Extra Credit Blog- Penscape Reading

The piece of writing that stuck with me the most was one of the creative nonfiction writings. It was called "The Man in High Heels". It was basically a younger guy talking about embracing himself as a cowboy and his experience with his cowboy boots. I really liked how descriptive his writing was. The narrator gave me someone I could relate to because of personality and some of his problems. For example, him talking about being over-weight and needing to lose weight. I also enjoyed it because it was really funny. Especially the part when he was talking about the "how to break-in your cowboy boots" video he watched on YouTube, which was just a man wearing nothing but cowboy boots and underwear. I liked how he brought the end of the story back to the beginning. The narrative gave us, the audience, a good idea of who the narrator is as a person. His writing gave me some insight on how to write a good personal narrative and how to make it interesting. Overall I enjoyed almost all of the writings at the Penscape Reading.

Week 15- Posting 15

I feel like I've improved on a lot of things throughout the semester. The thing that sticks out the most though is my improvement on adding detail. I used to just touch on a subject and only go very little in depth, if any at all, on the subject. I feel like me focusing more on detail has forced me to actually think about what I'm writing instead of just bullshitting my way through it. I also think my organizational skills have improved. I feel like I can make things flow better in papers now, instead of the paper being choppy.

An assignment that I feel could be reworked is the annotated bibliography assignment. I felt like a lot of the research I found during this assignment didn't really help me all that much for the mini-ethnography. My mini-ethnography focused a lot on my personal experiences, my own interviews and observations, and my own research from my subcultures website. So, I didn't really feel like doing research about clubs that are relative to my subculture helped me with my final project. Although, it did give me some different perspectives about group similar to my subculture. I think having less sources to cite would have been better, maybe 6-8 instead of 8-10, so we could focus more on our own personal research, for instance, interviews and observations. I think there was a good amount of conferences. They both feel right after the first drafts of our second and third papers were due. Although, one more conference after the first draft of our mini-ethnography was due would have been nice, considering it is 25% of our final grade. Other than that, I didn't have any problems with the course.

Week 14- Posting 14

For the mini-ethnography, my favorite piece of data is the interview I conducted. I think that it was definitely one of the most useful sources. I got the questions I had directly answered by a Something Else club member. I interviewed the executive producer. He was very thorough and informative with his answers. He seemed deeply passionate about Something Else in his answers. He also gave me some different perspectives on things that I didn't even think of. For example, when I asked him, “What do you feel is the main goal of Something Else?” which is a simplified version of my research question, he responded with, “The main goal of Something Else is to provide an organization that allows students to get involved in an important capacity, regardless of experience. We want to teach our members how to use the equipment, or how to write scripts, or how to edit sketches; that all takes precedence over anything else. I don't think any other group provides as much work to as much people, who come from all sorts of majors and backgrounds, as we do.” I thought this answer was really deep and showed just how important Something Else is to him. It shows that he is looking more to help people get involved in something they’re interested in, instead of just gaining popularity for himself and I like that.

Week 13- Posting 13

At 9:55 p.m. I walked down the long, straight hallway of the Robert Bell Building. My shoes were squeaking with every step I took because of the rain outside. The hallway was dimly lit and random classrooms on each side of the hall had lights left on. As I came closer to the general area of room 104 of the Ball Communications building, I saw a large group of students talking in the Letterman Building lobby. I kept my distance, being unsure of whom the group of people was. As I paid closer attention to some of them, I recognized a couple of them from “Current Club Members” page from the group’s website. I stood off to the side, away from the group, and checked the time on my phone. It was almost 10 and I wondered if this was where Something Else or not. I looked around anxiously to ask someone what exactly this group of students was doing. A few seconds later I asked a student standing nearby who gave off a friendly vibe, “Excuse me, is this Something Else?” The student answered back, “Yeah, we’re just waiting for the producers and writers to get out of their meeting.” I thanked the student and took a few steps away from the group and just watched everyone.

