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Rough Draft
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Revised
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Instructions
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Ethnography Going to Park
Preface
I go to the park on a daily basis because it is near my house and near one of the fast food restaurant. I have been going to the same park since I was four years old. Well the people change as time goes on, but there are a few that would stay. I am curious on why people go to a park that has old playground equipment and that not many people would keep the park clean As I walk through out the park, there is sense of cheery, relaxing, and exciting atmosphere there.
Background information
Lions Club Park (66.7 acres) established on Stan Schlueter Loop in 1997. In a city of 127,921 as its population and grown because it is military town, it is one of the parks that most people would go to because it has a aquatic center, baseball field, soccer field, and two playgrounds and a track. The park was built in the nineties with a base ball field, soccer field, and a playground , but over the years, the Lions Club Park has built a track, a second play ground, a water park, and a gym. People would actually host a birthday party, a picnic, and just a place for people to hangout with. It actually a place where middle school foot teams practice before the school year start.
Observation
On a nice sunny day like today, it was on a Saturday, September 11, 2016, when I went to the park to go meet my cousin. I took my phone, my dog, and my wallet just so I can get some exercise along with my dog. I wanted to do some research into this project since I have never heard of Ethnography before. Lions Club Park is one of the popular parks to go to in Killeen, besides the only downside to this is that it does not have a dog park. The parks location is near one of the busiest roads and is close to two neighborhoods which is convenient for me since it is walking distances from my house. I enter from the back of the park where you can walk through tall grass and find discarded benches and soccer goals. There are three entrances to the park which is the main entrance which would lead you to the parking lot and you can park facing the play ground or near the baseball field. The other is taking the road next to the sonic which you can see the parking lot in front of you and the baseball field to your left. Usually I take the back entrance which is going through tall grass and seeing the back of the park.
The age group of people there ranges from one to sixty because people there like to go jogging, take their kids, and going to the gym there. Well some people there play basket ball at the basket ball court next to the play ground.
For the interview I choose two people which is my mother and older cousin because I am not comfortable talking to people that I do not know. the people that I was looking was someone who lives in Killeen for a long time and someone who goes to park everyday.
I actually forgot to record our session since my phone was low battery. I asked the following questions and took notes on what they said.
Here are some of the questions that I ask them:
- What do you find interesting about this park?
- Why go to this park even though it is usually crowded in the afternoon?
- What do you do here at Lions Club Park?
- What places do you visit when you are at the park?
Conclusion
In the end, I cannot draw in answer from my interviews and that the people there are just ordinary people that I would see having fun and exercising at the park. For most people, it about spending the day with friends, family, and the occasional bringing your pet. I can not say much that very little to talk about on this. As I observe people in the local park, I would always wonder what is so interesting about them that I had to use my imagination on what lifestyle they have and where they work.
Works cited
By the 2010s, There Were 15 Mickey's Stores in the Area. "Killeen History: Timeline." Timeline : History : Killeen, Texas. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Sept. 2016.
"Mickey's Dog Park Now Open." Killeen Family Recreation Center and Aquatics Center at Lions Club Park. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Sept. 2016.
Suburbanstats.org. "Current Killeen, Texas Population, Demographics and Stats in 2016, 2015." SuburbanStats.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Sept. 2016.
Ethnography Going to Park
Preface
I go to the park on a daily basis because it is near my house and near one of the fast food restaurant. I have been going to the same park since I was four years old. Well the people change as time goes on, but there are a few that would stay. I am curious on why people go to a park that has old playground equipment and that not many people would keep the park clean As I walk through out the park, there is sense of cheery, relaxing, and exciting atmosphere there.
Background information
Lions Club Park (66.7 acres) established on Stan Schlueter Loop in 1997. In a city of 127,921 as its population and grown because it is military town, it is one of the parks that most people would go to because it has a aquatic center, baseball field, soccer field, and two playgrounds and a track. The park was built in the nineties with a base ball field, soccer field, and a playground , but over the years, the Lions Club Park has built a track, a second play ground, a water park, and a gym. People would actually host a birthday party, a picnic, and just a place for people to hangout with. It actually a place where middle school foot teams practice before the school year start.
