Three-Quarters Done [Post #5]

This past week has felt extremely slow and while I am glad that three papers out of four are complete, I wish I could have had more time to work on the ethnography. It feels great that we'll be turning it in tomorrow, but I'm extremely nervous. I want to do well in this class and these papers are really the only things that's counted. Also, since it's graded as if it were a college paper, I'm not sure how my writing in comparison.

With the ethnography almost out of sight, the film critique is next. I remember in band about two or three years ago when our music teacher would actually assign us a concert critique. That was really the only experience I had with that sort of writing so I don't really have much of an idea on the film critique.

I'm actually thinking of pulling my copy of the third Harry Potter installment, since I've seen it several times and I could easily access it. However, I feel like I should write my critique on something else. I don't really own a ton of movies so my choice is limited. Any suggestions? I think my domain is centered around time and/or age now.

This is called a road block, dear friend, or otherwise known as writer's block. [Post #1]

I am at my wit's end. The term is quickly approaching and I'm scrambling around, trying to gather all of the information needed and finish everything. There's too much to do in so little time.

Of course I'm talking about the ethnography. Oh why must it be so hard to write? Oh, go on. Ignore me, bemoaning about my pitiful struggles with this paper...

Let's have at it--another attempt it shall be.

Also, my writing group is strange.

Ethnography [Post #7]

It is nearing eight at night and I have yet to start my ethnography (other than the first contact story). As I ran through the blogs, I found that a lot of us are confused and/or worried. And I'm a bit glad that I'm not the only one is as well.

This ethnography sounds pretty fun and it is--but I've yet to see it. And then there's compiling the eight hours worth of notes into a well-written and thoughtful 10-page paper.

Damn cursor.

On another note, are there any playwrights around here? I stumbled across this website. It's called Script Frenzy and the basic idea is that you can sign up and send April writing a 100-page play, but you only get the month of April. Sounds fun, right?

Time to tackle this paper...

TCE Chapter 9: Writing and Using Ethnography [Post #6]

As I read this chapter, I paused at the section titled "Choosing a Thesis" and realized that the example they had chosen on how not to write it is very easy and could be me. I'm afraid of that happening, of writing like that. However, this chapter is very informative in writing an ethnography. Combine this and class today, I've got a pretty good idea on how to write. I'm just unsure on how to start it.

I especially like the little sections on how to write each part. I found that especially helpful since it's very detailed in that aspect.

First Contact - Ethnography [Post #5]

There's only a little over a week left, Leyen! You've got to put your foot down and do it! Just do it! It can't be that hard!

My fumbling fingers stumbled over the now-warm keys of my laptop. It seemed to hum comfort to me.

"Hello," I typed and paused. What should I say? How should I start this? Frowning, I continued to type:

"My friend and I are doing an English project. It is what is called the ethnography..." I smiled and nodded to myself as the words rolled off my fingers and crashed into the email document.

"Thank you," I wrote, "Sincerely, Leyen Trang" and grinned at my accomplishment.

There--that was that. I sat back, spinning around in anticipation. Well, I won't be getting a reply in a few seconds... However, within the hour, I had gotten a reply.

With shaking fingers, I moved my mouse over and opened the message. My eyes skimmed its contents, but I only knew one thing:

I was still waiting for my reply.

They hadn't directly answered my question, instead, choosing to tell me that they had forwarded the email to the staff of the Brookdale Library.

Great, more waiting.

Finally, Tuesday the week before it was due, Pakou and I decided we couldn't wait any longer and took matters into our own hands. After school, we met at the Brookdale Library where we marched over to the Information Desk.

Voice slightly shaking and nerves bundled into a jumble, we introduced ourselves to the lady at the desk and told her about our English project and how we were doing an ethnography (without saying ethnography). She raised her eyebrows and directed us over to Alicia, the teen volunteer coordinator and our would-be cultural broker.

Once repeating the story over to Alicia, she laughed and told us that they had just been talking about us and our project in a meeting before. She walked us back over to the Information Desk and introduced us as the ethnographers.

That afternoon seemed to fly over my head. Alicia helped set the dates we would meet and observe and without further ado, she bade us good day and waved us off until Thursday afternoon.

TCE Chapter 8: Cultural Themes and Cultural Adaption [Post #4]

Is it bad that when I read about Ruth Benedict's description of the Hopi Indians, I thought of Spock's people? (I can't remember what they were called...)

