she may observe between the aquarist community in Quincy and Boston locations and what research and written communication she relies on in her work. The following questions formed the basis of the discussion:
Analysis of interview and chosen texts:
From this interview, it became clear to us what kinds of skills aquarists need to leverage in their day-to-day communications and work. Hannah indicated that verbal communication was of the utmost importance to the discourse community. She also noted that problem solving and judgment were fundamental. She provided us with some examples of other skills involved in the feeding, maintenance, and water changes necessary for this role, but emphasized that while these more practical skills can be learned easily over time and experience, underlying skills such as strong written and verbal communication, conceptual reasoning and good judgment are critical to being successful. Hearing this from Hannah made us think of the importance of both ethos and logos in their communication. Ethos in the high level of moral judgment and trustworthiness that they must exhibit and logos in the need for them to rely on both evidence and data as they do their work.
When asked how Hannah perceived communications flow between the Boston-based and Quincy-based aquarists, she indicated that she does experience a difference in the communication discourse between these groups. She said that the team in Quincy is very close-knit which makes it easy for them to communicate with each other on an ongoing basis. While that group does have connections with many aquarists in Boston, there are other aquarists that they do not work closely with or have ongoing communication with. She further indicated that the teams recognize this as a risk to the overall effectiveness of the team and are working towards the goal of incorporating themselves into the Boston-based discourse community as a way to be more effective and to improve overall communication.
As we sought to learn more about what kinds of reading aquarists do in support of their work, Hannah shared with us that much of her reading as an aquarist is from scientific articles. She told us that she has very practical reasons for doing her own research and that she primarily focuses her efforts on finding research on certain parasites that the aquarists have seen on fish in quarantine. Since Hannah mostly works with elasmobranchs, she also uses the Elasmobranch Husbandry Manual written by Mark F. L. Smith quite extensively. When we asked Hannah what criteria she uses to determine what is relevant to read and what is not she indicated that she and other aquarists generally look for the most up to date papers to reference because research and many factors in an aquarium setting are continually changing and evolving. We also asked Hannah what specific texts would be valuable for us to review and examine as part of our analysis, and she again referred us to the Elasmobranch Husbandry Manual, a collection of papers written on a variety of species including anything from diet to training methods for sharks and rays. Hannah indicated that she suggested this resource because she has found it to be an extremely helpful tool working with new species as it has such a wide range of practical information and provides a wealth of knowledge.
To further guide our analysis and based on the recommendation we received in our interview, we reviewed The Elasmobranch Husbandry Manual that Hannah had recommended, as an example of genre-based literature. Neither of us had ever been exposed to this writing before but were intrigued by the topic of the manual. Based on our previous experience interacting with scientific literature, we were expecting to be greeted by a very dry and clinical text, full of antiquated and obscure jargon, highly technical and convoluted explanations. We were quite surprised to find that The Elasmobranch Manual was easy to read and the complex topics covered were well explained. An example of this is in the following:
“Unlike teleosts (i.e., bony fishes), sharks and rays have a skeleton made of cartilage and lack ribs. This characteristic means that the internal organs and musculature of elasmobranchs are poorly protected and susceptible to damage without horizontal support (Clark, 1963; Gruber and Keyes, 1981; Murru, 1990).” (Smith 106).
There are several other examples of how the author explains complex topics with simple words and knowledge throughout the text:
“Elasmobranchs have a small gill surface and their blood has a low oxygen-carrying capacity (Gruber and Keyes, 1981). Most demersal and benthic species ventilate gas-exchange surfaces using movements of the mouth to actively pump water across their gills. Pelagic species often use ram ventilation (i.e., forward motion and induced head pressure to force water into their mouth and out across their gill surfaces) to improve their ability to extract oxygen from the water.” (Smith 107)
Our analysis also showed that the author leveraged rhetorical devices such as logos by citing sources and providing evidence and data to support his writing. He also was explicit and very precise as he provided important information on many different species.