Observation
On a nice sunny day like today, it was on a Saturday, September 11, 2016, when I went to the park to go meet my cousin. I took my phone, my dog, and my wallet just so I can get some exercise along with my dog. I wanted to do some research into this project since I have never heard of Ethnography before. Lions Club Park is one of the popular parks to go to in Killeen, besides the only downside to this is that it does not have a dog park. The parks location is near one of the busiest roads and is close to two neighborhoods which is convenient for me since it is walking distances from my house. I enter from the back of the park where you can walk through tall grass and find discarded benches and soccer goals. There are three entrances to the park which is the main entrance which would lead you to the parking lot and you can park facing the play ground or near the baseball field. The other is taking the road next to the sonic which you can see the parking lot in front of you and the baseball field to your left. Usually I take the back entrance which is going through tall grass and seeing the back of the park.
The age group of people there ranges from one to sixty because people there like to go jogging, take their kids, and going to the gym there. Well some people there play basket ball at the basket ball court next to the play ground.
For the interview I choose two people which is my mother and older cousin because I am not comfortable talking to people that I do not know. the people that I was looking was someone who lives in Killeen for a long time and someone who goes to park everyday.
I actually forgot to record our session since my phone was low battery. I asked the following questions and took notes on what they said.
Here are some of the questions that I ask them:
Conclusion
In the end, I cannot draw in answer from my interviews and that the people there are just ordinary people that I would see having fun and exercising at the park. For most people, it about spending the day with friends, family, and the occasional bringing your pet. I can not say much that very little to talk about on this. As I observe people in the local park, I would always wonder what is so interesting about them that I had to use my imagination on what lifestyle they have and where they work.
Works cited
By the 2010s, There Were 15 Mickey's Stores in the Area. "Killeen History: Timeline." Timeline : History : Killeen, Texas. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Sept. 2016.
"Mickey's Dog Park Now Open." Killeen Family Recreation Center and Aquatics Center at Lions Club Park. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Sept. 2016.
Suburbanstats.org. "Current Killeen, Texas Population, Demographics and Stats in 2016, 2015." SuburbanStats.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Sept. 2016.
Preface
I go to the park on a daily basis because it is near my house and near one of the fast food restaurant. I have been going to the same park since I was four years old. Well the people change as time goes on, but there are a few that would stay. I am curious on why people go to a park that has old playground equipment and that not many people would keep the park clean As I walk through out the park, there is sense of cheery, relaxing, and exciting atmosphere there.
Background information
Lions Club Park (66.7 acres) established on Stan Schlueter Loop in 1997. In a city of 127,921 as its population and grown because it is military town, it is one of the parks that most people would go to because it has a aquatic center, baseball field, soccer field, and two playgrounds and a track. The park was built in the nineties with a base ball field, soccer field, and a playground , but over the years, the Lions Club Park has built a track, a second play ground, a water park, and a gym. People would actually host a birthday party, a picnic, and just a place for people to hangout with. It actually a place where middle school foot teams practice before the school year start.
Observation
On a nice sunny day like today, it was on a Saturday, September 11, 2016, when I went to the park to go meet my cousin. I took my phone, my dog, and my wallet just so I can get some exercise along with my dog. I wanted to do some research into this project since I have never heard of Ethnography before. Lions Club Park is one of the popular parks to go to in Killeen, besides the only downside to this is that it does not have a dog park. The parks location is near one of the busiest roads and is close to two neighborhoods which is convenient for me since it is walking distances from my house. I enter from the back of the park where you can walk through tall grass and find discarded benches and soccer goals. There are three entrances to the park which is the main entrance which would lead you to the parking lot and you can park facing the play ground or near the baseball field. The other is taking the road next to the sonic which you can see the parking lot in front of you and the baseball field to your left. Usually I take the back entrance which is going through tall grass and seeing the back of the park.
