Essay 3: The Mini-Ethnography
Essay Three: Mini-Ethnography Essay
For this assignment, you’ll employ the strategies in The Curious Writer to write a mini-ethnography of sorts (ethnography means “thick description”). Like the other essays we’ve worked on this semester, we’ll work from a question, something you are curious about, and that will lead you to your research. The kind of research you’ll be embarking on for this essay, though, might rely a bit on the kind of research you did for Essay 2, but for this essay you’ll primarily be conducting “field research” and perhaps incorporating personal interviews* (we’ll talk about this more in class).
In this essay, you’ll investigate some aspect of a sub-culture—anything from sports fans to a local coffeehouse to a religious/Greek/extracurricular group on campus to a “virtual” community (as usual, we’ll generate ideas and topics in class). You’ll observe this group or culture in some way and perhaps interview members of this culture. You’ll then write an essay about this culture in which you employ “thick description” to help an outsider get more of a sense of that culture than they had before. You’ll still want to have a controlling idea for your essay (perhaps the group is much more complicated or diverse than you previously thought?). What are the primary beliefs of this culture? How is it communicated in speech, visuals, etc? Making clear that you are an engaged visitor that might know more than the average person, you will interpret the culture that you see around you. How does this group affect or reflect assumptions about its culture? How does the group complicate assumptions about the culture (for example, if you were studying English professors, might you be surprised to see that over lunch they talked about things other than books or grammar?)?
We’ll talk about how to draft this piece and read some models. In the end, you want a paper that lets outsiders (your audience) briefly into another culture, and then you want to make meaning from what you have observed (in other words: what themes or ideas come out from your observations, interviews, and other research).
*We want everyone you speak to to know who you are and why you are talking to them. You’ll need to get permission to use their words in your paper, and you’ll need to have a works cited where you include their contact information.
Final Draft: 5-7 typed pages, plus a works cited page. The paper will follow MLA citation format.
Due Dates: (include author’s notes and copies for workshop):
First Draft Due: Tuesday, October 21.
Final Draft Due: Thursday, October 23.