Learning to Serve

            The research question that I believe Tony Mirabelli uses in his article is, “… what is a menu and what does it mean to have a literate understanding of one?” (WAW 544).  Mirabelli writes previously about how the menu is the major form of text for interactions that take place between customers and staff, and so his research question is not just simply about reading menus, but about the understanding of the source of interaction within a restaurant setting.

            Mirabelli collected his data through various methods at the restaurant.  He used participation with customers, observations of interactions, took field notes of observation, interviewed individuals, used tape recordings of individuals, and transcriptions.  His status as a waiter at the facility helped him with his data collection by means of allowing him to experience first hand events, interactions, and behaviors and he could analyze.

            I think Mirabelli’s finding were indicative of the importance of the menu in terms of interaction within the people in the restaurant.  The menu itself is discussed as a genre in the article.  It is filled with restaurant specific jargon that changes from place to place.  A menu can have the same dish written on it for two different establishments, and it could mean two totally different things  What is written in the menu is what allows for the conversation between customer and employee to take place and that is what gives the menu any meaning at all.