The age group of people there ranges from one to sixty because people there like to go jogging, take their kids, and going to the gym there. Well some people there play basket ball at the basket ball court next to the play ground.
For the interview I choose two people which is my mother and older cousin because I am not comfortable talking to people that I do not know. the people that I was looking was someone who lives in Killeen for a long time and someone who goes to park everyday.
I actually forgot to record our session since my phone was low battery. I asked the following questions and took notes on what they said.
Here are some of the questions that I ask them:
- What do you find interesting about this park?
- Why go to this park even though it is usually crowded in the afternoon?
- What do you do here at Lions Club Park?
- What places do you visit when you are at the park?
Conclusion
In the end, I cannot draw in answer from my interviews and that the people there are just ordinary people that I would see having fun and exercising at the park. For most people, it about spending the day with friends, family, and the occasional bringing your pet. I can not say much that very little to talk about on this. As I observe people in the local park, I would always wonder what is so interesting about them that I had to use my imagination on what lifestyle they have and where they work.
Works cited
By the 2010s, There Were 15 Mickey's Stores in the Area. "Killeen History: Timeline." Timeline : History : Killeen, Texas. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Sept. 2016.
"Mickey's Dog Park Now Open." Killeen Family Recreation Center and Aquatics Center at Lions Club Park. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Sept. 2016.
Suburbanstats.org. "Current Killeen, Texas Population, Demographics and Stats in 2016, 2015." SuburbanStats.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Sept. 2016.
Writing Project 2: Ethnography
Background and Overview
For Writing Project 1, you examined a ritual, practice, behavior, or habit (what we will generically refer to as a “cultural phenomenon”) in your personal life to better understand your cultural identity, relying on the conventions of autoethnography to write about it from a first-person perspective. In many ways, you crafted a narrative (or story) that explained how and why this cultural phenomenon defined who you are as an individual.
For Writing Project 2, we are going to ask you to look beyond your own identity to the identity of a larger cultural group or community to which you belong. We are all a part of multiple, different, sometimes even contradictory cultural groups or communities: through our families, we might be connected to a specific ethnic or racial community; our religion might connect us to another community; the music we listen to might connect us to another group; sports activities might connect us to yet another community. This assignment asks you to choose one of these groups or communities to which you belong and to investigate it.
You will investigate this group or community in order to inform others about what these cultural phenomena suggest about the community and its values, beliefs, and practices. This will give you and your readers greater insight into how the group or community understands and defines its own identity. As an insider, you may think you already know your community well. However, one of the goals of the project is to challenge your own preconceptions and reflect more deeply on what defines this group. To this end, you will engage in research as a participant-observer, meaning you will engage in primary research—interviews, observations, and field notes—to understand this cultural phenomenon from the inside out.
Requirements and Deliverables
1. In your essay, you should include a narrative structure that tells the story of how you conducted your research.
2. You should summarize, explain, and discuss the results of your close, detailed observations and field notes in a way that is understandable to your readers.
3. You should also summarize, explain, and discuss the results of your interview(s).
4. Drawing upon your observations, field notes, and interview materials, your essay should present your reflections and insights on the community or group you have researched. Your primary insight should derive from your synthesis of the data you have accumulated: your observations, field notes, and interview materials. You should discuss this material at length, explaining how it supports or frames your insight, what it suggests about the role of specific beliefs, values, and practices in defining the community, and drawing conclusions about why and how the community defines itself.
5. Your essay should be organized in such a way that a reader can follow your thinking and reasoning from paragraph to paragraph and within each paragraph. Your primary insight should help to structure the essay for the reader.
