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Adam Onaindia
Professor Stuart Dees
ENC 1102
31 March 2015
An All-Natural Community: BurgerFi
Upon entering my English Composition II course here at the University of Central Florida,
I was ready to write about topics that interested me greatly. Right away we were moving fast in
this class; with Professor Stuart Dees telling us that our main focus this semester would be about
a discourse community that interested us. I had no idea what this man was talking about when he
spoke the words, “discourse community.” I soon found out that a discourse community, according
to John Swales, is “made up of individuals who share “a broadly agreed upon set of common public
goals.”” (Swales). Still though I was not sure of what to do; I then chose to focus on the Seminole
County Police Department. I chose this because my girlfriend’s step-dad is the Sheriff of the
county; so I thought that I could get a lot of quality information for my papers, but I was very
wrong. All of the information that I found online and on some databases were all negative writings
and articles, with none of them pertaining to that of a discourse community. During this dead end
research process, I acquired a job at the new BurgerFi located across the street at Plaza on
University, which is also where I live. Right away I knew that I wanted to switch lanes and pursue
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BurgerFi as my new discourse community; and, the research I conducted along with the results I
came up with were very satisfying.
I used many methods for conducting my research about my discourse community. At first,
I was spending a lot of my time exploring the databases that UCF has to offer for us students. I
found a few quality sources on the OneSearch database, but it did take a lot of searching and going
through all of the pages. There was a surprisingly high amount of sources and articles pertaining
to BurgerFi. Of course not all of them had to do with what I was looking for, but I had a much
better selection of sources than maybe some other topics. For example, one of the sources that I
found was an article out of the Nation’s Restaurant News Magazine, entitled, “Ones to Watch.” In
this piece, the author, Lisa Jennings, talks about some restaurants that are on the uprising and
BurgerFi made her list. She then goes on to mention some of the history of BurgerFi, talking about
the original one that opened in North Palm Beach, FL. What caught my eye the most with this
writing piece is that it helps give the reader some knowledge about BurgerFi, which is beneficial
for both the reader and myself.
Another useful database that I used was that of Google Scholar. These articles are peerreviewed by other scholarly writers. For example, I found a piece from The New York Times
entitled, “Using Menu Psychology to Entice Diners.” In it, author Sarah Kershaw talks about how
restaurants use their menus to persuade customers into buying some of their products simply by
the fact that they look more appealing to the human eye. What I gained out of this source was that
it made me realize that BurgerFi’s menu follows these concepts because the menu highlights key
items, shows pictures, and has full descriptions of the choices that one can buy.
For the interviews I conducted, they were very difficult to do. The UCF BurgerFi location
just opened less than a month ago so it is still crazy packed every single day at any time that the
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store is open. My two main managers, Adam and Jose, both agreed to take part in my interviews
for this paper. A couple weeks ago, I found out that Jose was drinking every night that he was
closing the store with us, as well as making food for himself and stealing certain items out of the
walk-in refrigerator. So, as a result, he was fired from the job. As for the other manager, Adam, he
just would never have time to do the interview process. I asked him if I should come in before my
shift and do it, or when I’m on break or something, but he still never did it. I even printed out him
a copy of the questions I had created so he could just fill it out whenever he had any free time.
However, a few days ago when I went into the store to check the progress on the interviews, he
had them under the front counter of the store, not even in his office. So I basically said for him not
to bother anymore and that I would have the two head employee supervisors of the store, Matthew
Gibby and Hilda Huston do them instead. These two did not even hesitate to do the interviews,
and they did them right in front of me and it literally took 3-4 minutes for each of them. I basically
asked them some questions about communications and the lexis that BurgerFi uses and also about
the common goals that everyone in the store shares. The answers they gave me really helped my
research process.
Picking BurgerFi as my discourse community raised a question in my mind that I would
ultimately use as my research question: How does the menu, corporate, and the use of keywords
serve as ways of communication? Using this question as a template, along with reading “The
Genres of Chi Omega: An Activity Analysis” by Victoria Marro, I came up with my questions for
the interviews, as well as knowing what to research and look for online and on the databases. For
the specific genres that I decided to choose, for example the menu and means of communication,
I came up with key information that I can discuss in my writing and to the class during the
presentation that I will take part in at the end of the semester.