A few minutes later four or five people came from around the corner and one of them with shaggy black hair, who appeared be a white/Asian mix, told everyone to follow him. As everyone followed him, I nervously trailed behind. He took everyone to room 104. There were about 50 desks all lined up against each wall, leaving the center of the room open. As everyone took their seats and got settled in, I made my way to the front of the room where, I assumed them to be the producers, were standing. Two male students stood behind a large desk discussing something I was unfamiliar with. One was the student with black hair from earlier and the other was one that I recognized, again from the website. He had short light brown and a mustache that almost looked fake. I stood in front of the desk waiting for them to acknowledge me. They both turned and looked at me and the black-haired student said, “Hey, what’s up?” And I answered with a speedy, “Are either one of you Nick? The uh… executive producer?” The student with the mustache answered “Why yes, that’s me, I’m Nick!” A split second later I replied, “Ok I sent you an e-mail a couple of…” I was soon interrupted by the black-haired student, “He’s just kidding, Nick has been sick the past couple of days. Are you new?” The student with the mustache smirked at me and then I answered, “No, I’m doing research paper for my English 104 class and I was wondering if I could sit in on your meeting?” The black-haired student replied with a friendly “Yeah sure, that’s fine, feel welcome to sit wherever. And try to have some fun.” I think he could tell that I felt a little intimidated by the situation, for a reason I’m not quite sure of. I replied with a “Thanks” and turned around getting my foot stuck on the leg of a desk and nearly tripping. The two students shared a laugh at my embarrassing, near accident. As I walked to a desk near the back of the room I heard the student with the mustache make a joke about me, but I didn’t exactly know what he said but I knew it was about me. I took a sit next to the friendly student from earlier. “Are you new?” he asked. “No, I’m doing a research project for English.” I answered back. He gave me an interested look and replied, “Oh cool.” Throughout the meeting I took notes about everyone and about everything the club talked about. The meeting got over within about 40 minutes. After the black-haired student who was in charge the meeting released everyone, I felt a wave of release to be out of there and made my way back to my dorm.

Six Word Stories

Life: Changing into what I want to become. (As good as I could come up with)

Subculture: Becoming something more than Something Else

Week 12- Posting 12

My understanding of the word "rhetoric" is that it's some one's point of view and our opinions. I think that rhetoric constitutes more than just the things we say. The way a person acts and dresses also constitutes our personal views even if we don't realize it. Although, I don't think a person's views should solely taken from the way a person looks or talks, we sometimes sub-consciously make assumptions about people. In American society, I most commonly hear rhetoric being used on the street. Just walking down the street you can over hear conversations and it's easy to pick on their point of view about certain things. For instance, someone talking politics and how they feel about them. I think rhetoric is used equally in a positive and a negative way, it just depends on the subject and how strongly the person feels about that subject. I think the rhetoric that coincides with my subculture would be other peoples views on the subculture. For example, how an outsider feels about the group. I plan on using rhetoric in my mini-ethnography by taking the readers through my research process and how telling them my thoughts and feelings about the steps that I took. I'll also include some the subculture's member's feelings and thoughts about their subculture.

The Writing Process- In Class Activity

"My best writing comes when I wait til the last minute and I am under pressure." I'm not sure what it is but when I wait til the last minute everything just comes to me and it forces me to "do or die". It's easier for me to stay focused when I know that if I don't finish at that point in time then I don't finish at all and I'll get a bad grade.

Week 11- Posting 11

My writing has changed quite a bit. Before this class I didn't go into very much detail about anything. I would just touch on a subject and then move on. Now I spend more time on answering questions and going more into depth about subjects. The most trouble I've had was writing the annotated bibliography. I absolutely hate doing research so that paper was a tough one to get through. I really had trouble finding good sources that I could actually use. It didn't really effect my writing process at all. I went through the same process I've been going through since I started writing papers, which usually just consists of me sitting down and just writing and then going back editing and adding more detail. I would have to say that the first paper was easier than I expected. I thought it was easy because it was just putting my personal thought into an essay. Aside from school, I just write to get my thoughts out. It relaxes me and relieves stress. I'm not really what role writing will play in the future. It depends what career I decide on. No matter what I think by the time I leave college I will be prepared for the professional world and feel confident with my writing.

