Personal Journal: Reading Reaction

Putting Ethnographic Writing in Context:

I found it interesting that Ethnographic— participant observation research—could actually help expand writing techniques. I found the ethics of representation section to be very informative. It’s important to always show a participant that has been interview the notes, drafts, and transcripts so they can make for certain that everything is accurate. 

“We’re expecting you to learn a lot more about the culture you study than you could by reading about it, or listening to somebody else talk about it.”I really respect active learning styles, like the kinds this passage explains.  Personally for me, having a hands-on experience is the best way that I can learn.  “Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.”-Benjamin Franklin

Participant Observation as a Data Collection Method:

What really stood out to me in this reading was the “Why Use Observation to Collect Data?” section.  Observations are such an important key in so many different aspects. Picking up on the smallest thing—like a nonverbal cue—can really open up a whole new dimension in your research and give a paper more depth and detail.When observing situations it can be very difficult to figure out what is an important observation and what is unworkable.  From this reading I learned that a way to narrow down and focus in on what is an important observation is to ask yourself questions, like “what is happening and why?” this can be very helpful to make the best use of the opportunity presented.

I found the “Ethics” section to be very essential. Anonymity is an extremely serious thing because what is written or observed can theoretically hurt an individual’s personal or professional reputation. By giving to specific of details can potentially point out who a person is in a community, even if the actually name of the person is not mentioned. I understood this to be an important take-away for myself because I have a pattern of giving lots of details about things in my writing to really paint a picture for the reader, which is ok in certain circumstances, but it is imperative to know which situations specific details are ok in.