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As for the results that I ended up with, they seemed beneficial for my research process. My
interviews came out very well as both participants gave me some answers that I needed. For
example, I asked them both the question, “How effective is the menu among both customers and
employees?” Hilda Huston, one of the employee supervisors, answered that, “It is very effective
and it is much easier to read than a lot of other menus; and that it also is very organized” (Huston).
Matthew Gibby, the other supervisor, had a different take on the question. He stated, “It’s very
effective due to the fact that you, the employee, can guide the customer into making a decision
that they know little of” (Gibby).
Another question that they both had quality answers was when I asked, “Are there any
methods or rules that every BurgerFi follows?” Hilda said that one of the ones she stresses the
most is that of “O.P.P”, which stands for “On Time, Positive Attitude, and Perfect Uniform”
(Huston). That rule right there captures John Swales’ number one characteristic of a discourse
community, which is, “A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals”
(Swales). At BurgerFi, the common goals that myself as an employee is the same for everyone
else working in the store, and we personify that by using the acronym O.P.P. Matthew Gibby gave
me a different response once again. He said that what he thinks is most important is “F.I.F.O.” and
using the word “Heard” (Gibby). The acronym of F.I.F.O. stands for First In, First Out. The
meaning of that does not apply to the first employee in being the first employee out, but it actually
is referring to the food in the walk-in refrigerator. We are supposed to use the food that was put in
the walk-in first because they will go bad quicker than the rest of everything else. As for using the
word “Heard,” that serves as a universal saying that tells somebody that you know what is going
on and that you are about to do it. For example, at BurgerFi, when food comes in, let’s just say 2
patties, somebody on assembly will say “Walking in 2 patties;” the grill person then says “Heard
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2 patties” and drops them on the grill to be made. It is a very useful tool that all employees use and
take part in to try to maximize our output. Overall, the interviews became key primary sources for
my research.
The results I received from my sources were pretty useful as well. I got some insight on
the history of BurgerFi, along with reading about why certain restaurants layout their menus to
appeal to the customer a certain way. They use pictures and descriptions to persuade, and BurgerFi
uses that method as a way of business. I can tell you firsthand that method works tremendously
due to the sales that the UCF store brings in.
Overall, my research process has been event filled and I had to completely switch discourse
communities but I think the end result definitely paid off for the better. I brought up a research
question that made sense because it pertains to my topic, as well as following some of the concepts
about discourse communities. I feel as if the interviews that I conducted proved to be beneficial
and were really good primary sources. The only thing that I felt I could have done more or a little
bit better was finding my secondary sources. I found many good ones that I used throughout all of
my papers so far, but there were a couple that I probably could have left out. For my research
question, I feel that I answered it but almost in a different way. My question is: “How does the
menu, corporate, and the use of keywords serve as ways of communication?” While there may not
be a flat out answer to the question, I feel that all those forms and methods of communication make
the world of BurgerFi go round and function at the highest production possible for the franchise.
The menu is communication between employee and customer, corporate is communication
between owners and managers, and the use of keywords is communication between employees
and their co-workers. BurgerFi is a well-rounded business that is very successful, and it also
follows the criteria to be a true discourse community.
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Works Cited
1. Gibby, Matthew. Personal Interview. March 25 2015.
2. Huston, Hilda. Personal Interview. March 25 2015
3. Jennings, Lisa, et al. “Ones to Watch.” Nation’s Restaurant News 48.16 (2014): 2024. OmniFile Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson). Web. 23 February 2015.
4. Kershaw, Sarah. "Using Menu Psychology to Entice Diners." The New York Times.
The New York Times, 22 Dec. 2009. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.
5. "Our Menu." BurgerFi Menu. BurgerFi. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.
6. Swales, John. “The Concept of Discourse Community.” Genre Analysis: English in
Academic and Research Settings. Boston: Cambridge UP, 1990. 21-32. Print.