Interesting Relatives

I don’t really have just one crazy relative. I have a bunch of different ones. They are mostly on my dad’s side of the family and they are mostly his step family. Although, I never think of them this way because I am so close with them. The interesting thing about my dad’s family is that he has two half brothers and a half sister, two step brothers and two step sisters, and only one real brother. Every year in August there is a family reunion on my grandparent’s property, which is called the hog roast because we roast a whole pig and eat it. It’s usually on the third or fourth Saturday in August and starts around 1 p.m. and the drinking of my grandpa, uncles, cousins, dad, and brothers starts way before that and doesn’t seem to end until late into the night. Somebody always seems to get hurt. One year a younger cousin of mine went swimming in this very dirty pond and he cut his foot on a shard of metal. He was taken to the hospital and had to get stitches. Later that day he returned to the hog roast and was back in the pond swimming.

Week 10- Posting 10

My plan for the mini-ethnography is to to organize it chronologically. I plan on starting my mini-ethnography with my "exploring subcultures" paper. I don't plan on using the entire paper, just the main points from it. I like the introduction to this paper because it gives the reader a good background by showing my first experience with Something Else and my interest with them. After including important points from my first paper I plan on taking the reader through my research process. This will include my observations, interviews, and other background information I gained from the annotated bibliography. I'm not exactly sure how I want to organize these. I might create a section for each of these themes. I plan on concluding the paper with what I learned and took away from my experience with the club. I think this structure will work best because I feel like it would have the best flow and keep the reader interested.

1.) If I were to do this same research study today I would get a wider variety of people. I would travel to more states and not focus as much on the people from states known for having accents. I would basically keep all of the interviews the same. I thought they were really good because they basically covered all of the stereotypes associated with the group. However, I would have interviewed younger people from teens to young adults to see their perspective on accents.

2.) I thought that the documentary focused too much on southern accents and groups around New York City and the New England area. I think it should have focused equally on accents from the north and west and given examples in the way they talk. I would have observed and interviewed people from states that aren't really known for having an accent.

3.) Well the way I see it and one of the people being interviewed in the documentary, people with a southern accent are stereotyped as being stupid. And people that talk normal or don't have any accent at all are seen as smart and serious.

Week 9- Posting 9

The hardest part about the project this far has been finding good resources to use. I had trouble finding more than two or three really good that would be useful to my mini-ethnography. The easiest part has been conducting the observations. All I have had to do is watch my subculture and take some notes about them and my reaction to it all. The only problem I can find with the observations is that the club I'm observing meets Tuesdays at 10 p.m. so I have stop what ever homework I'm working on to go to the meeting. There isn't really anything that I would change if I were to start again. I'm pretty satisfied with the work I've completed so far. The blog has helped me stay focused on my topic and helped me think about things I maybe didn't think about before. For example, what my focal point is when I'm doing my observations. The blog also helped me get started with my annotated bibliography because one of the assignments for a blog posting was to list two sources and then annotate them. As far as the mini-ethnography goes, the blog will show me the progress I've made with the project throughout the smester.

In Class Questions

The readers will care about my issue because them a view of something they might not know about and give them a chance to read someone elses first hand experience with the topic.

The readers will want to know the subcultures beliefs, behaviors, rituals, stereotypes, rules, etc.

Depending on who the reader is reflects what they already know about the subculture. If they happen to already be an insider to the subculture then they will be very knowledgeable on the topic but if they're an outsider then they will probably know very little about the topic.

I want my readers to get a real feel for the subculture. I want my readers to learn about the groups rituals, beliefs, behaviors, and rules.

Again, depending on who the reader is will reflect on how easily they'll be persuaded about my topic. If they are already a member of the group and I am trying to persuade my audience on how the subculture is good then they will most likely agree with me because it is something they are a part of. If the reader is an outsider to the group and doesn't know very much about the subculture then it might be harder to persuade them to agree with the positive things in the subculture.

My readers will use my writing to gain background information for themselves and learn about the subculture. There is really no other use for my writing besides providing others with my first hand experience with the subculture.

