4/29/11

This will be my final blog of the semester. Todays blog will be about the progress of my ethnography paper. So far my paper is coming along very well. I have 13 pages completed and all I have left to do is create my conclusion as well as my work cited page. All of my observations and interviews went along very well, the only problem I had was that during this semester I had a very bad stomach bug which caused me to get sick whenever I ate the Chinese food served at China Gourmet. This made my observations/interviews difficult because I would go in and order food to go but I would not be able to actually eat it. Other than that I did not really have any problems with my paper.

April 15, 2011

This week I read the Lay of the Land Essay written by a peer named Chantelle. Over all, I believe that this was a good essay. I feel that maybe Chantelle did not have a peer editor or she possibly did not read over her paper before posting it on her website. While reading the essay I came across many spelling and grammatical errors. Although the essay was well written and included all the elements that were required it seemed more like an observation done by a student teacher rather than a fieldworker. Chantelle, in my mind, may have been at the daycare center observing to fulfill hours for another class and used her time there, as well as the notes she took, to create the Lay of the Land Essay. Due to the strict requirements of Education Majors here at Bridgewater State, I understand why a student might "double dip" their research. At the same time, I feel that Chantelle could have done more to make the essay feel original to the project.

4/1/2011 Interviews

After reading the assigned pages on interviews I picked up lots of important information. First of all the difference between closed and open questions. Closed questions have one specific answer, such as "Do you own a car?" While open questions are based on a persons perspecitive and can be more controversal, such as "Tell me about the accident you witnessed last night." The article also had great tips on how to be a good listener. It talked about not intterpting, not fiddiling, having good eye contact, encourage responses with follow up questions, and having a structured plan with focused questions.