A Quick Re-cap of Unit 1…

❖Will your writing produce ‘heat’ or ‘light’

❖Annotate your text
❖Close reading of written and visual text
- Details, significance, implications
ICC Pre-course Survey:

https://ntusingapore.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0xJ4zP7Xd3e7U1w
Unit 2
Analysing Data & Descriptive Writing

Learning Outcomes
• conduct your own close observing and gathering of data for your
research topic; and
• identify the qualities of effective analysis and descriptive writing.
Reminder….

• Please complete Blog 1 and upload it to NTULearn on the

day of your tutorial.
• Review of the blog assignment
• Relevance of the day’s lesson - prepare you to do your
observational research and blog post.
Have you decided on your topic?
• Please ensure that you have chosen a topic that interests you and at
the same time is one that you can work with for the rest of the
semester.

INTEREST
• SUSTABILITY!
CONTENT

MORE OPPORTUNITY TO ‘SHOW’ RATHER THAN ‘TELL’

Ethnographic Research and Analysis
• You will be observing as much detail as possible
• Write it all down
• Look for significant patterns

Despite what your initial feelings are…

• Put pen to paper & just start observing
• What you see, hear, smell, feel around you

** you are gathering raw data that is yet to be interpreted

After an extended period of observation…

You will
• Begin to identify patterns
• See how the insignificant becomes significant
• Focus your observations and narrow in on an aspect of
your chosen topic that you find most interesting
Analysis …
• Entails closely examining, interpreting, and commenting on
evidence.
• When you analyse, you don’t just tell, but you show
• Analysing HOW an author conveys a message.
• What are the limitations of the text?
• Are there logical fallacies or appeals?
• Analysis is important because it is how your voice as a writer
is heard.
• Adapted from Rosenwasser and Stephen (2017) in Writing Analytically, the four analytical
moves are:

(1) Suspend judgement.

(2) Look for patterns of repetition, contrasts, and anomalies.
(3) Make the implicit explicit. Push observations to implications by asking “SO WHAT?”
(4) Keep reformulating questions and explanations.

• Keep this in mind as you do your blog!

Activity 2.1
Gathering & Organizing Data: AEIOU Framework

• A framework makes it easier to gather data

• AEIOU categorizing framework is useful in ethnographic
research.
• Using the 5 senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste),
the researcher collects sensory details related to their
observation.
• These sensory details are data points that can be
organized using the AEIOU elements.
The different elements stand for:
• Activities: What actions do you observe people taking to reach their goals? How are
people behaving in order to reach their goals (could be simple or complex goals)?

• Environments: What is the overall setting in which the activities are taking place?
How are people behaving in this particular setting, which might be different in other
settings?

• Interactions: What are the basic interactions occurring for people to reach goals?
What effect do people have on activities and environment?

• Objects: What are all the different elements that form the environment? How do
objects relate to people, activities and interactions?

• Users: Who are the main groups / individuals being observed? What are their
personalities like? How do they engage with other groups / individuals to reach their
goals?
Watch these short videos showing you how to use the framework:

AEIOU Guide
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eZJ8b8rSsw

AEIOU Observation Framework

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvvd6pcNX84
Let’s try using AEIOU

• First, we will work together to categorise the data in an excerpt from Teo’s (2018) This
is what Inequality Looks Like.

• Then, we will move on to demonstrate how the data points can be analysed. A simple
analytical process would be to identify some clues from the data points, review them,
and then tag or code the clues with a word / phrase that represents a more general
idea, e.g. lots of flats, lots of people → high density.

• If there are many similarly coded clues, you can group them together. Here, you will
start to see patterns or themes emerge from the clues (EthnoHub, n.d.b). Once you
have your preliminary findings (patterns / themes), you can use them to formulate an
interesting research question.

**Refer to Google doc

Details from Teo (2018) into the table.