This chapter talks about how there are different mini cultural groups within the subcultural group you are looking at. That makes me a bit worried since PK and my own ethnography group doesn't seem to really have a subcultural group--wait, actually, I think I've just thought of it. They're divided into three desks: the Service Desk, the Information Desk, and the Children's Information Desk (although the Information Desk could be called the adult's information desk). One of the workers there (not technically a librarian) mentioned that although they all worked at a library, the workers up at the Service Desk were doing a completely different job than the others in the information desks and thus, were not called librarians.

Huh, interesting.

Well, I shouldn't spill too much.

Young @ Heart [Post #3]

The ethnography we watched yesterday and today, I thought, was absolutely amazing. I loved every bit of it. The people in it were amazing. The way they are so devoted to their music and songs and their "choir" group makes me a bit envious.

When they lost two of their members and kept going, just that act was phenomenal. I know a lot of people say, "go on without me" or "whatever happens, the show must go on" and all, but I'm not sure how many times others actually listen to that and continue on. This really showed how tight-knit their group was.

TCE Chapter 7: Ethnographic Detail and Cultural Focus [Post #2]

This chapter starts out asking yourself about which direction to take the ethnography questions after the person interviewed starts restating facts. Based on just the first paragraph, I think it should be really helpful. However, I also think that this chapter probably should have come in earlier since it talks about interviewing.

I liked the bulleted list and examples. It's clear and I noticed that one of the bullets: collect stories. I tried that earlier today but the person I asked didn't seemed to remember anything of significance. Maybe I'll try again...

As for the focus, I'm not yet sure on what the focus on my ethnography will be. We're probably supposed to have some idea but everything is still muddled and sketchy in my head right now.

TCE Chapter 6: Discovering Meaning [Post #1]

This chapter kind of focuses on how to ask the right questions for the interviews. I found this helpful since I was unsure on how to ask questions for the interviews. I am also rather stuck for that and wondering how I am going to be able to get the interviews in.

Could an email interview work? I was a cultural broker twice before for my friend's ethnography project and both of them sent me emails. I think it might be clearer since the answer is written down in front of us and in their writing style. Also, they probably are less likely to forget things when they can re-read it themselves.

However, the problem is that we can't really ask follow-up questions. Unless, we wait.

TCE Chapter 5: Discovering Taxonomic Structure [Post #6]

What do you do next in the ethnographic research process once you have completed your first interview and typed your field notes?

Good question. I suppose a lot of the notes would be just overwhelming to look at. I've never really heard of the word "taxonomic" before--or at least--used in an English class.

The analogy of the cars in a parking lot used it a lot made the introduction to the chapter easy to understand. I wasn't sure what this chapter was going to be about (but I could guess: something of organizing the notes) and so this introduction makes it interesting.

As I read further, I find myself slightly confused. I understand that it could be split into four types: kinds of, parts of, ways to, and steps in, finding that definite relationship between these four types and our ethnography project is unclear. Am I over thinking it? Or am I just not reading it thoroughly enough? Hopefully, a lot of this will be explained in class tomorrow.

Ethnography [Post #5]

Now is a good time to start panicking, right? So PK and I have only done half our hours so far and we were supposed to have sixth done on Monday (finished by Wednesday night), however, it seems someone forgot to mention she had work.

Well, hopefully our cultural broker won't mind us coming in our Tuesday instead.

In any case, the both of us have gotten down a ton of notes. I reviewed my notes just yesterday and they're all over the place! I guess I'd have to rewrite and organize them.

Research Paper + Ethnography [Post #4]

Tomorrow is the due date for the research paper and I'm unsure on my feelings about this. On one hand, I'm glad to get rid of this paper, yet, on the other hand, I think there could be more work done on my paper.

Today's little mini editing workshop made me realize that there was a lot more to English than what we already know. It seems like there's--as Miss Mork puts it--another language we're learning.

Well, today PK and I finally went to our ethnography group--the librarians. They seemed very entertained at the fact that we were observing them in their "natural habitat". We got a lot of notes down and I was surprised to find that asking follow-up questions are a lot easier than I though at first. Our next observation is on Saturday, so until then.

Ethnography + Research Paper [Post #2]

Tomorrow is Wednesday and that means that the field notes for our ethnography will be due the next week. This makes me panic. However, it does not make me run around in circles screaming like a headless chicken. This would be because PK and I have finally gotten around to getting down the specific dates for our adventure! The last two hours will actually take place that Wednesday night, though, so I hope Ms. Mork will be alright with that.

