Ethnography and Ethnographic Writing - Our F'15 Agenda

Natalie Alderson, AJ Skiles, James Kono, and Zack De Piero
Independent Study – F’15

Ethnography and Ethnographic Writing

Overview

Ethnography is, essentially, investigating what makes a specific culture a specific culture.  It’s based in participant observation (as a research method) so it’s largely anthropological, but it’s informed by the ideas in the linguistics and communication/Writing Studies fields.  Part of the idea/purpose of doing ethnography and thinking ethnographically is to understand how cultures/groups function from the bottom, up.  What are the participants’ perspectives?  What are the power relations?  How are ideas negotiated, and why?  These are some of the many questions that can be tackled in an ethnography, which requires gathering data via observation and interview, analyzing data, gathering more if/when necessary, and formulating theories.

Weekly Blog Reflections: Guiding Questions on Content, Real World Connections, and “Moves”

In addition to the questions in the first paragraph, I hope that these readings will help us to think ethnographically.  So what does that mean, really?  What is/n’t ethnography, and why?  Considering the definitions and descriptions of the following terms/ideas should help us do that: culture, native’s perspective, grounded theory, thick description, discourse communities, and activity system/theory.  How can these terms/ideas help us better understand ethnography and ethnographic writing?  What real world connections can you make between these ideas and your own experiences (or others’ experiences)? 

Lastly, I’d like you to think back to Mike Bunn’s piece “How to Read Like a Writer” (RLW) and read like a writer.  What structural strategies, literary styles, or individual “moves” are particularly well-suited for ethnographies?  Other questions to consider here include: what constitutes effective evidence?, what’s the role of the writer within the piece?, and what kind of stance does he/she adopt?

I’d also like you to post responses to your classmates’ blogs each week.  There aren’t any minimum specifications; use your judgment for what’s appropriate.  Please try to include critical, open-ended questions in your responses.

Comparing and Contrasting Good Ethnographies Assignments:

By the end of the quarter, I’d like you to find two pieces of good ethnographic writing, make a case for how/why they each represent an ethnography, and compare/contrast their conventions.  Analyze the ethnographic content that the writers included as well as the textual “moves” that they made in the piece.  Articulate what, exactly, you like about each pieces—re: content and moves—and how you could repurpose something similar for your own future ethnographic work.  I’d like this paper to be approximately 5 pages.

Week (Date)	Reading Due	Writing Due
Week 1: 10/5 – 10/9	Kahn, Putting Ethnographic Writing in Context	Blog post + responses to classmates
Week 2: 10/12 – 10/16	Peshkin, Goodness of Qualitative Research	Blog post + responses to classmates
Week 3: 10/19 – 10/23	Charmaz, Grounded Theory	Blog post + responses to classmates
Week 4: 10/26 – 10/30	Geertz, Thick Description How to Order a Drink in Subanum	Blog post + responses to classmates
Week 5: 11/2 – 11/6	John Swales, The Concept of Discourse Community Branick, Coaches Can Read Too: An Ethnographic Study of a Football Coaching Discourse Community	Blog post + responses to classmates
Week 6: 11/9 – 11/13	Wardle, Activity Theory: An Introduction for the Writing Classroom.	Blog post + responses to classmates
Week 7: 11/16 – 11/20	Humphreys and Watson, Ethnographic Practices: From Writing Up Ethnographic Research to Writing Ethnography.	Blog post + responses to classmates
Week 8: 11/23 – 11/27		Good Ethnography Assignment (proposal of 3 potential pieces)
Week 9: 11/30 – 12/4		Good Ethnography Assignment  (draft + peer/reader review workshop)
Week 10: 12/7 – 12/11		Good Ethnography Assignment (final)