Week 8- Posting 8

The main theme I've gotten from Something Else is the group trying to get people involved and gain popularity in the Ball State community. The club's website gives plenty of oppritunities for students to get involved with the club. The website also features videos of their sketches and links to other sites related to the club like their facebook and myspace pages. While conducting my observations at one of the clubs weekly meetings the same theme of spreading the club and making the club more well known continued. One the students in charge of the meeting continued to tell the club members to tell their friends and family about Something Else while they were home over spring break. At the meeting they also discussed why views for their latest sketch had dropped from the previous sketches. Everyone shot out ideas about how to get viewings back up. As of right now, I am still an outsider to the subculture. I have become more familiar with the group and I know more about them on a first-hand basis because of the observations I've conducted. From 8 weeks ago to now, I have gained a lot of knowledge about the group because I have done research and been to some of the club's meetings.

Week 7- Posting 7

There are a lot of benefits of doing fieldwork. By me doing research I can inform other people about the group that don't know anything about it. By me spreading information to others about Something Else, I'll be giving something back to them by introducing people to what their group is all about. In a way by me doing my fieldwork I am giving back to the community by getting somewhat involved with Something Else and promoting it others that are unfamiliar with it. My contribution in general is promoting a Ball State club with a good amount of knowledge and my own experiences to back that knowledge up.

My Survey

These questions have to do with the club "Something Else" so if you're not a member then you probably won't be able to answer the questions.

http://FreeOnlineSurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=u98j7uu059v72cj550101

Groundwork Activity

I haven't been to my cultural site yet so I don't have a first impression with the actual group as a whole, but I did have my first encounter with them last semester at the TCOM Super Party. The few members at the super party representing the club seemed very outgoing and relaxed. They all seemed very encouraging for young students to get involved. I didn't really get to see the landscape of the club because where I had my first encounter with them was not where the club actually meets for their meetings.

When I had my first encounter with the club I felt sort of rushed because there were some many students at the super party so I didn't get to spend much time with the group. I also felt a little intimidated because the group members there all seemed to be upperclassmen.

I am an outsider to the group because I'm not a member of the club. Other than that obvious fact it's hard to see other reasons why I'm an outsider because I haven't visited my cultural site yet.

Week 6- Posting 6

Source 1: somethingelsetv.com. 2009. Something Else. 18 Feb. 2009. http://www.somthingelsetv.com

My first source is a web source. It is the actual web site of the club I'm doing my mini-ethnography on. The page I'm focusing on gives a description of what the club does. The page also provides information on how to get involved with the club and their contact information. Considering the organization is a sketch comedy club that produces their own sketches every week, their mini episodes can be found on the website. There are also links posted on the site for related websites.

This website will be a great help to me for my mini-ethnography. I'll be able to use the information provided on the site and use it in my paper when I'm describing the club. The site gives great information that gives me background knowledge that I can use in my paper.

Source 2: Rimmel, Michelle. “Something Else TV”. The Daily News. 2 Oct. 2007. 18 Feb. 2009. http://www.bsudailynews.com

My second source is also a web source. It's an article about Something Else posted on Ball State's student news papers. The article talks about Something Else's success and the club gaining popularity. The article also talked about the clubs plans for the future and what new projects they are working on. The article also gave information about how many viewers the sketches get on a week to week basis.

This article is helpful towards my paper because it again gives me good background information. The article also provides facts and quotes from some of the members current and past that I can include in my mini-ethnography.

Box #18- Finding a Focal Point

I haven't gone to my field site yet so I don't know what the focal point is. I think the focal point will be wherever the whole group meets because different parts of the group meet on different nights. I'm not sure where this meeting place is but it's every Tuesday night at 10. I feel like this will be the focal point because it is the place where everyone in the club will come together to plan, discuss, and organize their ideas for the upcoming tasks they want to accomplish. I think this will be the place the place where most of the action will take place and a good place to conduct my interviews and observations.

Cultural Shock- In class writing activity

A distant place that I've traveled to in the near past was Italy, which was in between my sophomore and junior year of high school. I went with my family and we spent about 2 weekes there. It was an experience like no other I have had before. Everything was so different there. The most noticable thing was the different language. A good number of the people also spoke English so that was nice. At restuarants there two sets of menus, one in Italian and one in English. A strange thing that I noticed at the restuarants is that all of the pop were in cans and not refrigerated. They would bring you a cup with usually only one or two ice cubes in it. And you had to pay each time you want a refill. Another thing that was different was paying for stuff in Euros and figuring out good prices were. On magazines and on TV things wern't censored like they are in the U.S.

