for Wednesday, October 1st !!!

Read the following article: "The couple who live in the mall" from Salon.com. You might have to click on the TOP RIGHT corner where it says "Enter Salon." Any problems, e-mail me and I can send you the article in another format.

You are to do two things in your ethnography: 1. Practice citation by citing this article found on a website, and 2. Summarize the article, naming who the subject of the text is, why are they doing what they're doing, and what points about American culture do the subjects or the author of article discuss (or what ideas do you infer in your reading)?'

*We will practice annotation Wednesday using this article, the two articles read for Monday's class. And hopefully we will have time practicing our own annotations of the sources found during our initial Library Research.

homework for Monday, September 29th

1) Bring in one of your secondary sources for your ethnography. We will discuss proper citation and also annotation next week.

2) Read the two essays in DPC on pages 102-118, and then respond to the following question in your ethnography journal:

"To what extent do you think The Simpsons and/or the (shopping) mall reflect American ideology?"

- reflect on the two essays, and consider in your response what they say about America or the American mindset. Also,consider why the authors feel their examples do or don't represent American Culture.

***reminder: the Research Proposal & Annotated Bib. are due a week from this coming Monday, October 6, 2008. Read that closely. Look at today's date. 

Web Trolls

Class, for Wednesday, September 17th you are to read the following article from The New York Times: "The Trolls Among Us."*  The article is pretty long, so don't wait until Tuesday night! 

If the link doesn't work, make sure to e-mail me and I can attach the article as a .pdf file for you to read. 

*Find article by clicking on the colored/ high-lighted font, for those not familiar with blogging techniques!

As you begin to think about your own culture you are to study, and what it is about the culture you are most interested in, here is an example of a larger on-line culture with an interesting role call, so to speak.

weeks Reading Questions and brief description of Ethnography Project

Reading ?s:

Page 5: 1-3, 5

Page 9: 1-3

Page 11: 1-3

Page 32: 1-3, (#5 would be interesting if you had time to watch one of the movies!, but very optional)

Ethnography Paper/Project:

Choose a local culture (people/place) to do participant observation on throughout the rest of the semester. This culture will be one that is both easy for you to access, and one that you are familiar with/ comfortable participating within to some degree.

You will do research in two ways. First, your participant observation involves you going to the culture and being part of it (to various extents), while also taking Field Notes that will help you write about the culture for your final paper. While doing observations, you are expect to write down what you see, hear, feel, smell and taste! Yes, you are working on recording the culture to the best of your ability. After this, you will be asked to reflect upon, and analyze the culture.

The second aspect of an ethnography, of any good, thorough research, is going to the library to find written textual sources. But, rather than look solely for material DIRECTLY related to your culture, you are GOING TO HAVE TO FIND SOURCES THAT MAY NOT DIRECTLY CORRELATE to your culture. 

This second aspect of research can be "hard." Remember: you are not doing a book report. Remember: you are stretching your active thinking skills, your analytical skills. Remember: your culture is not boxed into a neat and tidy, measurable square. Your culture is a culture within a larger American culture. Therefore, when looking for textual support, do not narrow the kinds of sources that may be "right" for your project.

We will discuss this more and more, beginning Wednesday, but flowing into Week 3.

For now, I will leave you with the laundry list of tangible requirements:  

1) The essay must be 15-20 pages in length for regular WAR 2  (12-15 min. for those in my Enhanced sections), double-spaced, MLA format.

2) You are required to have 8-10 secondary sources, outside of your own Field Notes, observations, your own interviews, your own data analysis. 

3) You must cite your sources within your final paper, giving credit to those authors whose ideas and research you've used in your own.

4) You will be required to give a 10-15 minute presentation to the class in the last two weeks of the course. You will be expected to provide a visual presentation of your culture, and you may use audio as well. 

5) Rather than simply try to outline and summarize the culture, I'd like you to pick something within your culture that interests you from the get-go and, along with illuminating on your overall culture, analyze and describe in your final paper how that "something" represents or fits within the culture. 

In the past, some students have struggled in writing the final paper because they don't know what angle to take. Choosing a specific aspect or action (or whatever you want to call "it") of the culture to really research and pay attention to gives you an angle to go from.

My own caution/wisdom towards this requirement: make your choice an inquiry, not a proof. You after inquiring WHY, not trying to prove yourself correct. Again, this is an idea that we will discuss throughout the semester.

F.A.Q. (frequently asked questions)

As e-mails come to me, I will try to put my common answers up here to frequently asked questions, and I will label each post so they can be easily searched as the blog grows!

Question #1: Citing Outside Sources 

Would you like sources for my facts or do you trust that
I'm not plagiarizing?

Answer /Explanation:

Yes, you should be (get?) in the habit of citing sources every time you include facts or knowledge from an outside, published source.

To be clear, if the facts are not from a study you've done yourself but from something you've read, and you don't cite those sources as coming from such and such person/place, then it would be plagiarism.

Plus, anybody who isn't naive and reading your work would look at your "facts"
and say, "Where they hell did these stats come from?"

Even if you're not sure of proper citation, it's better to attempt to credit sources
rather than leave readers in mystery.

Unless it is "common knowledge" and you are generalizing on common knowledge . . . but this is perhaps something to discuss in class earlier in the semester than usual. 

Two good rules I follow when considering citation of source material:

1) If I have to ask I probably have to do it! 

2) If I know where the fact/idea came from, I should give credit to that source.

Also: in defining "facts" let's put ideas, theories, concepts, etc. under the same rule. 

Monday, Week 2

Remember to come with your typed "What is your nature?" introductory statement, along with having done the reading ("Preface" and pages 1-32 of Discovering Popular Culture). And be prepared to share your writing with the class. Here are the questions, for those those who may have lost the prompt!:

What is your nature? (100 points)

Pick one of the questions below to answer, using your choice as a way to introduce a bit about who you are to the class:

1) What do you, as an individual, do to reduce your impact (carbon footprint?) on the planet?

2) How have emerging technologies changed your relationship with other people, and with nature?

3) What role have religious/spiritual traditions and texts played in determining your relationship with the natural world?

4) What role does the natural world play in your own artistic ambitions/projects?

*Feel free to, with this assignment, interpret and “play” with the question you choose to answer. The goal for all of us to learn about ourselves and about others by reflecting on these questions.
Please, go beyond simple answers. Make us interested.
Length requirement: 1-page, double-spaced, CREATIVE TITLE,
header (top left: name/date/prompt name)

Greetings, students! Welcome to my diabolical plan for our semester together. This blog is intended to do a handful of things to help you become better scholars, including: 

1) It will be a virtual hub to help guide you through our Ethnography adventure together, out of class. I will (irregularly) update the links and lists on the side-bar for those interested in investigating more than we can touch on within the classroom. 

2) I will post reminders for due dates.

3) I may (may) post readings, or at least create links to readings.

4) I will invite all students to be a contributor to the blog, but will maintain an administrative role.  You can create posts, send ideas/links to class-related material you think would be of interest.

5) Exemplary student work will be published on the blog for other students to read (with the permission (and hopefully pride) of the student, of course). We are a community of scholars, and this will be a way for students in each of the three sections of WARII to . . . communicate, and build on their own knowledge.

This is a knowledge bank, and I expect you to treat it as such. It will, I hope, continue to build, as the semester chugs towards winter. And, polite suggestions are welcome.

To a great semester for all of us,

Christopher