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.