BA #4 - Early Fieldnotes Reflection

This assignment should be posted to your own blog by 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, 3/8/11.

Purpose and Context

Like everything else you have been writing this semester, your "big" ethnography will be issue-based and academic, which is to say it will put your observations into conversation with other research data and published texts. It will be much more than a reflective or descriptive accounting of your service-learning experience.

You may remember from our discussion of the double-entry format (FW 84-92, 98-102) that one hour of good observation can yield about 10 pages of notes; however, without some systematic way of analyzing those notes, their value to your research project may not always be obvious.

That said, for your notes to usefully inform your research, you will need an opportunity to make meaning of what you observe by categorizing details into groups, noting patterns, generalizing about what you see, reflecting on what surprises, intrigues, or disturbs you, or responding in some other way (see FW 92, 97, 105-107).

This fourth Blog Assignment asks you to take stock of your observations by writing a reflective summary of your fieldnotes thus far.

Evaluation Criteria

This assignment will be evaluated according to the “plus” system discussed on page 4 of our syllabus. The assignment is fairly flexible and I will accept a broad range of responses. Please be original, but please keep in mind the following criteria:

• Depth - your reflective summary demonstrates an in-depth discussion of the ways you are challenged, surprised, intrigued, or disturbed by your observations; or of an issue that is beginning to emerge based on your observations; or of an idea or focal point that is becoming more clear as a result of your observations
• Focus and Coherence - your response is thesis-driven (even if that thesis is implicit) and your supporting claims are well organized
• Evidence and Justification - your response provides sufficient details and puts them into conversation with relevant passages from Fieldworking or from our other course readings
• Clarity and Style - your paragraphs are well focused, your sentences are grammatically sound, and your writing has a sense of polish, as if you have thought carefully about what you want to say and how you need to say it
• Blogging Guidelines - your assignment follows these and uses them to your advantage