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WA4: An Insider Perspective (ethnographic interviewing)
Description:
This essay calls upon you to make extensive use of the ethnographer’s research tools (interview,observations, fieldnotes) to offer an insider’s perspective on your research site. For WA4, you should conduct atleast one hour-long interview with a key participant. Review that interview several times for recurring themes, andmake sense of those themes through a sustained review of the artifacts, field observations, and other readings youhave done thus far. Why? “When you are looking at literacy and culture, for example, [ethnographic interviewing]can help you see how the cultural identities people claim for themselves affect the kinds of literacy behaviors they practice in different parts of their lives. When you look at literacy and class, ethnographic interviewing can help youunderstand how social stratification and expected literacy practices within different class cultures affect people at thelevel of the individual. When you look at literacy and work, it can give you a more complex view of the power dynamics involved in collaborative processes of writing. Finally, when you look at literacy and technology,ethnographic interviewing can help you better trace people’s actual social uses of the literacy technologies within particular contexts” (Lindquist and Seitz,
 Elements of Literacy
).You can also make extensive use of this in your final ethnographic study.
Resources:
Everything thus far! The attached guide should prove useful too. Chapters 5-6 (FW) should proveespecially helpful, though space (Chapter 4) and archives (Chapter 7) should play an important role as well. WA4needs to make some contribution to the scholarly conversation in literacy studies, specifically through theCommerce Writes Research project. But the PERSON you interviewed should take center stage. It won’t be enough
Models:
Text-based WA4 models are plentiful. Several in
 FW 
, Chapter 5, including Singer’s “The Man WhoForgets Nothing,” Marshall’s “Ralph’s Sports Bar,” and (for oral history) Edward’s “I Can Read and I Can Write.”Consider how Brandt and Smith and Wilhelm use interviews, as well as Pleasant (all in
 Literacies in Context 
).Anything by Studs Turkel or Mark Singer.But you might also consider developing projects in other modalities. A number of sound-based models exist,including the incredible NPR show
This American Life
. We’ll talk more about this soon. If you are recording your interviews (with permission, of course!), consider this option. Audacity is free (editing sound), and other programslike Movie Maker (PC) and iMovie (Mac) are standard. You can find them on your computer, but you can also makegood use of the Nexxus in the Library and tutors in the Writing Center (who can work with you at those Librarycomputers). Try it!
Purpose:
To begin making more deliberate and sustained use of the evidence gathered at your research site. WA4needs to make some contribution to the scholarly conversation in literacy studies, specifically as it manifests itself inCommerce. But in doing so the PERSON you interviewed should take center stage. This project should offer auseful lead into your major research project, so consider exploring these found literacies as they inform your developing research question.
Contribution to the Scholarly Conversation in Literacy Studies:
To do well on WA4, your project must makesome kind of contribution to the scholarly conversation in literacy studies. That means you must go beyond merelysummarizing the details of your interviewee’s life or describing the context in which this interview took place.Instead, you should help us understand that interviewee’s responses as they relate to the other aspects of your research project and draw some conclusions about literacy as it manifests itself in the lives of real people in their day-to-day, lived experiences. To do this, draw upon your readings thus far. You should also make extensive use of your classmates blogs, where appropriate.
Constraints:
 NONE! Do this with text. With video. With audio. With all of these modalities. With only one of these modalities.Do what will serve your project best.Due Date: Tuesday, October 9Dr. Carter * Fall 2009English 102-H
 
Responding to WA2
 Peer Feedback 
Activity
(in pairs): In order to a get a real reader’s perspective of your current draft of WA2 and some ideas for revising it (and give the same with respect to their piece), trade drafts with someone, take out a pen and paper, placeyour name (as reader) and the writer’s name at the top of it, and respond to the following questions in as much detailas you think will be useful. You are going to give your responses to your partner, so try to make them as legible andclear as possible.Reader’s Name: _______________________________________________________ Writer’s Name: _______________________________________________________ 
Note to Reader
: You should respond as specifically as possible to each and every question that follows.. Anythingless will be quite useless to the writer.1.What did you find most compelling about this essay? Be very specific. This can be a specific story, aspecific feel, or some other aspect that really caught your attention and made you want to read more.2.What did you want to hear more about? Be specific!3.What does this draft make you think about? Do you have any similar experiences you can share with thewriter? Other ideas that came up as you read this draft?4.Underline your favorite passage in the text. What makes it your favorite?5.How does the writer make use of Deborah Brandt’s arguments? In what ways does this project contribute tothe scholarly conversation represented in Brandt’s article?6.Offer a choice passage from Brandt that might serve this draft well.7.How does the writer make use of James Paul Gee’s arguments? In what ways does this project contribute tothe scholarly conversation represented in Gee’s article? (NOTE: You aren’t required to use Gee in thisessay, but it would likely be helpful in defining literacy and offering another, deeply relevant and highlyinfluential, perspective on literacy)8.Offer a choice passage from Gee that might serve this draft well.9.Talk about the title for a minute. What is the current title for this essay? Now that you’ve read the essay,does the title seem appropriate? If so, what makes it so? If not, why not? Offer the writer three possibletitles that might work to catch the reader’s attention and give him/her a hint about what the essay will offer.Offer these three suggestions even if you LOVE the title they already have. More ideas are always useful.10.The revised draft must be four pages long. Offer some specific suggestions that would help the writer makethis draft at least one page longer.Dr. Carter * Fall 2009English 102-H
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