RJ26
How are your preparations for WA5 and your research portfolio coming along? What questions do you have? What do you have to do to complete a draft of your Research Portfolio by Friday, 12/4, at noon? What questions do you have about moving this project into final essay form and readying it to discuss at the Celebration of Student Writing (12/11), followed by the Commerce Writes Symposium (12/17)?
Preparation for WA5 are probably anything but well. :/ Unfortunately, I feel like I am not grasping the concept of the annotated bibliography; but I am sure that our next class time will allow for clarification. Regarding “What questions do you have?” I think I am just going to need a complete description, and possibly a physical example, to understand what is due on Friday. Eeeeeeek! I am so stressed about this project! Although I have been working really hard, I just don’t feel 100% confident in it, as if there is something I have missed. While the above sentences seem that I will not have a prepared draft by noon, I am atleast confident in something… that I will have it ready 
On a more positive note, I am satisfied with the development of my research portfolio. Organization leads to comfort, definately! However, to add to the confusion and stress, I do not know how I will be getting this physical research portfolio into cyberspace. I almost feel like all of the time spent with my three-ring-binder was unnecessary :/ Regarding the final essay, is it just an annotated bibliography, or will we be discussing our findings throughout the semester? I really feel like I will be getting the personal assistance from Ms. Haley Mull, as she also have taken on the task of a physical research portfolio. After seeing her 26th Research Journal, I am finding that we have the same questions: How do fieldnotes and research journals? Will we just be citing our blog for the research journals as any other website? As for the two events, I am actually excited! Anything requiring visual aid is always fun for me So, I am hoping to release some frustration through my creative side, by making a great presentation board. However, I am feeling that the depth of my information will reside in my Research Portfolio. On top of other things needing to be organized, I need to start drafting what my board will present and how it will say it. All in all, my main goal it to present ALL of my information (WA5, presentations for events, etc.) in the most understandable and entertaining way. Hopefully my audience will not be as lost as I feel right now!
RJ #25
Use this research journal to examine your Research Portfolio as a whole. What’s here? What does it mean? Now is the time to move these extensive fieldnotes into a draft of your Final Ethnographic Project. First pass at this draft is due in a week.
Closed, my Research Portfolio is one-inch, three-ring binder. It is white , covered in a clear plastic to place a cover sheet, etc. Once opened, my Research Portfolio contains eight labeled dividers: (in order) Artifacts, Fieldnotes, Codebook, Surveys, Interviews, RJ’s, WA’s and Scholarship. The binder also contains two built in pockets, where the front houses my current gradesheet and the back holds particular packets given to us in class. As this is a late entry, once opened, my up-to-date portfolio contains my Annotated Bibliography as a type of “Table of Contents.” While the dividers are self explanatory, especially with the help of my Annotated Bibliography, the most interesting section would have to be ‘Surveys.” In this particular section, I have 26 team member opinions regarding their motives and thier opinion of our coach, Neil Piper. (As seen in the Artifacts, there are 27 players on the roster… I have not included myself in the survey.) What I find most interesting about this study is that, unlike my hypothesis, the girls are driven more by obligation (“because that’s what we are supposed to do”) rather then fear from Neil’s anger or his punishments. However, I was correct in the thought that there would be more negative attitudes towards him when answering, “Please describe our coach, Neil Piper, in one word.” So, what does this mean? As stated in my Research Journal 20, I have cited in bold, “an individual of a team may suppress negative attitudes in order to let the team flourish positively.” Although the majority of the girls share negative attitudes towards their coach, completing the daily activities with this type of negativity and fear can take its toll on the team’s functioning as a whole. Like many athletes, I believe that the women soccer players of Texas A&M Commerce understand that the team comes first, thus their personal feelings need to be pushed aside for the success of the team to thrive. Our particular program, like many other organizations, requires specific organization (practice uniform schedule, cubbies), with the postive doses of “excitement,” such as the spit circle. As Taylor expressed in her interview, team traditions “get you fired up,” thus combining both obligation and excitement for success in both practices and games. In regards to the motivation of “fear”, it is possible that a coach inflicts this attitude as means of getting respect. It is also possible that while respect is not there, listening and following directions is. Trying to add as minimal insight as possible, as a player myself I can compare my relationship with Neil and past coaches… having more fear towards him has definately caused me to listen and follow his direction more than I did with “nicer” coaches, although I do not agree with some of his methods of maintining authority (See: fieldnotes regarding Haley Mull and Jordan McCarty) so I do not necessarily respect him.
RJ #24
1. Read and respond to Chapter 8 in FieldWorking. Talk about what you can use to develop a working draft of your ethnographic project. What are your plans for your final ethnographic project? Outline it.
2. Develop another (revised) annotated Table of Contents that lists everything you’ve collected thus far (see more in FW, page 463 and an example on page 414-415). This list should be much longer and more detailed than previous lists.
