cancellations - announcement of moved assignments

Dear Class,

I have already sent e-mails, notifying the cancellation of Monday, November 17's classes.
In that e-mail I have attached two worksheets. Below was the post that was to originally be posted once class began Monday, but is now going up a little earlier.

First: Some Homework / Assignment Announcements

1) Expanded Field Notes 2, originally due on Wednesday, November 19th at p.m. are now due five days late, to give both you and I extra time. I hope, though these are your only Expanded Field Notes, that you have made multiple visits to your culture. This is a trust issue. I trust you will have made at least 5 visits/observations on your own, in the last month and weeks to come.
Expanded Field Notes 2 is now due a week from today, after our last class before Turkey Day - Monday, November 24th.

2) Homework for Nov. 19th: Bring in 4-5 pages of your ethnography, typed, to be taken home for Peer Review by a coursemate.
Also, bring in 1 page of a your essay that uses a good amount of textual evidence from secondary sources that we can Workshop within the class time. Our goal is to get as many eyes on our drafts, and to get as much work on them before break!

Second: Worksheets attached to e-mails this morning:

1) In-text Citation Helpline: “!@#%@#$%” (stressed student).

Your final ethnography paper should include a very healthy dose of secondary source material used as textual evidence – as support – to help develop your own ideas found while doing fieldwork.

When providing such support – whether in summary, use of direct quotes, or in paraphrasing another author’s ideas – there are a couple of rules to follow in proper in-text citation. Those are as follows:

1) Acknowledge secondary source material using a couple of methods:
a. Within your writing you can introduce the author(s) and possibly their text,
before quoting, etc. If you choose this route, proper citation demands acknowledging page numbers. Example:

Jerry Angelo, author of Big Trucks are Manly, states that, “The idea that men must own the biggest, most powerful automobile is reinforced by a majority of American mass media” (14).

b. If you choose only to pull idea from source, you put author’s last name in parentheses:

“The idea that men must own the biggest, most powerful automobile is reinforced by a majority of American mass media,” and a stereotype of masculinity enacted by the brothers of Delta Upsilon (Angelo).

***Use this same kind of formatting and end of sentence citation when using summary or paraphrasing of a source, too.***

ONE MORE HUGE part of writing that will determine how well a writer incorporates secondary sources into their research papers is how one works to make the cited material their own; how much effort the writer puts in taking the quotes and explaining in the writing their relevance to their own essay.

1. Lead in to quotes/summary/paraphrasing by discussing your own ideas and projects
2. Lead out of citations before moving on to a new subject or a new point.
3. Never leave found material placed in your essay to speak for itself. Re-analyze and /or explain how the found quote/summary/paraphrasing is relevant to your ideas. Don’t end a paragraph on someone else’s idea!

4. Use “tags” to incorporate sources with a clear transition and understanding of how they’re to be used. Think of “tags” as the kind of clarification used by novelist when writing dialogue, where they write “Susie said with anger, “How dare you, Clarence. How dare you!”
A clearer example in terms of a scholarly tag, highlighted below:

The males of the fraternity exhibit a behavior of one-upmanship and uber-masculinty, “…reinforced by a majority of American mass media” (Angelo).

***Pay attention to where the end punctuation occurs in ALL citations. At the end of a citation, AFTER the parenthetical ( Ankney).  

2) Final Ethnography

             & presentation

The Final Essay is to be 15-20 (12-15 for Enhanced Sections) pages in length, double spaced, and should exhibit a thorough discussion of your chosen culture of study, using both the field work you’ve been doing the last month, prior knowledge and experience, and also secondary source material gathered during the entire process. Your essay should show an ability to discuss your culture in a well-rounded way, where various related issues on your culture are discussed – all painting a wider-but-focused picture of the culture.

The essay should also exhibit a clear organization of thought, with the audience able to easily follow along and comprehend the direction. Development of ideas and the essay’s structure will be intensely scrutinized by your final audience (the professor!).