“Like lemon sharks, sandbar sharks have been described as slow growing, long-lived species (>30 years) with somewhat constant, gender-indiscriminate growth rates of 5.5-5.9 cm year-1 FL (based on wild sharks initially tagged at 50- 109 cm FL) (Casey et al., 1985). In contrast, two captive males (150 cm FL and 165 cm FL) grew 8 cm year-1 during a six-month observation period, and four captive females (165-185 cm FL) grew 4.0 cm year-1 FL over one year (Schmid et al., 1990). Growth rates in specimens taken from both captive and wild populations are highly variable. (Smith 212)”
Discussion of findings/implications:
As we sought to learn more about the discourse community of aquarists through this analysis, we remembered Bazerman’s writing that emphasized to “look to behaviors in highly regularized or institutional settings that help enforce recognizably and socially agreed upon characters to particular moments.” Just as “the patent process consists of a highly developed set of typified practices,” we know that the same is true among marine scientists. We both know from our work at the aquarium and wet lab that there is a language and unique form of communication that aquarists use among them. Our analysis showed this to be true. By conducting our analysis from this perspective, it helped us to more accurately interpret word meaning and context in their responses. We also sought to be cognizant of the challenges that Bazerman raised about applying such an analysis to complex written language in our review of the Elasmobranch Husbandry Manual and while we could see clear evidence of rhetorical devices in use, the accessibility and clarity of the information provided were unexpected given our previous experience with this genre.
Sources:
Bazerman, Charles, The Languages of Edison's Light , (1999, MIT Press)
Smith, Mark; Warmolts, Doug; Thoney, Doug and Hueter, Robert (Editors), The Elasmobranch Husbandry Manual, ( 2004. Ohio Biological Survey, Inc.)
Background:
Aquarists are animal care professionals focused on fish and marine mammals in marine and aquatic environments. As part of their work they have a wide array of responsibilities focused on maintaining the highest possible quality environment for these animals to thrive in. An aquarist’s duties can include cleaning and repair of tanks and equipment, monitoring water quality and temperature, providing educational information to visitors, observing animal behavior and preparing and distributing food each day. I know this first-hand because I have been an Aquarist intern at the New England Aquarium for the past two years. While these opportunities allowed me to experience the commitment, knowledge, and passion that aquarists share, I had never thought of them as a “discourse community.” When offered the opportunity to investigate the activity system of the aquarist community and learn more about how particular genres of literature and communication have helped form the ideas within this discourse community, I was intrigued. I saw this as an opportunity to understand better how interactions among my aquarist peers enabled them to focus on accomplishing a common goal through the exchange of knowledge and information in their writing, research, and communications.
Introduction:
As a discourse community aquarists communicate professionally with each other and the public and as such, are required to communicate both very scientific information as well as information about science. This dichotomy requires them to communicate effectively through research and through both written and verbal communication. This analysis seeks to highlight some of the required skills and practical ways that an aquarist must function within their discourse community to be most effective.
Approach:
To better understand the language aquarists use and any challenges they may have faced in communicating their work, I partnered with Tory Stoddard to conduct this preliminary analysis comparing genres of communication that they use. An interview was conducted with Hannah Cutting, Senior Aquarist at the Quincy Animal Care Facility of the New England Aquarium. The discussion was focused on language and information shared between her and her peers, what differences she may observe between the aquarist community in Quincy and Boston locations and what research and written communication she relies on in her work. The following questions formed the basis of the discussion:
- What kinds of reading do you do in support of your work as an aquarist?
- What professional groups do you most often communicate with?
- What skills do you find to be most important in your day-to-day communications and work?
- What criteria do you use to determine what is relevant to read and what is not?
- What specific texts would be valuable for me to review and examine as part of my analysis?
- Are there analytical tools that you can recommend to help me better understand the variability and similarities of the genre style of scientific journals?
- Do you find that there is much of a difference in communicating with Quincy Aquarists versus Boston (main building) aquarists?
Analysis of interview and chosen texts:
From this interview, it became clear to us what kinds of skills aquarists need to leverage in their day-to-day communications and work. Hannah indicated that verbal communication was of the utmost importance to the discourse community. She also noted that problem solving and judgment were fundamental. She provided us with some examples of other skills involved in the feeding, maintenance, and water changes necessary for this role, but emphasized that while these more practical skills can be learned easily over time and experience, underlying skills such as strong written and verbal communication, conceptual reasoning and good judgment are critical to being successful. Hearing this from Hannah made us think of the importance of both ethos and logos in their communication. Ethos in the high level of moral judgment and trustworthiness that they must exhibit and logos in the need for them to rely on both evidence and data as they do their work.
When asked how Hannah perceived communications flow between the Boston-based and Quincy-based aquarists, she indicated that she does experience a difference in the communication discourse between these groups. She said that the team in Quincy is very close-knit which makes it easy for them to communicate with each other on an ongoing basis. While that group does have connections with many aquarists in Boston, there are other aquarists that they do not work closely with or have ongoing communication with. She further indicated that the teams recognize this as a risk to the overall effectiveness of the team and are working towards the goal of incorporating themselves into the Boston-based discourse community as a way to be more effective and to improve overall communication.
