FieldWorking : Reading and Writing Research

by Sunstein, Bonnie Stone; Chiseri-Strater, Elizabeth

• ISBN13: 9780312438418
• ISBN10: 0312438419
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-09-19
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's

Summary

FieldWorking, Bonnie Stone Sunstein and Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater's acclaimed textbook, is an engaging guide to the fundamentals of ethnographic study, complete with practical help for research and writing. Emphasizing civic responsibility and community engagement,FieldWorkingincorporates examples by professionals writers such as Mark Singer, Pico Iyer, Joan Didion, and Jamaica Kincaid, as well as student research projects on topics as diverse as a local truck stop, dinner clubs, blogging, and a horse sales barn, to help students identify and define their own subcultures and communities. Because students are connected to their research,FieldWorking's ethnographic approach makes projects fascinating and empowering for all students as they learn to observe, listen, interpret, analyze, and write about the people and artifacts around them.

Author Biography

BONNIE STONE SUNSTEIN is professor of English and education at the University of Iowa, where she teaches nonfiction writing, research methods, the teaching of writing, and folklore. She directs the undergraduate writing program in the English department and is the program coordinator of English education in the College of Education.

ELIZABETH CHISERI-STRATER is associate professor of English at the University of North Carolina – Greensboro, where she teaches nonfiction writing, research methods, and English education. She is director of the composition program and director of graduate studies in the women's and gender studies program.

Table of Contents

    To the Instructor
    To the Student
    
  1. Stepping In and Stepping Out: Understanding Cultures
    Defining Culture: Fieldwork and Ethnography
    Stepping In: Revealing Our Subcultures
    BOX 1: Looking at Subcultures
    Investigating Perspectives: Insider and Outsider
    Stepping Out: Making the Familiar Strange and the Strange Familiar
       Horace Miner, "Body Ritual among the Nacirema"
    BOX 2: Making the Ordinary Extraordinary
    Posing Questions: Ethnographic vs. Journalistic
       Byron Brown, "Church Opens Doors to Vietnamese"
    BOX 3: Engaging the Ethnographic Perspective
       "Survivor Begins Campus Life: Tsunami Aftermath," Staff writer, Bangkok Post
    FieldWorking with This Book
    An Ethnographic Study: "Friday Night at Iowa 80"
       Rick Zollo, "Friday Night at Iowa 80: The Truck Stop as Community and Culture" (Student Project)
    A Community Action Study: "House for the Homeless"
       Ivana Nikolic, "House for the Homeless: A Place to Hang Your Hat" (Student Project)
    In the Community
       Groundwork Activity
    The Research Portfolio: Definitions and Purpose
    FieldWriting: Establishing a Voice
    FieldCritique: Reflection
    
  2. Writing Self, Writing Cultures: Understanding FieldWriting
    Considering Self
       Peter Elbow, "Freewriting"
    BOX 4: Exploratory Writing
    Considering Audiences
    Considering Voice
       Joan Didion, "On Keeping a Notebook"
    BOX 5: Exploratory Notetaking
    Getting at the Details
       Samuel H. Scudder, "Look at Your Fish"
    BOX 6: Double-Entry Notes
    Fieldnotes: the Key to Your Project
    Organizing Your Fieldnotes
    BOX 7: Sharing Your Initial Fieldnotes
    Analyzing Your Fieldnotes
    BOX 8: Questioning Your Fieldnotes
       Amy Lambert, "Feng-Shui: Reflections on a Sociology Class" (Student Project)
    In the Community
       Groundwork Activity
    The Research Portfolio: Reflecting on Your Fieldnotes
    FieldWriting: Point of View
    FieldCritique: Understanding Your Understanding
    
  3. Reading Self, Reading Cultures: Understanding Texts
       Gloria Naylor, "Mama Day"
    BOX 9: Responding to Text
    Reading Cultures as Text and Texts as Culture
    BOX 10: From Ethos to Ethics (by Julie Cheville)
    Positioning: Reading and Writing about Yourself
    BOX 11: Positioning Yourself
    Understanding Positioning: Checking in on Yourself
    BOX 12: Unlearning Our Privilege (by Mimi Harvey)
    Getting Permission
    Reading an Object: The Cultural Artifact
    BOX 13: Reading an Artifact
    The Uses of Cultural Artifacts
       Alice Walker, "Everyday Use"
    Reading Ethnography and Media Cultures
    BOX 14: Fieldworking Book Clubs (by Kathleen Ryan)
    Reading Electronic Communities
       Skye Angus, "Confessions of a Blog Addict" (Student Project)
    In the Community
       Groundwork Activity
    The Research Portfolio: Options for Reading
    FieldWriting: Published and Unpublished Written Sources
    FieldCritique: Responding to Reading
    
