assignments ENGL389 Topics in Writing: Ethnographic Writing
SOURCES: BACKGROUND INFO & INTERVIEWS
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Overview: The build up to selecting a site for your ethnography is intense, beginning to describe it might at first seem simple, but, once you start that work, if you are doing it right, you will soon discover that you’ve created a whole new set of questions for yourself to answer. It is at that point, really, that the work only just gets going. You are now at the second half of the process of gathering the material to do the telling. This installment of your ethnographic project requires you begin the process of collecting information for your story. There are two parts to it. 1) collecting background information on your site and 2) collecting interviews with relevant subjects.
PART I. BACKGROUND INFO
The first stage of this collection process concerns secondary sources: collect stuff that tells you about your story—about your site, your people, your problem, your theory—whatever it is that your working theory of what this culture is about.
This is not the kind of research that you would do, probably, for a research paper. This research is, actually, probably more fun and less focused than the kind of research you’ve done in the past. It probably includes a lot more reference material than you are usually allowed to use. It involves looking at websites and newspapers and maybe even brochures and newsletters and maybe even archives. Your job is not to find a certain kind or piece of information. It is your job to collect as much info as you can. You’ll decide what you need later. Right now, it is all about collection.
Here are some examples you might seek answers to: What is the history of the T in Boston? When did crossfit start, who started it, and when did it become the thing that it is? How do other cultures look at piercing? Who founded Mount Moriah Baptist church--why? What are the demographics of Taunton and how have they changed since, say, 1980? Why is it called the “Pride” center? How do you score bowling?
Now these are JUST SAMPLES so please don’t think that I’m telling you these are the questions you’ve got to answer. There are plenty of different questions you can ask and research to answer for your site. But here is my point: your site work—your observations and interviews—are specific to your site. But your site is not the only version in the world of your site. So what can learning about your site more generally, or aspects of your site, or the history of your site tell you about your site very specifically? How can it help you to understand some of the things you are seeing? How does it problematize it?
PART II. INTERVIEWS
For your site description, you needed to include people and perhaps even snippets of captured conversation by these people—you couldn’t just have a blank space. But that’s not enough. In order to be able to know something about your site you need to talk to the people there. You need to develop interview questions. You need to get answers. You need to try to decide what story this person is telling you does for your overall piece.
In order to complete this part of the semester, you need to do the following:
Some Specifics on Format
HOW YOU WILL BE EVALUATED ON SOURCES
This draft, as has been the case with all the other drafts, is worth 10% of your final grade.
In order to earn a B for that 10% you must:
In order to earn an A, you must:
In order to earn a C, you must:
If you do not meet the requirements for a C grade, you will fail the 10% of the final grade that represents this assignment.
PART I. BACKGROUND INFO
The first stage of this collection process concerns secondary sources: collect stuff that tells you about your story—about your site, your people, your problem, your theory—whatever it is that your working theory of what this culture is about.
This is not the kind of research that you would do, probably, for a research paper. This research is, actually, probably more fun and less focused than the kind of research you’ve done in the past. It probably includes a lot more reference material than you are usually allowed to use. It involves looking at websites and newspapers and maybe even brochures and newsletters and maybe even archives. Your job is not to find a certain kind or piece of information. It is your job to collect as much info as you can. You’ll decide what you need later. Right now, it is all about collection.
Here are some examples you might seek answers to: What is the history of the T in Boston? When did crossfit start, who started it, and when did it become the thing that it is? How do other cultures look at piercing? Who founded Mount Moriah Baptist church--why? What are the demographics of Taunton and how have they changed since, say, 1980? Why is it called the “Pride” center? How do you score bowling?
Now these are JUST SAMPLES so please don’t think that I’m telling you these are the questions you’ve got to answer. There are plenty of different questions you can ask and research to answer for your site. But here is my point: your site work—your observations and interviews—are specific to your site. But your site is not the only version in the world of your site. So what can learning about your site more generally, or aspects of your site, or the history of your site tell you about your site very specifically? How can it help you to understand some of the things you are seeing? How does it problematize it?
PART II. INTERVIEWS
For your site description, you needed to include people and perhaps even snippets of captured conversation by these people—you couldn’t just have a blank space. But that’s not enough. In order to be able to know something about your site you need to talk to the people there. You need to develop interview questions. You need to get answers. You need to try to decide what story this person is telling you does for your overall piece.
In order to complete this part of the semester, you need to do the following:
- One niche-profile of at least one subject. This should be your main source for information. For this source, you need to know something about who they are: what do they look like? When were they born? Why are they at this site? What’s their story outside of this site? What do their parents do? What do they do? You get what I mean, I hope. You need to be able to do sort of like an introduction for this person the way you did for your classmates at the beginning of the semester.
- An accompanying interview with that main subject. In addition to being able to write a short profile of this person, you need to interview them. You should draft questions, and you should include those questions in your materials when you turn in this installment of your paper. We’ll work on what makes good questions in class, but it should come from what you are starting to wonder about at your site. What theories do you have about what makes this site a culture? Those theories turned into questions is a good place to start.
- At least one other mini-profile/interview. In addition to your main subject, you should also include at least one other person that we hear from and see (through your description). This does not have to be as in-depth as your main interview subject. It can be a person that is perhaps on the periphery of the culture, but still has contact with the culture in a way that might prove useful (a customer at the piercing place or the juice bar, for example).
Some Specifics on Format
- While page length is really up to you depending on what you have to say in this section, you should be turning in at least 5 and probably no more than 7 pages for this first assignment.
- Ten or Twelve point, Times New Roman or comparable font, typed and double-spaced, and one inch margins all the way around.
- Please title this draft (even if it turns out that you don’t end up using this title).
- Please put your name, date, and ENGL 389 in the top left corner of your paper—no cover page.
- Please put your last name and the page number in the top right corner of subsequent pages.
HOW YOU WILL BE EVALUATED ON SOURCES
This draft, as has been the case with all the other drafts, is worth 10% of your final grade.
In order to earn a B for that 10% you must:
- Have at least one main subject profile and interview and one mini-profile/interview
- Include your interview questions with your draft
- Attend the workshop with a workshop draft
- Complete the revision plan (as part of the workshop)
In order to earn an A, you must:
- Do all of the things required for a B grade
- Include one other profile & interview (it can be a main subject or a mini-profile)
- Attempt some nice, elegant writing--that suggest a tone or style that you might be trying to develop, a writer's voice, throughout the piece.
In order to earn a C, you must:
- Have at least one main subject profile
- Include your interview questions with your draft
- Attend the workshop with a workshop draft
- Complete the revision plan (as part of the workshop)
If you do not meet the requirements for a C grade, you will fail the 10% of the final grade that represents this assignment.