As we sought to learn more about what kinds of reading aquarists do in support of their work, Hannah shared with us that much of her reading as an aquarist is from scientific articles. She told us that she has very practical reasons for doing her own research and that she primarily focuses her efforts on finding research on certain parasites that the aquarists have seen on fish in quarantine. Since Hannah mostly works with elasmobranchs, she also uses the Elasmobranch Husbandry Manual written by Mark F. L. Smith quite extensively. When we asked Hannah what criteria she uses to determine what is relevant to read and what is not she indicated that she and other aquarists generally look for the most up to date papers to reference because research and many factors in an aquarium setting are continually changing and evolving. We also asked Hannah what specific texts would be valuable for us to review and examine as part of our analysis, and she again referred us to the Elasmobranch Husbandry Manual, a collection of papers written on a variety of species including anything from diet to training methods for sharks and rays. Hannah indicated that she suggested this resource because she has found it to be an extremely helpful tool working with new species as it has such a wide range of practical information and provides a wealth of knowledge.
To further guide our analysis and based on the recommendation we received in our interview, we reviewed The Elasmobranch Husbandry Manual that Hannah had recommended, as an example of genre-based literature. Neither of us had ever been exposed to this writing before but were intrigued by the topic of the manual. Based on our previous experience interacting with scientific literature, we were expecting to be greeted by a very dry and clinical text, full of antiquated and obscure jargon, highly technical and convoluted explanations. We were quite surprised to find that The Elasmobranch Manual was easy to read and the complex topics covered were well explained. An example of this is in the following:
“Unlike teleosts (i.e., bony fishes), sharks and rays have a skeleton made of cartilage and lack ribs. This characteristic means that the internal organs and musculature of elasmobranchs are poorly protected and susceptible to damage without horizontal support (Clark, 1963; Gruber and Keyes, 1981; Murru, 1990).” (Smith 106).
There are several other examples of how the author explains complex topics with simple words and knowledge throughout the text:
“Elasmobranchs have a small gill surface and their blood has a low oxygen-carrying capacity (Gruber and Keyes, 1981). Most demersal and benthic species ventilate gas-exchange surfaces using movements of the mouth to actively pump water across their gills. Pelagic species often use ram ventilation (i.e., forward motion and induced head pressure to force water into their mouth and out across their gill surfaces) to improve their ability to extract oxygen from the water.” (Smith 107)
Our analysis also showed that the author leveraged rhetorical devices such as logos by citing sources and providing evidence and data to support his writing. He also was explicit and very precise as he provided important information on many different species.
“Like lemon sharks, sandbar sharks have been described as slow growing, long-lived species (>30 years) with somewhat constant, gender-indiscriminate growth rates of 5.5-5.9 cm year-1 FL (based on wild sharks initially tagged at 50- 109 cm FL) (Casey et al., 1985). In contrast, two captive males (150 cm FL and 165 cm FL) grew 8 cm year-1 during a six-month observation period, and four captive females (165-185 cm FL) grew 4.0 cm year-1 FL over one year (Schmid et al., 1990). Growth rates in specimens taken from both captive and wild populations are highly variable. (Smith 212)”
Discussion of findings/implications:
As we sought to learn more about the discourse community of aquarists through this analysis, we remembered Bazerman’s writing that emphasized to “look to behaviors in highly regularized or institutional settings that help enforce recognizably and socially agreed upon characters to particular moments.” Just as “the patent process consists of a highly developed set of typified practices,” we know that the same is true among marine scientists. We both know from our work at the aquarium and wet lab that there is a language and unique form of communication that aquarists use among them. Our analysis showed this to be true. By conducting our analysis from this perspective, it helped us to more accurately interpret word meaning and context in their responses. We also sought to be cognizant of the challenges that Bazerman raised about applying such an analysis to complex written language in our review of the Elasmobranch Husbandry Manual and while we could see clear evidence of rhetorical devices in use, the accessibility and clarity of the information provided were unexpected given our previous experience with this genre.
Sources:
Bazerman, Charles, The Languages of Edison's Light , (1999, MIT Press)
Smith, Mark; Warmolts, Doug; Thoney, Doug and Hueter, Robert (Editors), The Elasmobranch Husbandry Manual, ( 2004. Ohio Biological Survey, Inc.)