Musings of a Novice

So, as much I’d like a to break down a lyric, I thought I’d stir the pot a bit with some talk of discourse communities, and what I’ve gleaned about mine via the two assignments we’ve completed thus far.

            Our methods of analysis were thin-slicing and close reading, which, as we have discussed, are essentially polar opposites. One calls for conclusions to be made using a cursory glance at a wide data set, and the other calls for us to do the same by perusing a few sentences. One of my concerns, as I completed both assignments, was that my own preconceptions of the discourse in my field of study would inhibit me from looking at it from the outside in. Despite the different lenses through which I analyzed it, I have learned not only about my discourse community and its members, but also about my place in the community as someone who is engaged in the discourse.

            The thin-slicing assignment made very clear for me the complexity of the topics covered by erudite members of the finance/accounting discourse community, as well as the cyclical nature of the field. Many a time I would come across titles insinuating the application of an established topic to a modern reference, lending to the idea that the community was not one that experienced rapid turnover in its fundamentals. As one could imagine, after the realization of that over-arching trend, little else really surprised me. The titles I attempted to formulate into an argument offered me, what I thought, was so little to work with. Thus, I was left frustrated by the community at large for being so monotonous, and frustrated by the assignment, because there were so many assumptions to make.

            Then came the close reading assignment, which initially seemed like a bigger challenge, due to the level of focus it would take to extract a conclusion. I framed my argument around four (very dense) sentences, an abstract from an article about ‘standard costing’, whatever the hell that is. Though the content was equally dry and objective relative to the thin-slicing material, I began to think differently about what it said about the finance/accounting discourse community. It was at this point that I started to think about my role in the discussion of these elaborate theories and case studies, coming to the daunting realization that so much of it was well over my head. Though I am a member of said community, by pursuing a degree in the field and actively studying its principles, I am clearly a novice among experts with vast knowledge of multiple disciplines. I have yet to partake actively in the evolution of finance or accounting, much less fully grasp the magnitude of the system in place as it is. Spending some time with the language of the field and the ways in which its members communicate made me realize it is so much bigger than just the numbers on a P & L. And as my familiarity increases, so too will my ability to contribute my opinions, to understand the arguments of others, and to work towards being able to call myself an expert.