Activities • People carrying out daily living activities (sight)

• People using corridors to air-dry their clothes / bedsheets (sight)
• People discarding big items (mattresses / cupboards) at common areas (sight)
• Police and narcotics officers patrolling the rental block areas (sight)

Environment • Rental flats: 1 – 2 bedroom flats, no separate bedroom space (sight)

• Roughly 35 square meters (sight)
• Each rental flat relatively narrow, doors very close to each other (sight)
• Façade of HDB rental block shows high density of units (sight)
• Some unpleasant smells – from trash? (smell)
• Smells accompanied by the sight of trash in common areas (smell, sight)
• Sometimes, cat urine in stairwells (smell)
• damp textiles contribute to smells – no space in flat? (smell)

Interactions • Few observed interactions between people; most residents focused on daily living (sight)
• May have higher chance of police-civilian interactions (sight / hearing?)

Objects • Abandoned mattresses and furnishings (sight)

• Police officers + cars (sight)
• Anti-crime signboards and posters (sight)

Users • Rental flat residents (sight)

• Adults and children (sight)
• Mostly law abiding (sight)
 Teo places these codes in the excerpt – they are specific,
sometimes abstract concepts that she usually presents at the
end of some paragraphs. Can you find them?

Clues (grouped) Tags / Codes

The way to tell a block of rental flats is to look at the space between front doors. Rental flats are either so- ‘High density’ /
called 1-room or 2-room HDB flats. This means they have either no separate bedroom or one bedroom ‘close proximity’
respectively….Each rental flat is thus relatively narrow… (Sight / Environment)

Many rental blocks I have visited, particularly in older neighborhoods, have distinct and not entirely ‘high-density’,
pleasant smells… (Smell / Environment) The smells are accompanied by the sight of trash in common ‘close proximity’
areas—including abandoned mattresses and furnishings—and sometimes cat urine in stairwells (Sight +
Smell / Objects +Activities). The limited space within flats means people need to air clothes, mattresses,
and upholstery in corridors, and so damp textiles contribute to smells (Smell / Objects + Activities). One
gets used to the smells and yet it never leaves one’s consciousness entirely…. (Smells / Users + Activities)

The point that strikes me here about smells is this: going home to these smells is going into a space that is ‘primal or
distinct, a little apart from other spaces in Singapore. (Smells / Activities) Whether or not it is thought of physical’,
consciously, when a rental flat resident goes home, she or he enters into a zone… (Smells / Activities +
Users)
… the presence of police, both literally and metaphorically (Sight / Activities). Compared to non-rental ‘danger and
neighborhoods, one sees police cars and policemen in rental neighborhoods more frequently (Sight / insecurity’
Environment + Objects + Users). Residents also tell me that there are always police as well as narcotics
officers around. (Sight / Activities + Environment + Users) Signboards and posters in rental
neighborhoods are also… (Sight / Environment + Objects + Users)
Descriptive Writing
• does not require flowery and dramatic language; rather,
• you should focus on concrete sensory details that, when assembled,
can show (rather than merely tell) the reader what you are
experiencing.
Activity 2.2
Observing & Analysing: Places & Communities
Watch one of the videos below and with your group, fill in the table.

**This is especially for students who will choose a place or community to observe

China’s Web Junkies

https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000002657962/c
hinas-web-junkies.html?playlistId=video/opdocs-sundance

Growing Up in a One-Room Rental Flat

https://ourgrandfatherstory.com/video/growing-up-in-
a-one-room-rental-flat/

**Refer to Google Doc

Make sure the observations you record in the table below contain sensory
details.
** Refer to Google Doc

Activities
- actions people take to reach their
goal
- how people behave to reach their
(simple / complex) goals
Environment
- overall setting in which the
activities are taking place
- how people behave in this
particular setting

Interactions
- the basic interactions occurring
for people to reach goals
- what effect do people have on
activities and environment?