Here is a list of things to be considered:
1) An overarching thematic viewpoint of the culture – “general thesis statement”
2) Reflective, analytical, detailed prose.
3) An objective and consistent point of view (1st person or 3rd person or ?)
4) Creative language that engages culture using good sensory details and as many
specifics as possible.
5) Use* of 7-10 secondary sources (books, articles, data analyzed by other authors)
- must cite at least three book sources within project
- may not use more than two Internet sites in counting towards minimum
- must use at least two published articles (those found on-line but from a
printed journal are considered print, not Internet sources!)

*Not only use, but proper citation of secondary sources within text and in Work Cited page, and inclusion of an appropriate amount of secondary source knowledge within essay. Lastly, explanation of secondary source material within essay . . .

6) Focused writing that thoroughly explores the ethnographer’s main points

Presentation:
Each of you is expected to give a 10-minute presentation on your culture, where you explain your main claims, give some support, and provide some kind of visual and/or audio proof. You are also expected to answer student questions, and will be graded both on your preparedness, ability to answer questions, and on the clarity and development of your discussion. Practice the length of your presentation, as rambling on past or stumbling short of the 10 minutes will affect grading of final ethnography.

Here are some possible routes to venture into for presentations:
- Videos: interviews and/or general example of culture
- Use of Internet – forums, community spaces, YouTube
- Powerpoint presentation
- Collage of photographs from culture
- Audio – music, interviews, etc.
- Props from culture – including people!
- Pamphlets from culture

*Those in need of media equipment should discuss their needs with professor in the classes PRIOR to the day of their presentation. Even if the equipment is backup.

for Mon. 11/17

Read pages 120-142 in DPC (3 articles in Chapter 4: Race and Ethnicity). Answer questions 1-3 on pages 129, 135 and 142

for Mon. 11/10 and extra

Read the first two articles in Chapter 2 of DPC: pages 45-63. Answer questions 1-3 on both pages 55 and 63.

Also, for anyone interested in taking Introduction to Literature, I am scheduled to teach a section on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30-1:50. I just found out today, but I still thought I'd spread the word. Tell your friends!

Lastly, next Wednesday (11/12) we will be workshopping an introduction (1-2 pages) of your ethnography final paper, in small groups. Use today's readings as a guide, as we discussed in class.

bests,

C.

for Wed. 11/5

Read the following articles, considering the language. Pay attention to how quickly the authors get into description of the place and the people. What kind of detail is being used to set the scene ASAP? How is each neighborhood defined within the larger city that surrounds each?

Also, pay attention to the structures of each article; how the authors decided to organize how to show you each city, and in what order they provided info. 

These articles are meant as some inspiration in your own ethnography writing. As you begin to draft the first pages of that final paper, look at how these published travel writers deal with writing of other cultures.

The first is  article is "36 Hours in Paris."

The second is "Newly Chic in Istanbul."

Myth and Spirituality

Dear Students: Below are some poems that invoke or respond to mythical characters and/or spirituality in their connection to our physical world. I'd like you to read them, and come up with one original question on myth, spirituality, religion; a question you could use in your own research of your specific cultures. Put this question in your Ethnography Journals.

In addition, I'd like you to write what we'll call a Halloween Cultural Encounter in your journals. This is to be short narrative where you write on something that happens to you in the next few days that involves Halloween in some way! This is kind of vague, so within each of our classes we will discuss it more. The last explanation: after telling your true story, you are to then give some brief analysis to what you learned about a culture, or American culture, or what was reinforced about either, from this encounter. Think of our topic of myth and spirituality and how that plays a role in the encounter . . . .

A REMINDER: We will meet on the THIRD FLOOR of the library on Monday for class. BRING YOUR JOURNALS so that I can grade them. 

The poems

Jack Gilbert's "Failing and Flying"

Yusef Kumonyakaa's "Instructions for Building Straw Huts"

Mary Karr's "Field of Skulls"

Michael Collier's "All Souls"

Sylvia Plath's "Edge"

Eamon Grennan's "The Cave Painters"

Percy Bysshe Shelly's "Hymn of Pan"

John Keat's "Hyperion"

for Monday 10/27 Cultural Vocab 2

Here are this weeks list of words to work with in your ethnography

journals, and be prepared to discuss.

