Ethnography Final Project

This project is essentially an ethnography, though there are a number of different ways that you can enter the research and writing.

• First, you need to define a cultural group that you are interested in researching and writing about.  In order to make the writing meaningful, it is generally best to pick a group that you have a specific interest in and a clear relationship to.
• Second, you need to define clearly why you want to study this group-- what do you already know, what do you want to find out, and what good will this do you and your readers?
• In the process of thinking through what good this will do, imagine exactly who would benefit from reading about what you are writing.  Remember, you have the option of doing these projects as web projects instead of traditional papers.
• If you choose to do a web project, you must still complete the primary requirements for a traditional research paper:
• The equivalent of 8-10 pages of critical writing
• Substantial research, including at least 5 quality sources that you cite in your paper
• A works cited page (or bibliography)
• A strong central theme/point that you are making throughout the text and which every part of your text clarifies, demonstrates, explains, or proves in some way
• A clear relationship between each section of the text and the section the precedes and proceeds it
• The biggest differences between the web project and a traditional paper are in the ways in which you organize and structure the writing, link sections of text, use images, color, sound, etc., and can link to outside sources (web sites and other relevant online articles and texts)
• Regardless of whether or not you do a web project, I want you to imagine that you are putting your work up on the world wide web -- this can help you think through audience more clearly than if you think of me as the only reader for your work.  Who SHOULD read your work, and what good will it do them?
• Develop a clear and specific set of questions to research.
• As you research, keep an annotated bibliographyof everything you read.
• As you research, expand the questions you have to ask of your project -- the more you find out, the more you will realize that you need to know.
• Once you have clarified an audience and a purpose for writing, complete your formal project proposal.  This is a formal assignment that should be about a page and a half long.  Go through the same steps for this that you would for any formal assignment-- draft, get a peer review, revise, and then submit to me.  In your proposal, define whether you are doing a web project or a traditional paper (which would be very boring....)
• Begin researching and drafting sections of your paper.  We will be devoting a considerable amount of in-class time to the research and writing process, so I will be able to address most of your questions about this one -on -one in class.

Remember to review the Ethnography of Everyday Life Web Site to refresh your memories about ethnographies and get ideas for how to define your topics and pursue your research.