Written Communication Oct 1999

What's in a Label?

GLYNDA A. HULL

Abstract

This article reports qualitative research on a perceived literacy problem in an electronics factory in the Silicon Valley of Northern California. Guided by a sociocultural framework, Hull investigates an instance of frontline workers' apparent failure to read, understand, and/or follow important manufacturing process instructions. Interviewing all parties involved, from engineers and managers to workers, Hull explores the significance of the mistake and a range of explanations for why it occurred. In so doing, she moves beyond explanations that center on deficiency in individuals and groups, and toward broader based accounts that consider institutional, social, and cultural arrangements and the relationships and practices they foster. She offers an expansive definition of what it means to be a literate, skills-rich worker, and she urges vigilance against the tendency in both schools and workplaces to label and mislabel, and thereby to miss human potential.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
1999-10-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088399016004001
Open Access
Closed
Topics
qualitative research

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (5)

  1. Marotta (2021)
    Regulated and Nonregulated Writing: A Qualitative Study of University Custodian…
    Research in the Teaching of English
  2. Marotta (2019)
    Who Has the Right to Write? Custodian Writing and White Property in the University
    College English
  3. Wolfe et al. (2009)
    Argumentation Schema and the Myside Bias in Written Argumentation
    Written Communication
  4. Christoph (2009)
    Each One Teach One
    Written Communication
  5. WINSOR (2000)
    Ordering Work
    Written Communication

Cites in this index (2)

  1. Hull et al. (1990)
    "This Wooden Shack Place": The Logic of an Unconventional Reading
    College Composition and Communication
  2. HULL et al. (1989)
    Rethinking Remediation
    Written Communication
Also cites 8 works outside this index ↓
  1. 10.1525/awr.1991.12.3.2
     ↗
  2. 10.17730/humo.51.3.356l2g3101877727
     ↗
  3. 10.1177/074171368303300301
     ↗
  4. 10.17763/haer.63.1.u0762m971p0645t4
     ↗
  5. 10.2307/358073
     ↗
  6. 10.2307/747527
     ↗
  7. 10.1525/aeq.1985.16.3.05x1486d
     ↗
  8. Scribner, S.
    The psychology of literacy
     ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 12 View in citation network →

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