Writing 20: ‘The Lives of Others’
2010_09_13
Major Writing Assignment 1A
The ‘Issues’ Post: A Collective Resource for Moving Ahead.
Overview
We began the semester with the seemingly simple question: Can we truly access, understand, and
represent the lives of others? Since then, we have begun to explore how ethnography can be a means for
doing just that. While full of possibilities, ethnographic research and writing also has its inherent
problems and challenges. You will encounter many of these issues first-hand as you begin your own
research projects in the coming weeks. For now, we are going to pause to carefully consider what issues
lie ahead. To do so, we will construct a course blog site under the name “Issues of Ethnographic Research
and Writing,” (aka the ‘Issues’ Post) whereby each of us will provide a 3-4 page essay entry on a
particular ‘issue’ of our choosing. Comprised of our individual contributions, the ‘Issues Post will serve
as a collective resource as we prepare—and ultimately carry out— our respective ethnographies going
forward.
The Post will be organized as an inventory of key concepts, concerns, challenges, etc. Once
uploaded, your entry will consist of the following layers: (a) the key term of the ‘issue’ (for example,
‘voice’, which will be presented on our Wordpress site as a ‘category’) + the title of your essay; (b) a
short 250-word quick reference synopsis; and (c) your 3-4 page essay. Readers of the Post will thus be
able to click from (a) to (b) to (c) to dive further and further into the given issue. The idea here is to create
a shared knowledge base that we may consult as a class and individually throughout the semester to help
us tackle the tough ‘issues’ of doing ethnography.
Aims
This assignment is based on the idea that to become effective ethnographers, we must first
become effective readers and critics of ethnographic texts. Many veteran ethnographers will tell you,
there is no way to know what the 'field' has in store without experiencing it yourself. This may be
partially true. That is not to say, however, that we cannot learn a great deal by engaging with the texts of
published ethnographers—and the insights of our peers. Combining these into one shared knowledge
base, the Issues Post is intended as a resource through which we can hone our pre-field awareness and
research strategies.
Importantly, the effectiveness of individual contributions—and thus the ‘Issues Post’ as a
whole—depends largely on how each of us mobilizes the tenets of academic writing broadly speaking.
The most helpful entries will necessarily involve: actively engaging with the work of others; developing a
clear, well-evidenced analysis; and situating the analysis of the given ‘issue’ within specific scholarly and
social contexts. In short, the Post entries should read as statements of not just budding ethnographers, but
also grounded academic writers.
Timing
Building our ‘Issues’ Post is designed to work in tandem with the writing of our individual
Research Proposals. Together, they mark a pivotal moment in our course. With the ‘Issues’ Post we are
effectively looking back at the ethnographies read thus far; with our Research Proposals we are looking
ahead to the research to come. Through these exercises, we are thus establishing the foundations for
moving into Unit II---the real heart--of the course following Fall Break.
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Writing 20: ‘The Lives of Others’
2010_09_13
Assignment Guidelines.
Choosing Your Issue: Your first task is to decide upon an ‘issue’. And what ‘issue’ should I
choose?, you might ask. That is up to you. It could be a strength of ethnography in accessing and
representing the Other, a weakness thereof, or perhaps some combination of both. (After all, the
possibilities and problems of ethnographic research and writing are often two sides of the same
coin.) To date, we have explored many topics worthy of further consideration: for instance, issues
of entry, establishing relationships, reflexivity, translation, voice, evidence vs. interpretation,
transparency, comprehensiveness, representational power, etc. These are only a few; others that
have arisen can be found on the skeletal ‘issues’ post already up on our course Wordpress site.
Consider these an inventory of potential topics, but do not limit yourself to them. If there is an
‘issue’ that has caught your attention, bothered you, or excited you in particular ways, this is your
chance to shed some necessary light on it for both you and your audience. Make sure though that
the topic you choose promises to be relevant to your own ethnographic work to come.
Objectives of the Post. Your contribution should make clear (a) what the ‘issue’ is and (b) how
it informs ethnographic writing. Your first job in the paper will thus be to define the 'issue' in
your own terms and signal to its relevance. The most effective essays will not merely define an
issue, but also ‘problematize’ it in provocative ways. For instance, if you were to write about,
say, ‘voice’, you might talk about the challenges of presenting, balancing, and/or switching
between different voices in ethnographic writing—be it that of the ethnographer, the ‘native’, the
interpretive voice vs. the descriptive voice, etc. The idea in ‘problematizing’ the given issue is to
provide for the class a nuanced analysis, so as to raise our collective awareness of the given issue.