Objects
- What are all the different
elements that form the
environment?
- How do objects relate to people,
activities and interactions?
Users
- the main groups / individuals
being observed
- How do they engage with other
groups / individuals to reach their
goals?
Make sure the observations you record in the table below contain sensory details.
Activities
- actions people take to reach their
goal
- how people behave to reach their
(simple / complex) goals
Environment
- overall setting in which the
activities are taking place
- how people behave in this
particular setting
Interactions
- the basic interactions occurring for
people to reach goals
- what effect do people have on
activities and environment?
Objects
- What are all the different elements
that form the environment? CWJ - sight: letter, computers etc
- How do objects relate to people, Rental flats – sight: mattress, low tables, snacks on tables, clothes, playground
activities and interactions?
Users
- the main groups / individuals being
observed
- How do they engage with other
groups / individuals to reach their
goals?
CWJ - hearing: early morning roll calls, lecture for the parents
sight: structured daily activities / bootcamp style; goal is to instill discipline in web-junkies.
touch: cold air
Rental Flat - can focus on the family bonding time, and the community activities, sight: writing
positive/inspirational words on railings,
hearing sight: volunteer theatre group
CWJ - sight: lack of usual comforts of home, bare rooms with bunkbeds, harsh lighting in corridors etc
Rental flat – sight: the room cluttered with things necessary for daily life (specify), yellow railings, ‘positive’
graffiti, narrow corridors with clothes racks etc.
Could focus on this category since this option is about ‘community’
CWJ - hearing: between the instructors and boys / letter reading, crying
Rental flat - sight: family meal time, chatting outside the coffee shop with her neighbour uncle etc
sight + hearing: neighbourhood kids playing in the playground together, theatre group practice / discussion
etc
Could focus on this category since this option is about ‘community’
CWJ – sight: lack of interaction between parents and children, mostly instructors talking to parents and
children separately
Goals: developing discipline + self-awareness in the boys, awareness of broken relationships in the
parents?
Rental flats – Zakia, her family, her neighbours, her theatre group.
Goals: building community, combatting the ‘shady’ environment with stronger ties in the community?
Now, look at the data you have collected above. Choosing only the most interesting, relevant and
sensory clues, use the table below to help you organise your group discussion. In your
discussion, ask yourselves if there is a trend or pattern that you can see across or within the
AEIOU categories.

Clues (similar details grouped together, or anomalies of interest) Codes (themes / concepts)

Implications (use hedges, consider the deeper significance of the themes / concepts)
• The implications should lead you to think about what you do
not know (and what you would like to find out). What do you
need to know more about the issue / topic? Do you and your
group members think you need more information about this
particular topic? Why or why not?
Observing your Writing Practices
If you choose to observe yourself as a writer, you will need to do
the close observation and analysis of details we have practised
with your own writing. You will:

• keep a journal where you record the types of writing you do

each day;
• note the different mediums or apps that you use to
communicate;
• consider how your purpose and audience vary with each
communication; and
• write a short paragraph at the end of each day, where you
reflect on your writing habits.
Activity 2.3
Reflections on Writing
Read the excerpts below and sum up each one in your own words.

• If time permits…

**Refer to Google doc

Activity 2.4
Personal Writing Practices
Watch this 5-minute video on discourse and take notes on the meanings of primary discourse,
secondary discourse, dominant discourse, and meta-knowledge of a discourse.

Gee: What is Discourse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEB4rAZanpM
Blog 1: Observations and Analysis
• Due Next Week (Week 4)
• 300-500 words
• Choose ONE topic from the three possible options. Keep in mind that this
choice will eventually become the springboard for your op-ed. Choose wisely
and thoughtfully – what would you like to further explore over the course of the
semester?
• To begin your analysis, (refer to table). This should highlight anything you found
interesting or confusing. Include at least one photo at the start or end of the
blog.
Field notes (AEIOU Framework)

• Record as many details as possible – what you hear, see, smell, and touch.

• For a place, go to the place for an extended period to observe and take notes and
photos.

• For a community or subculture, in addition to observing the community, try to

interview a member of the community. If given consent, record the interview and
add quotes from the interview where they might fit below. (See below for
interviewing tips.)

• For personal writing habits, keep a daily journal for the week to record your
writing – texts, messages, notes, in school, out of school, formal, informal— along
with their intended purpose and audience. Write a paragraph each day, which
considers: What values are implicit in each discourse? How did the medium shape
your writing? Did your writing help you discover any ideas? If you wrote a school
assignment, how did the discipline conventions require you to think in certain
ways?
Template for Blog 1
Activities
actions people take to reach their
goal
how people behave to reach their
(simple/complex) goals

Environment
overall setting in which the
activities are taking place
how people behave in this
particular setting
Interactions
the basic interactions occurring for
people to reach goals
what effect do people have on
activities and environment?
Objects
What are all the different
elements that form the
environment?
How do objects relate to people,
activities and interactions?
Users
the main groups / individuals
being observed
How do they engage with other
groups / individuals to reach their
goals?