Week 5- Posting 5

In order to finish my mini-ethnography I need to actually have to conduct my fieldwork by visiting my site and conducting my interviews and observers. The only research I need is the information I'll get from my interviews. I plan on going to the the club meetings to conduct my fieldwork. I'll interview some of the club members and observe what takes place at the meetings. If I get the chance I guess I could participate in the club during the time I'm observing and conducting my interviews. The only concern I have for the upcoming assignment is whether or not I'll be able to find valuable resources that I can actually use for my final project.

Box #15 in class activity

As I walk to the small brown fridge in the back room of my basement to grab a pop I yell to my friends, "Do you guys want anything?". I get a loud roar of mixed answers back so I just grab enough cans for everyone. As I walk out of the back room with my hands full of pop cans the familiar smell of smelly socks and Taco Bell with an air freshener trying to cover the smell fills my nostrils. When I make my way over to the couch I ungracefully set the mess of cans down on a small round table.

Box #15

A place that brings back a lot of memories is my basement back home. Throughout most of high school this is where me and my group of friends usually hung out. We would watch movies and play video games staying up til 4 in the morning. My basement used to be nice and clean because my mom decorated it. Now two or three years after we got the basement finished the couches are dirty, the pillows are torn, and everything is worn. My mom has given up on it staying nice and we have made it our own. There is a small round table that sits next to one of the two couches in the basement that seems to get accidentally knocked over every time anyone is over. The legs of it are loose and it barely stands up anymore. There's an electronic dart board on the wall with what seems to be hundreds of small holes surrounding it. The game still works but all but two of nine darts are broken.

Throughout a typical night of video games hearing cursing, yelling, and laughing is a normal thing. After the night is over the basements smells like Taco Bell from our late night run for food, and "stinky boy" as my mom would describe it, which I would have to describe as a mix between smelly socks and body odder. There was usually five or six of us so you can imagine. After these late nights you're sure to find empty pop and energy drink cans scattered everywhere, empty chip bags, and Taco Bell wrappers. In the morning you'll usually here loud snoring. Although it isn't the nicest, cleanest, or most exciting place it is our hang out and where we continue to hang out when we all come home for visits. I wouldn't trade those times in that basement for anything in the world.

I think this is both a work of ethographic study and entertainment. The interviewers subjects are the adults who were once the kids apart of the skate team. The interviewers also interviewed the owners of the skate and surf shop that influenced the young skaters. They are important because these people were involved with the topic being researched during the time period they skated and surfed. The interviewer doesn't really play a major role in the documentary. They aren't really noticeable. They really move the story along be going through how all of these kids and their hobby of skateboarding came about.

Week 4- Posting 4

I think that every subculture is different depending on where you go. If I studied a similar group at a smaller college there probably wouldn't be as many members. If I studied my subculture at a larger college there might be more members and more funding might be provided to the group. If I studied a club similar to my subculture, at a high school, some of the sketches story lines and subjects might be limited. The group might also be more immature. At other colleges, I think there would definitely be different rules, rituals, behaviors, etc. Every subculture has their own traditions and their own way of doing things. Religious and political views would also influence the group. If a majority of the community believes in one thing, those views would influence the decision making process.

Box 12- Unlearning Our Privilege

Age: 19

Nationality: American

Gender: Male

Race: White

Education Level: Freshman in college

Social and/or financial support: Middle-class

Having money for this school year, for books and spending money, from working all summer is a privilege I got from working hard all summer.

Being born into a middle-class family is a privilege. I don't have to worry about money as much as other students may have to.

Being 19 years old could be a privilege because I am considered an adult and I'm able to more than someone that is just two years younger than me.

Being the youngest in my family could also be a privilege because I've always been taken care of by my parents and older brothers.

Privileges that may effect my research could be that I'm a Ball State student so I know how to approach the students in the club I'm researching.