  4. Researching Place: The Spatial Gaze
    A Sense of Place: Personal Geography
       Jamaica Kincaid, "On Seeing England for the First Time"
    BOX 15: Recalling a Sense of Place
    A Sense of Place: Selective Perception
    BOX 16: Writing a Verbal Snapshot
       Joelle Hann, "Travel Journal: Brazil"
    Learning How to Look: Mapping Space
    BOX 17: Mapping Space
    Learning How to Look: Finding a Focal Point
    BOX 18: Finding a Focal Point
    Learning How to Look: Identifying Unity and Tension
       Karen Downing, "Strike a Pose" (Student Project)
    Learning How to Look: Colonized Spaces
       Jennifer Hemmingsen, "The Happy Canyon" (Student Project)
    In the Community
       Groundwork Activity
    The Research Portfolio: Learning from Your Data
       Karen Downing, "A Pose on ‘Strike a Pose'" (portfolio reflection)
    FieldWriting: The Grammar of Observation
    FieldCritique: Capturing Cultural Implications
    
  5. Researching People: The Collaborative Listener
    The Interview: Learning How to Ask
    BOX 19: Using a Cultural Artifact in an Interview
    Learning How to Listen
       Mark Singer, "The Man Who Forgets Nothing"
    BOX 20: Establishing Rapport
    Taping and Transcribing
       Cindie Marshall, "Ralph's Sports Bar" (Student Project)
    BOX 21: Analyzing Your Interviewing Skills
    Gathering Oral Histories
       Jeannette Edwards, "I Can Read and I Can Write"
    BOX 22: Starting an Oral History
    The Informant's Perspective: "An Anthropologist on Mars"
       Oliver Sacks, "An Anthropologist on Mars"
    Gathering Family Stories
    BOX 23: Writing a Family Story
    One Family Story: The Core and Its Variants
    BOX 24: Stories and Variants
    In the Community
       Groundwork Activity
    The Research Portfolio: Reflective Documentation
    FieldWriting: From Details to Verbal Portraiture
    FieldCritique: Revisiting Your Stories
    
  6. Researching Language: The Cultural Translator
    Linking Body Language and Culture
    Linking Words and Culture
       Lafcadio Hearn, "Cheek"
    BOX 25: Listening for Words: Creating a Glossary
    Noticing Words
       Pico Iyer, "A Far-Off Affair"
    Interviewing
    Researching Occupation: Recording Insider Language
    BOX 26: Describing Occupational Terms
    Verbal Performance: Curses
    BOX 27: Gathering Verbal Performances: Proverbs, Jokes, and Sayings
    Resesarching Urban Legends
    Reseasrching Stories and Storytelling
       Shirley Brice Heath, "In Roadville and in Trackton"
    In the Community
       Groundwork Activity
    The Research Portfolio: Synthesis
    FieldWriting: Dialogue on the Page
    FieldCritique: Working with Language
    
  7. Researching Archives: Locating Culture
    Family Archives
    BOX 28: A Box about Boxes
       Edward Ball, "Slaves in the Family"
    Organizing Archival Material
    BOX 29: Framing Time: Synchronic and Diachronic Organization (by Lia Schultz)
    Historical Archives
    Museum Archives
    BOX 30: Sorting through Public Archives
       Naomi Shihab Nye, "The Attic and its Nails" (poem)
    Alternative Archives
       Lars Eighner, "On Dumpster Diving"
    Electronic Archives: Using the Internet
       Sarah Townsend, "A Comic-Book Search," (Student Project)
    BOX 31: Finding Your Way in the Online Forest
       Michelle Hanson, "Playing in the MUD: A Newbie's Experience with Online Gaming" (Student Project)
    In the Community
       Groundwork Activity
    The Research Portfolio: Representing the Unflat Stuff
    FieldWriting: Annotated Bibliographies
    FieldCritique: A Project Archive
    
  8. FieldWriting: From Down Draft to Up Draft
    Resisting Writing
    Drafting Drafts
       Anne LaMott, "Shitty First Drafts"
    Questioning Your Draft
    Thickening Your Draft
    BOX 32: Listening to the Voices in Your Draft (by David Seitz)
       Stephen King, "Toolbox"
    Culture on the Page: The Experience, Rhetoric, and Aesthetics of Representation
    Crafting a Text
       Bonnie S. Sunstein, "Getting the Words Second Hand"
    BOX 33: Sharing Data: Partners in Revision
    Revising for a Reader
       Donald M. Murray, "Some Notes on Revision"
    In the Community
       Groundwork Activity
    The Research Portfolio: One-Page Analysis and Annotated Table of Contents
    FieldWriting: Analytical Section Headings
    FieldCritique: Paying Attention to Writing
       A Final Comment
    
  Appendix A: MLA Documentation Guidelines
  Appendix B: APA Documentation Guidelines
  Appendix C: Works Cited and Recommended Reading
    
  Glossary
  Index