Discusión de los resultados obtenidos

The message card differed from all the other writing undertaken on a day to day basis (see figure 5.3). The card was a part of the product or service that the shop provided. Its audience was the recipient of the flowers and writing these required the staff to attend to their writing in a different way. Kathy commented that the card could be an ‘advert’ for the shop, a theme picked up by Jo:

The spelling’s got to be right really, hasn’t it (.) and also you just er,

>you don’t want to look as if you can’t spell.< ((Jo was laughing as she said this)) you know.

The criteria for writing the cards were different. There was a sense of respect for the customer and the recipient:

Marie. You know people are paying for this flowers and they are not costing one pound and needs to look nice like wrapping.

Jo. It’s our business. If we’ve got a card that’s got a lot of wrong spelling on, or a funeral tribute that’s got a card on that’s not spelt right, that’s doesn’t that’s not right.

The cards could be used to convey important and sometimes very personal messages that could carry a heavy emotional load.

Handwriting is very individual. It is possible to identify at a glance the writing of a family member or friend on an unopened envelope. There is therefore a sense of dislocation when a personal message from someone you know well is conveyed in unfamiliar handwriting and a badly written or poorly spelt message would only serve to increase this.

8. Email

Rosemary explained to me that they asked for email addresses for wedding orders because brides were often at work and unavailable during the day.

Linda was at ease with email and told me she had negotiated all the planning for one wedding by email because the bride was abroad. She shared copies of some of her emails with me. These provided a good example of the

‘hybrid’ nature of writing used for emails (Baron, 2001). Linda combined the features of business letter or memo with an informality and exuberance which reflected her style of talking.

Orders were kept very brief:

Subject: Wedding Order

Hi Please could I have the following 20 Calla (blush) Ivory

40 Norma Jeane Roses 10 Stems White Spray Rose Wrap Beer Grass

50 Lilac Freesia Many Thanks Susan(name)

NBF1(shop reference)

The use of ‘Hi’ and the simple phrase ‘Please can I have ...’ reflect the informal style that tends to be used in email while use of the phrase, ‘... the following’ suggests a formal business communication.

The email below, sent to a supplier is more informal.

Subject: URGENT REQUEST

Hi Mark have you got some cordyline in the red and green with white edge, need some urgently for saturday early.

Please could you give me a call on this.

Thank You Susan

The lack of capital letters and the uncorrected ‘typos’ indicate that this was written fast with no attempt at checking and editing. Speed is also suggested by the omission of deixis, as noted on the order forms, in ‘(I) need some urgently’. The inclusion of the definite article in ‘...in the red and green with white edge’ indicates an assumption of shared knowledge.

The following extracts from an email regarding an invoice for wedding flowers provides a mix of strongly contrasting styles.

Subject: RE: wedding invoice Hi Ellie

Thank You for your reply....re Wedding (YES nearly

here)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and The weather forcast is looking GOOD GOOD GOOD!!!!!

I have adjusted your Bill with your alterations,

I will have to allow a little extra how-ever for the additional Jugs as they are quite Large. I wil need about £35.00p more hope this is OK.

The Balance owing is £482.50p

Please could you phone the shop with payment by Debit/Credit Card ASAP.

Many Thanks I am looking forward to seeing you on Friday, enjoy the Build up.

Warmest Regards Susan

In the first paragraph Linda uses exclamation marks and capital letters to convey the excitement she would share if she was speaking. Her character and her voice come through. The text has immediate visual impact. This is very different to the brief factual statements on the order forms. The

informality however, sits uneasily with the formal, detached style of ‘The Balance owing ...’ and ‘ ... could you phone the shop with payment’. Linda appreciated the affordance of non-synchronous communication that email offers. She appeared to approach emails, like order forms, as something to be written quickly, to get things done with no need for attention to editing or correcting. Her style echoes her speech in many places but, possibly because she is dealing with business matters such as orders and invoices, formal, impersonal phrases common to these genres, turn up automatically and remain intact alongside the chatty familiarity.

10. Conclusion

In the Florist’s shop we find a range of texts used on a day to day basis, all representing common genres. Some, like the labels and lists, were very brief.

Others such, as the order forms, required a considerable amount of

information. Together these made up a simple, pen and paper system which had stood the test of time and which worked to co-ordinate the everyday work of the shop. Tracing the ‘trajectory’ of the order form helped to map out this system and underlined the significance of this single piece of paper to the work of the business. It is an approach to analysis that I decided was worth testing in the other three cases.

With the notable exception of the message cards, which required

considerable care in terms of writing, and Linda’s emails, most of the texts were for internal use and conformed to rather different criteria. The emphasis was on recording ‘... all the necessary information’ and the legibility of this while keeping the time and effort involved to a minimum. While the writing was brief and hurriedly written, it entailed considerable responsibility on the part of the writer. Analysis of completed order forms, in conjunction with the participant’s explanations, helps to identify how the team shared a ‘repertoire of resources’ that enabled them to discharge this responsibility while writing briefly and quickly. The size of the business made this sharing possible. One of most valuable resources was the form itself. As a proforma it offered a number of affordances for the business but perhaps the most significant was its value in reducing the semiotic work required. In this study I have begun to explore how proformas of this type work and how their design can shape the writing undertaken: a theme I explore further in the other three case studies.

A further theme to come out of the case study is the piecemeal introduction of IT. Having a computer in the shop became a necessity for Eflorist and it was used by the staff to access information but had not impacted on the traditional pen and paper system. The use of email for some wedding orders and some orders for supplies recognised the usefulness of non-synchronous communication but this was only exploited in these specific areas of work.

Close attention to the order form has illustrated a complex relationship between writing practices and texts and has highlighted how both were shaped by the context of the business and its activity. The introduction of proformas adds a further layer to this complexity. I have noted how use of proformas, which represented a conventional response to recurrent writing tasks, could shape the structure of interactions in practices such as taking an order. At the same time, I demonstrate how the design of the proforma

shaped the writing that was undertaken in significant, if sometimes unintended, ways.

This case study provides a picture of writing in one business. It highlights how, while, at one level, it is possible to identify very familiar writing practices and genres that are common to such businesses, at another, these include many unique features such as the use of the blue folder, Rosemary’s basket for orders, the use of two colours on the wedding orders. It enabled me to identify approaches that could usefully be tried again in the other case studies and highlighted a number of interesting themes to which I will return to in the following chapters.

Chapter 6