Ethnography Project

 

eth·nog·ra·phy

/ɛθˈnɒg rə fi/ Show Spelled [eth-nog-ruh-fee]   

noun

a branch of anthropology dealing with the scientific description of individual cultures.

 

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Clear as mud, right?  It's basically a close-up, scientific and objective study of people groups and their lifestyles in order to document and hopefully explain their way of life.  So what does this have to do with an English 1101 course?  That's what I've been anxiously wondering all semester!

 

Leading up to this assignment, we have been discussing the meaning of literacy, and its involvement in our day to day lives. When I think of literacy, the first things that flood to my mind are the impossible literacy tests to disenfranchise blacks during Reconstruction Era and the strikingly low literacy rates in some third world countries.  Following to these two examples, literacy to me always meant knowing how to read and write.  But as we questioned this definition most of us agreed with, Lacy encouraged us to broaden our definition.  Eventually, literacy became defined as simply as this: "things that communicate or represent other things." 

 

Now to the project.  Our trio was assigned to venture around UNC Charlotte in search of objects which could be perceived as forms of literacy.  To relate back to what an ethnography is, this project could be seen as a study of the culture on our campus with a focus on literacy.  A true ethnography though? Ehh...That's quite a stretch.

 

But nevertheless, our group met up early Tuesday morning at the Belk Tower to do a project virtually devoid of guidelines.  I really enjoyed spending a class period walking around campus and taking the time to get to know the weird quirks around it.  For example, we explored an old blacksmith shop, walked through the trails in the woods, found the grave of the founder of UNCC and the echo circle in the middle of campus. (Super cool side fact!  The echo circle is not simply an echo, but an amplification of your voice.  As the sound waves reflect off the brick building, exactly in phase with those traveling toward, they constructively interfere, increasing the amplitude of the waves, and thereby making it sound louder!)

 

On our wonderful adventure, we first noted the Belk Tower, which is allegedly supposed to be a pen with a jar of ink. Considering it's one of the tallest structures on campus, it could be taken to represent the power of the written word, and inferably, the spoken word as well.  This is interesting to consider when we remember that this spot has a reputation for being where people often use their freedom of speech. 

 

As we continued, we also recognized symbols as an object with an intent meaning recognized by everyone.  Things like a picture of a man in a wheelchair painted in blue on the floors of parking decks or the image of a lit ciragrette with a red slash through it are understood by all.  Certainly these are literate objects, warning to their viewers, "Don't smoke here!" or "Park somewhere else!"

 

In my previous post, I brought up how clothing could be literate, which is definitely an example that would fit under this category.  Objects like rings could send messages like, "Married, Keep your distance!" or perhaps give mixed messages, like if a purity ring was confused with simple jewelry.  The type of clothes we wear sends messages too.  Professional attire shouts out, "I deserve your respect," while sweatpants might casually say, "Hey, I'm jus' chillin'." Sorority logos, religious symbols and hairstyles all can say things too. 

 

This angle has really convicted me, because often times I just wear what's been given to me over the years without too much consideration.  This project has made me stop to really consider what messages my clothes are throwing out there and what messages I want to be throwing out there.  Especially since I am representing Someone.

 

So what are you saying...

                                            when you aren't using words?

 

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Pictures to come! Waiting to get them from a friend.

 

Mapping UNCC

This assignment was to go to a familiar part of campus and examine the different expressions of literacy around us, both obvious and profound.

After receiving this task, the first building I saw walking out of Friday was Prospector, so as I watched people flock into the Chick-fil-a, I decided it would be a great place to start.

I sat down at the high counters in the middle of the room and began watching all that was going on around me.  Some people simply munched their chicken sandwiches in silence while others met up with friends, or downed a milkshake while studying.  But what does this have to do with literacy??  From the outside, not much, but the longer I sat there, the more of it I noticed.

At the beginning of my search, my eyes were pulled toward the bright posters tacked to the column in front of me, the advertisement for the blood drive on the table, and the great wall that divides the room, bearing a chalkboard that is used to promote every known organization on campus.  There were also two televisions, one shouting opinions of the last presidential debate, the other tuned into sports channel, but muted.  To me, these were the conspicuous forms of literacy.

However, in class we have defined literacy as anything that portrays a specific meaning.  As I thought about this, I noticed famous logos that we would all recognize: the Toms banner on a girl's backpack, the apple on a Mac laptop, the NY symbol on a Yankees baseball cap.  There were watches and clocks, which indicate meaning through the passage of time.  I also saw a couple intriguing tattoos; it would be interesting to know the meaning they hold.  I think what we wear can also communicate meaning.  As I sat there, I watched as the janitors, signified by their dull green uniform, were often times ignored for being just that.  Others came in dressed professionally, while yet others entered in athletic clothing.  Each of these spoke just as much as the attention-grabbing posters on the wall, calling out an aspect of the identity of the person wearing them.  This is proven by the acknowledgement of stereotypes and the importance of first-impressions, and serves as a great example of literacy in our culture, without the use of words.