1. diffusion
2. symbiosis
3. reciprocity
4. altruism
5. paralanguage
6. proxemics

Also, here is the Critical Encounters guidelines for those interested in submitting their creative non-fiction pieces to the Columbia Chronicle:

“Natural Tendencies”: Personal Narratives on Human|Nature

Throughout the 2008-09 school year, Critical Encounters, in partnership with the Columbia Chronicle, will present a weekly column titled “Natural Tendencies: Personal Narratives of Human|Nature.” These will be concise, personal narratives drawn from within our community, from a cross-section of faculty, staff, and students who represent the diverse population on our campus. These voices will provide us with perspectives that cut across ethnicity, class, region, gender, generation, and nationality. Each contributor will present a personal narrative that will highlight ways in which he/she is inspired by the natural world or reflections on a personal relationship with nature. The narrative might offer personal opinions on environmental issues and concerns, or specific social causes or actions undertaken to positively impact the planet.

The “Natural Tendencies” column will bring Critical Encounters to our community in a way that is immediate and personal. The narratives will forge connections with readers who will appreciate and hopefully be inspired by the efforts and ideas of other Columbia College citizens.

Contribute a Narrative.

We look forward to fresh stories and personal revelations that will emerge from these diverse voices.
- Write about any aspect of your life that you feel comfortable sharing.
- Make it personal and thoughtful.
- Submissions should be approximately 600 words.
- Please include your major and your classification (student, staff, faculty, and administrator)
- If you are a student, please indicate your level (freshman, sophomore, etc.)
- Include contact information (name, email address, phone number.)

Send narratives via email to: Kevin Fuller at kgfuller@colum.edu or criticalencounters@colum.edu

These narratives will be edited for inclusion either in The Columbia Chronicle or on the Critical Encounters website. We hope to send edited drafts to each contributor before final print.

for Wed. 10/22

As we begin to discuss more and more the HOW and WHY of cultural interaction, as we try to make sense of what each of our culture's value most . . . 

Read the following linked article from the NY Times. 

Answer in your journals: “What kind of place and space has the author painted of the country?” 

Explain your answer with textual evidence.

Also, come to next class having five questions for your ethnography research, based on what you’ve learned and are considering after discussion of the our first Cultural Vocabulary terms. What kinds of questions on your own culture do you have that involve the concepts discussed in the terms?

for Monday 10/20

Cultural Vocabulary

We all know words, and we all know we don’t know every word. Furthermore! We don’t always know the right word to use.

Since we are writing the scary-word papers called “ethnographies” it is important that we begin to accumulate a vocabulary which would be useful when writing said paper. We all want to sound brilliant, but we also want to understand what we’re writing. We want music, and we want meaning.

The words you will be asked to define should enable you to think of your own projects more intellectually. You will be defining cultural concepts and the like. Words to label some of the behavior and stratigraphy of the culture you end up actively observing and participating in, to a degree.

And?

So, in your journals that I asked you to have solely for this class, I would like you to seek out the definitions of anthropologically-relevant terms from time to time. You may find these terms in a dictionary, but more than likely the fuller definitions will come from encyclopedias or anthropological reference material (ATH school websites, etc.).

Once you find these words and their definitions, do the following in your journals:

1) Define the word and give credence to the source. Rather than just quote the definition verbatim (word for word), try summarizing and paraphrasing, instead.

2) Write a short paragraph where you reflect on the meaning of the word. How familiar are
you with the word, its concepts? Unfamiliar? How can you make the word relevant to “the real world” beyond it being a concept; a definition? You are being asked for an example that shows you understand the word and its relevance to our course.

Be ready to share and discuss these with the class each time you are given new words to add to your Cultural Vocabulary.


First?
1. etymology
2. ethnocentrism
3. acculturation
4. adaptive mechanism
5. cultural relativism
6. locus

Due: Monday, October 20, 2008 in your journals for class discussion