16 Brooke Lewis – Serving Goes Beyond Basic Literacy

Brooke Lewis (she/her) is a freshman majoring in Psychology from Andersonville, Indiana.  This paper is a Rhetorical Reading Analysis she completed for her English W131 class. Professor Sharon A. Lucero notes, “It is exceptionally well done!”

Serving Goes Beyond Basic Literacy

When the topic of waitressing comes up, many shrug it off as if it is a job that takes little to no effort. When looking into Tony Mirabelli’s “Learning to Serve,” the article really goes in depth to prove how this is very untrue. Many instances are listed within the article, each explaining how necessary it is to have skills that stretch beyond the basic aspect of being able to read and write. Skills such as knowing the menu, having the ability to explain it, and being able to read customers are prime examples. Overall, in this article, Mirabelli touches on how being a server requires literacy far beyond reading and writing.

To give more depth, Mirabelli is the author of “Learning to Serve”. He currently is the Assistant Director at the University of California, Berkeley, since June 2018. Mirabelli earned a Bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Illinois, Urbana, a Master’s degree in Anglo-American Literature from the University of London, University College, England, and a PhD in Education in Language, Literacy, and Culture from the University of California, Berkeley. In addition to being assistant director, Mirabelli was a lecturer at the Graduate School of Education from 2004-2018. As assistant director, he manages the Academic Support programming for the Athletic Study Center. These services include hiring, training, program development, and assessment and evaluation for undergraduate tutors, graduate tutors, and learning specialists. In addition to his job, Mirabelli also has many published book reviews on different platforms. His article “Learning to Serve” first appeared in a book called What They Don’t Learn in School: The Lives of Urban Youth written by Jabari Mahiri. The book was published in 2004 by Peter Lang in New York. The way his article is written would suggest that the intended audience is other members of his academic community because not everyone would be able to understand the text.

In his article, Mirabelli discusses how workers in a diner are smarter than what they get credit for. It is mentioned many times that some see waiters and waitresses as stupid people that do nothing for society. There are various claims that waiting tables is just a low skilled job that teenagers and young adults partake in before advancing in their careers. These claims are not entirely true, though, as a ton of service workers are actually mature adults who have worked this job field their entire lives. As a result of this, Mirabelli gathered research on diner workers relating to how New Literacy Studies and multiliteracies, various ways of communication, are needed for this type of work. As mentioned, literacy goes far beyond reading and writing, as it involves communication. So, to begin his research, Mirabelli studied two diner restaurants. He looked at the thoughts and behaviors in each and focused on the main events. He gathered information by observing, participating, and documenting what he saw during busy hours at the diners. With his findings, he does his best to back up the fact that waitressing involves more than what meets the eye.

Throughout the article, Mirabelli discusses how servers are constantly brought down or seen as having a simple job. His goal is to try and make light of that. As Mirabelli (2004) stated, “I hope this work will contribute to the development of understandings and policies that build more respect and recognition for service work to help ensure it does not become equated with servitude” (p. 527). He adds to this by bringing up the concept of multiliteracies. By using the topic of multiliteracies, Mirabelli is able to explain how literacy goes beyond reading and writing while being a service worker. In this profession, various types of communication are needed, including verbal and nonverbal. It does not just center around being able to read printed text such as menus, it centers around knowledge and communication in general.

For example, Mirabelli describes a situation that happened when being employed at Lou’s Diner. A fellow employee was not able to explain an item on the menu to a customer. Mirabelli (2004) stated, “Harvey then told me that a customer had asked him about the sauce, and since he could not explain what it was, the customer did not order it” (p. 531). This proves that being a server requires more than just basic reading and writing capabilities. It requires knowledge and the ability to explain certain items on the menu. To satisfy customers, servers not only have to be able to read and understand the menu, but they also must be able to read the customer. By having this ability, one is not only helping the customers, but also helping the business by selling a product.

To add on, another example Mirabelli mentions centers around the impact of interactions with customers. When working in a diner, sometimes customers like the feeling of belonging. They enjoy the comfort or family feeling when dining. He makes the point that although sometimes customers may not want to be treated like family and servers may not want to treat customers as family, they still do so when communicating. When a customer asks what a certain menu item is or what they think about a certain dish, the waiter or waitress must still answer in a friendly manner. This takes a lot of skill revolving around communication, especially when not wanting to be friendly or family-like. Mirabelli states, “At Lou’s in addition to having an intimate understanding of food production and being able to describe it to a customer in an appealing fashion, reading a menu and taking a customer’s food order requires the ability to perform these tasks in a friendly, familial manner” (p. 535). Being able to put feelings aside and describe something to help sell a product and help the customer is impressive.

To add to this, another example of communication and ability to read customers Mirabelli mentions involves himself and a frequent customer named Al. Normally when taking Al’s order, Mirabelli would be extremely friendly and have a close, informal conversation with him. This time around Al had come with his family and because of this, Mirabelli was not sure how to approach the situation. He decided to make a quick, formal greeting to see how the conversation would play out because he was not sure what Al would want. When having a conversation with Al and his family, Mirabelli was able to sense that Al enjoyed the more intimate approach, thus reading the customer.

Building off that, when it came time for Al to order, he already expected Mirabelli to know what he wanted. This is because of the close-knit relationship the two share. Since Al was a regular and like family, Mirabelli was able to know what he wanted without asking. “To be successful in fulfilling Al’s private appetite required more than the ability to describe food according to the individual customer preferences. To be literate with a menu also means knowing when and how to express emotion to a customer through its use” (Mirabelli, 2004, p. 537). This once again proves that waitering/waitressing goes beyond basic skills. Having the ability to communicate and read customers is a must when being successful in serving.

Being a server requires various forms of multiliteracies and the ability to apply them within serving is impressive and a necessity. Knowing how to read customers is such an important part of waitering and waitressing. It goes beyond reading and writing, it involves the ability to remember the menu items and even building relationships with the customers. It centers around knowledge and communication. Mirabelli wanted to make it known that although waitressing can be looked down upon, when viewing it, it is quite impressive as there are many important aspects when it comes to being a server. The multiliteracy that goes into waitressing should be celebrated, for the communication used is far from simple or stupid. It is complex and has many layers as Mirabelli proved throughout his article.

References

Mirabelli, T. (2004). Learning to serve: The language and literacy of food service workers. In E. Wardle and D. Downs. (Eds.), Writing about writing (pp. 524-541). Bedford/St. Martin’s.