QUOTATION EXERCISE: A Hypothetical Interview with Benjamin Augustyn
For the informative essay, students are asked to inform the class about a discourse community by
incorporating primary research, in this case interview material. This activity asks students to imagine
that they are writing their project about written communication in Anthropology and have interviewed
Benjamin Augustyn, a PhD student in Global and Sociocultural Studies. After a brief introduction on
interview structure, two answers to two likely questions are presented. Student s will examine the raw
data for quotable material that they will then use to report about the subject in the homework
assignment.
The learning outcomes are: 1) identifying and incorporating quotable interview material both directly
and indirectly in a hands-on manner that prepares them for what they will have to do for their essay; 2)
think about how to structure interviews efficiently.
Introduction: Think about how to structure your interviews.
- Try to ask general questions about the interviewee and the field first, and then ask about specifics.
- Try to avoid redundant questions. Rephrasing a question and asking it again can get on the nerves of
those who are giving you their time and ultimately sour the interview.
- Do your background research, but don’t be afraid to ask if don’t understand something or need to
follow up.
Question 1 below is a more general and personal entrance into the interview designed to establish
rapport with the interviewee.
Question 2 is more specific to the research question "How important is writing in Anthropology?'
Classroom Activity: Find material for direct and indirect quotation.
The questions below are similar to questions you will be asking interviewees for your project. Break up
into groups of three or so, read the responses, and decide which information would be suitable for
direct or indirect quotation. Find ways in which the two answers can be linked together in light of your
topic. Also think about where you might like more clarification. Briefly write down your ideas in
sentence form for discussion. (10 minutes)
1) Why did you decide to go into Anthropology?
Oh, well, let’s see. I guess I had always wanted to since I was a kid looking at National Geographic and
pretending I was visiting Australian Aborigines. My dad had given me an old brown, vinyl briefcase that I
would fill with an axe and other goods to trade by some remote fireside in the desert. But I actually
started out studying Archaeology and Classics, and Geology, probably because of Indiana Jones, who’s
actually a grave robber, and then through various twists and turns wound up a different and better
university and had to take a course on the history of Anthropology. Well, to be clear, Anthropology in
the U.S. includes Archaeology, Folklore, Linguistics, and Physical Anthropology, so really I moved from
one field of study to another. So, anyway, in the course on the History of Anthropological Thought I was
exposed to more of the theorists who founded the field, most of whom were cultural anthropologists,
and we had a lot of guest lectures by members of the department, and eventually I was seduced by the
horrible and wonderful complexity of living humans, or human societies and culture. And really humans
are a mess, especially in groups, but an ordered mess, like my desk, which fascinates me. Well, not the
desk. You see, archeologists dig up the remains of once living societies and meticulously pick through
ancient garbage heaps, which has its merits, but cultural anthropologists have to make sense of people
now, and it’s like trying to hit a moving target: there’s constant flux, immense variation, and no theory
we can really rely on for explaining more than one society. And we still don’t know what culture is! And
by that I mean there’s no general consensus on a working definition. But yeah, I went into it because its
mess and I can’t help trying to figure it out.
2) What types of writing do Anthropologists do?
Oh, that’s going to take some time to answer because writing is the bread and butter of the field. It
really all depends on that, traditionally at any rate. I mean, sure, anthropologists have always taken
pictures, incorporated basic demographic data, etc., but we are about meaning and essentially about
translating other life worlds to other people, so it comes down to writing in the end, well mostly. The
writing starts before we even go into the field when we have to review the literature on everything that
was written before about the society or group we are interested in. And then before we go we have to
apply for approval to the Institutional Review Board like people in other disciplines who deal with living
subjects. And then all the other bits and bobs just to get there like visa applications, letters to foreign
scholars, etc. Okay, so when we are actually in the field, we amass loads of notes from participant
observation, thousands of pages of interview transcripts, journal entries, which can range from
theoretical reflections to cries for help, because being in a foreign place and trying to get people to talk
to you can be really frustrating. The famous anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski left behind a very
revealing diary. So, yeah, all of this has to be entered in to a qualitative data analysis program at some
point and then coded and analyzed, and all the while the anthropologist is producing more text as he or
she reflects on the data and tries to make sense of it, as well as translating it. Oh, and of course many
anthropologists use surveys now. In the end, the anthropologist should have a number of academic
research articles, some reports, and a possibly book - in my case I’ll be happy with a dissertation.
Homework: Practice Write-up.
Be sure to review Section 42 of The Everyday Writer. Using your notes from the group activity and
referring to the interview transcript, briefly report (1-2 paragraphs) the results of the two interview
questions to your audience, the class, properly using direct and indirect quotations. Try to relate the two
answers to each other as much as possible to create a unified narrative. This will help you practice
quoting and incorporating interview material into an informative essay. Post to the course website by
the beginning of class on Monday, October 3.