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.