Once the ‘issue’ is presented, your next goal will be to demonstrate (or ‘evidence’) how
it informs ethnographic research and writing. To do this, you will need to engage with our course
readings to show how particular ethnographers have dealt with this issue (or not) in their work.
You are encouraged to be constructively critical in assessing the course readings. Moreover, you
are encouraged to think ‘behind’ the texts (as we have talked about in class) to consider not only
what is present in the text, but also what the text does not tell you, but perhaps should. Rather
than offer a survey of each and every author we have read, instead concentrate on one or two
authors, closely dissecting and evaluating their work in order to analyze the ‘issue’ at hand. Their
writing should serve as evidence to demonstrate your point, so be specific with your analysis,
examples, and referencing. Bear in mind that your Post entry is to serve as a resource for your
classmates, so providing them with lucid analysis and detailed references will make your piece
especially useful, going forward. Finally, do not be afraid to put provocative questions and/or
insights into your essay. Our aim with this Post is to ‘forward’ our understandings of the craft of
ethnography. These means coming to terms with issues that enable and haunt the craft. The Post
is our space to address these, so use this as an opportunity to push the envelope of our awareness.
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Writing 20: ‘The Lives of Others’
The Format
2010_09_13
Each entry will consist of the following.
Key Term: + Title
The title of your entry should capture the ‘issue’ at hand.
*
Quick Reference Synopsis: (250 words)
As a quick reference tool, this synopsis will be the portal into your larger essay. It
should provide a useful summary of the ‘issue’ for those unfamiliar with it, as well as
mention the authors in whose work you have traced out its ramifications.
*Using Wordpress, we will categorize our essays according to the Key Term of the
‘issue’ and use the Tag function to tag the authors used in each essay.
*Though this synopsis will precede your essay, it may be worthwhile to write it after
your have drafted the essay itself.
Essay: (3-4 pages)
This essay should stand as a complete document, fulfilling the designs charted above.
*During class, we will walk through a sample post so that everyone is clear on how to post their
entries—replete with categories, tags, synopses, etc.
Audience
Your audience is your classmates. Since we are all preparing to head off into the ‘field’, your
contribution should thus be written toward student ethnographers poised to begin fieldwork for the first
time.
Grading
The assignment will be graded with the following questions in mind: Does the essay clearly
define the ‘issue’ at hand? Does it effectively explore the ‘issue’ by providing in-depth evidence through
close readings of the course literature? Does the reader get a clear sense of the significance of this issue
to the course readings analyzed and to future ethnographic work? Does the essay provide original insight
and/or raise further questions that broaden and deepen one’s sense of the ‘issue’ and its ramifications? In
other words, does it ‘forward’ the readers understandings of the ‘issue’ at hand? Does the essay
communicate effectively (i.e. does the text have an effective organizational structure, appropriate tone, a
clear voice, etc)?
The First Draft will comprise 20% of the grade you receive for this assignment.
The actual Post entry (i.e. your ‘Final’ Draft) will comprise 80% of the grade.
Sequence
This Writing Assignment is designed to work in concert with the drafting of our individual
Research Proposals. In fact, the final version of your Research Proposal will include a section that
explicitly draws upon the ‘Issues’ Post. (More details will be provided in the Research Proposals writing
assignment). First though, we must get the Issues Post up and running. Here is a look at the steps we will
be taking to develop our individual contributions to this collective resource.
9/23
First Draft. (3-4 pages).
Hardcopies of First Drafts are due in class on Tuesday.
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Writing 20: ‘The Lives of Others’
2010_09_13
You will receive detailed feedback on your first draft from Towns by Monday 9/27. We will
spend some time in class on Tuesday (9/28) examining passages that exemplify the strengths and
problems that arose in the first draft.
9/29 Working Drafts (uploaded to Blackboard groups by 7pm Wednesday)
Please upload a copy of your ‘working draft’ to Blackboard. Your ‘Working Draft’ should be
somewhere in between your first and planned final draft. This can be a work-in-progress, but
please be sure it reads fluidly and is in a respectable state for peers to read on Thursday.
9/30 Small Group Workshops
Please come to class having read your peer’s Working Drafts and prepared to discuss ways to
improve these works-in-progress. We will be conducting small group workshops with a mind
toward making final improvement before uploading our Post entries over the weekend.
10/3 Final Post entries due to Wordpress by 7pm Sunday. (3-4 pages)
We will do a walkthrough of how to upload entries in class on Thursday (9/30).
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