Week 3- Posting 3

The subculture that I've chosen is a club here at Ball State call "Something Else". The most research I've conducted for this project thus far has been gathering information from the groups website. I have not yet conducted my interview. The first time I visit the site I plan on just asking pretty basic questions to the leaders of the club. Maybe get some background knowledge and their feelings on the club. I want to ask these basic questions because I just want to get a feel for the club a little bit before I jump right into everything. In my next couple of visits to the site I plan on talking to some of the cast and crew in the club. I haven't yet visited my site yet. When I visit the site I hope to make observations about the people, the setting, and what's taking place at the club's meetings. Once I get a feel for the club I think it'll be easier to develop more questions to ask the club members. The class discussions gave me some good ideas for how to observe my site and what to look for. Yes, I think there is a difference between academic and non-academic research. Academic research is the internet, books, magazines. Non-academic research is conducting your own interviews and observations about the topic.

Week 2- Posting 2

The subculture/culture that I am currently thinking of doing is one of the clubs at Ball State. I’m thinking one of the clubs that has to do with telecommunications since I’m thinking of majoring in TCOM. Whatever student organization that I choose to research I could go wherever the club meets to observe them and interview them. I am currently not involved in any TCOM based club at Ball State, or any club for that matter, so I don’t really know what to expect. I hope to find out what exactly the club does, how long they’ve been a club, when they meet, and just get a real feel for the club’s place amongst the all the other clubs at Ball State. I’m open to learn whatever I can from the club.

Week 1- Posting 1

A paper that I’ve recently written was a film critique for my English 103 class last semester. It was something different that I’ve never done before and I like movies so I didn’t dread writing it as much as I usually do with papers. I didn’t really have an outline for the paper, I just started writing it. I occasionally listened to music with my headphones while I was working. It helps keep me on track and not get distracted. I tried to consistently work on it and not wait to the very last minute like I tend to do when it comes to writing papers. The difference between editing and revising is that when you edit a paper you are just looking for spelling and other grammatical errors. When you revise a paper you reading from the view point of the audience and how the paper flows.

Box # 11

If I do end up researching Swiss Valley some of the "fixed positions" that may affect what I take away from researching this subculture would definitely be my age and gender. If I plan on interviewing people in the ski lodge it would probably be easier for me to approach a group of high school or college males. This would be because this is the group that I can relate with the most. The "subjective positions" that I would carry into my site would be my own personal experience with Swiss Valley. I've been going there every winter since 6th grade, besides this one because of college. I am very familiar with the locations and know what kind of people to expect at Swiss Valley.

In Class Sources of Data

The culture that I'm considering studying is a ski resort, Swiss Valley, that I use to go to when I was apart of my high school's ski club. Like Rick Zollo's piece I could consider interviewing some of the "regulars" at Swiss Valley and people not so familiar with Swiss. I could also interview some of the workers. It would also be a possibility to observe the ski lodge and the hills for a couple of hours. I'm not exactly sure what texts I could use as research considering Swiss Valley is a local ski resort. I could possibly use articles that focus on other, more popular, ski resorts. As far as behavior, patterns, and rituals go, I think there would be a wide range of things to find. The behavior really depends on the age of the people I may be observing. The only difficulty I can think of when it comes to interviewing people at Swiss is that some of the teenagers act stuck-up and immature.

Box # 2

A routine that is very normal to me is getting ready for class. The first thing I do is wake up and put in my contacts. Putting contacts in would seem strange to someone that doesn't wear contacts. After that I walk to the showers in my dorm. This also may seem strange to someone that doesn't live in the dorms. After I shower I go over to the sinks, which look very similar to ones that are in public bathrooms, to brush my teeth. This might seem weird to someone that has their own bathroom. After that I walk back to my room to dress and finish my basic morning hygiene routine. The next thing I do is sit down at my desk and eat cereal. Eating breakfast, or any meal for that matter, at a desk might seem odd to someone not living in the dorms but a desk is the closest thing I have to a table in my room. The final step to getting ready for class is gathering all of my supplies and walking to class. Even something as simple as walking to class could be seen as odd to anyone that is use to driving or taking a bus to school. All of these things that are a part of my daily routine can seem strange to anyone that isn't a college student.