In any case, I can't wait to get started. We're heading into the wilderness on Thursday!

As for the research paper, the third draft is due tomorrow. Tonight, I've added in the internal citation. The problem is, however, I've forgotten most of what part of the information came from where. That and when I tried to open my Word document for my notes, for some unknown reason, the document would not open. It stated that it was corrupt, which confused me because I don't remember doing anything horribly to my jump drive.

In other news regarding my research paper, I've added a bit more things, cut a few things, changed the title, and decided against rearranging the paragraphs.

Let's take a deep breath, guys.

FSTI Chapter 34 [Post #3]

I liked that there was this one part that said you shouldn't overwhelm your audience with an overload of information. I tend to do that--I want to get everything done into my paper and so I write with my eyes on my notes and string each piece of evidence to the next. I guess it isn't the best idea.

So, like PK, I have hit many dead ends and have finally decided upon the trend of children and teens affected by ADHD. Actually, now that I think about it, I might change to the trend adults because we just don't see that as often.

When I said I was looking forward to this earlier, I meant it as though we could pick some random topic that sounded interesting. Although ADHD is interesting, it's definitely not something I'd choose to research in my spare time. Now, I just want to rush this paper.

Which brings me to another dilemma: the ethnography. Did I mention I wasn't going to go to PK's workplace anymore? I'm not sure I can dig up a good enough report... and PK thought we should work together. I agreed and now we're stuck.

Edit: Of course I go and read the wrong chapter.

[Post #1, 2, 3, + 4]

I haven't posted in a while but here I go...

First off, personal narratives. Since it is due on Friday and today is Wednesday, I am nearly complete. Or, I could be. Before this class, my revisions consisted of merely reading over once or twice and correcting a few words, deleting some phrases, and checking the spelling and grammar. That was it. However, with this class, I learned many new techniques that have become extremely helpful and will continue to use. Never have I written and rewritten a paper so many times. I am on my fourth revision! And that's not including the first crappy draft. It's strange yet I feel a lot more comfortable with my essay as each revision passed.

Today's workshop was also helpful. I'm sure many of my classmates knew some of the things we talked about, but there was a lot of things that I hadn't noticed. Commas are so tricky and I had a lot of trouble with that and still do! The writing groups were also extremely helpful. At first though, we were still in a daze and unsure of what to do, so there wasn't a lot of modifications. However, with the second workshop, I got a lot down and fixed. I also realized that I did repeat a lot of words but when reading them aloud, it seemed even more prominent.

On the subject of papers, I have started ethnography just today. Since I've never done this, I was unsure and uneasy as to how to even begin. Mainly, I just walked around to get the feel for it and watched the employees of Chuck E. Cheese--PK's work place. There were not a lot of people there; it was only Wednesday.

Finally, research papers. The research, I think, is due next Wednesday, right? That leaves less than a week to find a topic (if not already done so) and finish the research. I am unsure about my topic at the moment. I kind of want to do one on how age affects the ability to learn new languages. But that may be tricky--I'll poke around some more and hopefully will find something that interests me.

Ethnography [Post #2]

Ethnography. My first encounter with this word was actually on another blogging site. I happened across it, and curious, skim the contents. The whole project was done through online messaging, through the internet. Fascinating. It was actually on an online fanbase, a small community of fans who gathered to discuss their common interest.

As I watched my friends flutter frantically about due to their English ethnography project about a year later, I became interested. A study of a subculture was something I hadn't thought of before. Pretty soon, they managed to rope me into helping them with their project.

Now, I find myself nervously tapping my feet and excited to work on this project. The only problem was on what. I have absolutely no idea what subculture or group (or culture for that matter) I would study--oh joy, the stress.

Still, reading TCE made me realize certain things that I never actually gave much thought to. For example, when I read that some people said that "green" and "blue" were the same color (as an example for tacit culture), I realized that my parents do that. To them, the words for "green" and "blue" are the same.

Continuing on, TCE began explaining Microcultures, which, before this day, I have never thought of. (Google Chrome does not recognize the word "Microcultures", random thought there.) A culture within a culture--makes sense, yes? Most people don't think of that though. They don't think that say, a basketball team is a culture. I agree, but that might be because most people don't know what culture is exactly.

Which brings us back to the first chapter and the explanation of cultures.