Grammar... ):) Friend or Foe?

Everyone hates to get back that paper that they stayed up all night writing just to find it dissected by their "grammar Nazi" of a teacher.  Very few people know things about the imperfect subjunctive tense, where to place those nasty little commas, or how to spell words like argument, perseverance or separate, but is grammar really as horrible as we make it out to be?

Grammar helps us to say what we mean and to mean what we say.  This cartoon is funny because it is obvious to us that the pig doesn't realize his mistake, but you can see how big of a difference that little preposition makes.  It may not always be this black and white, (haha!) but the manner in which we say something can affect how it is interpreted.  In every field, whether music or astrophysics, certain words hold specific meaning, outside their vernacular usage.  When misused, you could say something that you had no intention of saying, or have your ideas discredited because you misused the established terminology.  This is also seen cross culturally, like if you asked your British roommate to go get some biscuits to go with the fried chicken, and they came back with some strange-looking cookies.  Awkward!

In another light, our use (or misuse) of grammar affects the way people look at us.  This is simple: If you meet a man who has command of a large vocabulary, it is likely that you will respect him, whereas you would be less likely to honor a man who rambles aimlessly through each sentence or uses coarse language.  The image we project is directly related to the way we speak and write.  For instance, if you email a prospective employer with the same casual phrases that you would send to a friend, that person might interpret your message as disrespectful or lazy, despite the content. 

Remember though, we can use this to our advantage!  A proper use of language can be an avenue to protray our outstanding character or a tool to back up our progressing ideas or opinions.  Like Taylor Mali mentioned in his poem we read, when we believe in something avidly and need to defend it, we should speak with conviction. Grammar is the route by which we can do that.

So why don't more English teachers spend more time on vocabulary and grammar?  Beats me.  I think they should.  I must confess that almost all the grammar I know, I've learned through studying French and Spanish.  In those classes teachers are forced to discuss concepts like syntax and verb conjugations because otherwise we would all sound like fools!  In English, we often depend solely on what we hear and simply go off "what sounds right."  For better or worse.

I must admit, when we get down to the nitty-gritty-- like the difference between a colon and a dash, (I had to look up which I should use in this sentence! haha!) punctuation does start to seem frivolous and not important.  While I was looking this up, I ran into this website...
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/dashes-parentheses-commas.aspx
It contains pages and pages on the rules regulating those frisky little commas, semi-colons, dashes, and parenthesis, but also the exceptions that circumvent them!  I think this is when grammar becomes more flexible.  These rules seem like they are meant to be bent by the writer, in order to create a certain tone.  The author of the website herself even admits that grammar can be frustrating, because "there aren't hard-and-fast rules about when to use commas, parentheses, or dashes," but says that "learning to use your judgment is part of finding your voice and becoming a better writer."

So go on, fellow writer, break the rules!  ...But keep their purpose in mind.

Midterm Reflection

Last Thursday we were given our Midterm Assignment, which was to go to the library, find a mentor text and "write beside it" in the same style or manner.  So bright and early Tuesday morning our group met up in Atkin's library to tackle this assignment.

           At first, I think we all felt pretty lost.  The library is ten stories, packed full of books, magazines, newspapers, and the like.  A good mentor text could come from anywhere.  We wandered aimlessly for a while, randomly pulling books off the shelf to read a couple lines.  Nothing seemed to have an original writing style.  Eventually we ended up at a computer, and searched books on writing and even for "mentor texts" as a genre from the library website.  Apparently it doesn't exist. ;)









As we were searching the library website, we had an idea on short stories and found a book of them (simply because we didn't want to have to read a whole novel!) It was a good place to start.  However when we got to the sixth floor and began walking through the tight rows of book shelves, we discovered we wrote down the wrong call number! They are certainly intense at Atkins!

We never found that book, but we continued to browse from there.  We looked through short stories, poetry, (which I thought would have been easy to write beside... haha just make it rhyme!) and found a shelf full of books in Spanish, which interested me too. :) As I was scanning through books (which I could do for hours!!) Johnny had the smarts to go over to the computer and google "popular mentor texts."  Everyone knows Google can answer all life's problems. ;)

We ended up finding Owl Moon, by Jane Yolen, which was a children's book with large pictures and a couple lines per page.  How perfect. Our group got together and Cory set a stopwatch so we could write like Jane Yolen for five minutes.  This is what I wrote.

It was one fair night,
as the blue sky turned gray
like a cold silk scarf
as we waited in line,
my youth group and I.

We walked through the doors
as my friend paid my way,
someone brought pizzas
passing like low-flying birds overhead.

I had noticed her metaphorical descriptions, emphasis on her surroundings, and her repetition of the phrase "Pa and I."  I tried to imitate these in my quick-write. I think this project, and mentor texts in general, help us to realize the potential to describe something of meaning in our lives in a variety of ways. The challenge for us is to find the best one.