6. You should include 2-3 multimodal elements such as photographs (of the people, sites, activities, and artifacts that you have researched), hyperlinks to relevant materials, clips of audio or video from recorded interviews, and so forth. You must make sure that your reader understands why you are including these elements and why including them enriches your piece of writing. Consider what media beyond text might reinforce your main idea to readers, convey in another way the significance of your autoethnography, and/or appeal to your readers from a different register.
7. Your completed essay should have a title and be approximately 1700 words in length.
Project Submission – Part 1
Upon completing your first draft of Writing Project #1, do the following:
1. Add your draft to your portfolio, and publish it to the web.
2. In the first space provided, copy and paste the rough draft web address (URL) into the Peer Assessment assignment provided below.
Project Submission – Part 2
3. In the second space provided, include up to two additional questions you would like your reviewer to answer based on their reading of your project (paste or type these into the second text box below where you pasted your URL).
4. Submit your response (the URL + any additional questions for your reviewers).
Background and Overview
For Writing Project 1, you examined a ritual, practice, behavior, or habit (what we will generically refer to as a “cultural phenomenon”) in your personal life to better understand your cultural identity, relying on the conventions of autoethnography to write about it from a first-person perspective. In many ways, you crafted a narrative (or story) that explained how and why this cultural phenomenon defined who you are as an individual.
For Writing Project 2, we are going to ask you to look beyond your own identity to the identity of a larger cultural group or community to which you belong. We are all a part of multiple, different, sometimes even contradictory cultural groups or communities: through our families, we might be connected to a specific ethnic or racial community; our religion might connect us to another community; the music we listen to might connect us to another group; sports activities might connect us to yet another community. This assignment asks you to choose one of these groups or communities to which you belong and to investigate it.
You will investigate this group or community in order to inform others about what these cultural phenomena suggest about the community and its values, beliefs, and practices. This will give you and your readers greater insight into how the group or community understands and defines its own identity. As an insider, you may think you already know your community well. However, one of the goals of the project is to challenge your own preconceptions and reflect more deeply on what defines this group. To this end, you will engage in research as a participant-observer, meaning you will engage in primary research—interviews, observations, and field notes—to understand this cultural phenomenon from the inside out.
Requirements and Deliverables
1. In your essay, you should include a narrative structure that tells the story of how you conducted your research.
2. You should summarize, explain, and discuss the results of your close, detailed observations and field notes in a way that is understandable to your readers.
3. You should also summarize, explain, and discuss the results of your interview(s).
4. Drawing upon your observations, field notes, and interview materials, your essay should present your reflections and insights on the community or group you have researched. Your primary insight should derive from your synthesis of the data you have accumulated: your observations, field notes, and interview materials. You should discuss this material at length, explaining how it supports or frames your insight, what it suggests about the role of specific beliefs, values, and practices in defining the community, and drawing conclusions about why and how the community defines itself.
5. Your essay should be organized in such a way that a reader can follow your thinking and reasoning from paragraph to paragraph and within each paragraph. Your primary insight should help to structure the essay for the reader.
6. You should include 2-3 multimodal elements such as photographs (of the people, sites, activities, and artifacts that you have researched), hyperlinks to relevant materials, clips of audio or video from recorded interviews, and so forth. You must make sure that your reader understands why you are including these elements and why including them enriches your piece of writing. Consider what media beyond text might reinforce your main idea to readers, convey in another way the significance of your autoethnography, and/or appeal to your readers from a different register.
7. Your completed essay should have a title and be approximately 1700 words in length.
Project Submission – Part 1
Upon completing your first draft of Writing Project #1, do the following:
1. Add your draft to your portfolio, and publish it to the web.
2. In the first space provided, copy and paste the rough draft web address (URL) into the Peer Assessment assignment provided below.
Project Submission – Part 2
3. In the second space provided, include up to two additional questions you would like your reviewer to answer based on their reading of your project (paste or type these into the second text box below where you pasted your URL).
4. Submit your response (the URL + any additional questions for your reviewers).