3. Develop a One-Page Analysis that offers a portrait of your study thus far. What are the important items or recurring themes emerging from your study thus far? How doe these fit together? How do these themes and relationships fit into the larger structure of your study? In other words, what might this study actually mean? You probably won’t know enough to answer the last question, but begin projecting. What might it mean? Also use this short analysis to think through what else you might need to do/know. What does this analysis suggest you need to do next? To find out next? To observe next? Another interview or so? With whom and why? What will be the focus? Another set of field observations or so? Where/how/why? Outside reading that might complement your study and help you make sense of it? Additional artifacts? Of course you’ll need all of this, but think through what’s next by reviewing your study thus far.
4. Further nuance your codebook. You’ll be turning in a revised version of all of this as WA5 later in the week.
RJ #23
If you haven’t taken at least SIX sets of fieldnotes, collected numerous artifacts, and conducted at least two interviews, you need to do that ASAP! Before 12/1!For this RJ, write about whatever you need to write about. Open topic.
Although this is a late entry, I would still like to take the opportunity to discuss progress of my study in this open topic. After that last of my surveys have been collected via email, I can say that the answers were quite different than I expected. Now I can understand why Henry Glassie states, “Ethnography is interaction, collaboration. What it demands is not hypotheses, which may unnaturally close study down, obscuring the integrity of the other, but the ability to converse intimately.” Although my situation is not as drastic, I can see that I have failed to completely take myself out of this study. I have the audacity to say this because I assumed what particular answers would be, due to my role as a member of the team and my relationship with our coach, Neil Piper. Unfortunately, I had a preexisting attitude that the majority of our actions were driven by our negative attitudes and fear of our coach, as he was described as an “intense…bipolar… narcissistic asshole” (quotes taken from survey results.) However, I have found that the majority of our actions, such as following the practice uniform schedule and making sure that we wear the right jersey, are driven my obligation: “Because that is what we are supposed to do.” So, rather than sulking on these findings, I have developed another idea: an individual of a team may suppress negative attitudes in order to let the team flourish positively. This can be interpreted by the majority of responses regarding team actions versus individual feelings. While the team as a whole was going through the motions of most team activities, even including traditions (See: “Surveys” section) at times, most of the girls’ personal insight resulted in negativity towards Neil. So, it is understandable the each girl suppresses her negative feelings (fear, disrespect, etc.), knowing that it does not benefit to the team as a whole to share and communicate these attitudes. Could it be possible that Neil used to be feared, thus resulting in my initial hypothesis, but as he crossed the line with several players, his respect was lost? This new idea would also support my idea that “an individual of a team may suppress negative attitudes in order to let the team flourish positively”… maybe the team has lost respect for Neil, but realized that in order for us to succeed with or without him, we needed to continue our routines, traditions, and rules. Thus, fear is no longer a motivation, as respect has been lost. Well, this post has definitely been helpful… basically opening the dam and unleashing all of my internal thoughts and questions. Honestly, after this entry, I am really excited to finalize my ethnographic project, because re-reading what I have just wrote has relinquished my hope in my topic… there is something deeper here.
RJ #22
1. Tell me where you are with your research and writing processes. What questions do you have? What do you need from me? What do you need from your classmates?
Having completed my WA4, I feel good about my interview. I can honestly say that I was nervous about interviewing someone else, as I feared all of my teammates would be unwilling. However, I am very proud of the finding with Taylor Cabler, the interviewee for my Writing Assignment. The only trouble that I am having is relating my work to the scholarly community. Do I just find quotes relevant to my writing and use them to support it? I am not too sure… Regarding the rest of my progress, I feel that I have fallen behind on some of the Research Journals, so I would really like to sit down this weekend and get caught up, while also revising past ones. I have started really organizing my Portfolio, finally buying some dividers, which I think make it look very clean. My only regret is that our season is already over, so I always think… “What if I need something else to support my data, but can’t get it??”
2. Provide an updated Annotated Table of Contents (don’t forget those annotations!) and a one-page summary of findings and project directions, as before. You should also provide a revised codebook, as we expect those codes will have changed and evolved.
RJ#21
1. What are your plans for WA4? Who did you interview? Why? How will you make use of this interview? What will your resulting project look like? How will it draw from and feed into your larger research project?
2. What about your code book? What codes are you using now? How will those codes inform your data analysis? What are your data saying to you thus far? What key evidence are you finding most compelling, useful, surprising, ortherwise worth sharing?
3. Post some expanded fieldnotes in response to your (partial) viewing of the East Caney interviews. What additional codes do you find useful? How did it work to code the interview while developing fieldnotes on it? What have you learned from this experience that you can apply to your own experiences in the field, taking fieldnotes and developing plans for your research project?
4. You should plan to take at least one more set of fieldnotes between now and next class. We will visit more about that then, including plans for WA4 and your final research project.
RJ#20
Annotated Table of Contents:
1. Artifacts:
a. The pre-season packet; this includes our year’s roster, our practice uniform schedule, and our team rules and expectations.
b. Ticket stubs from a few of the games
c. Photographs (which make up the most of my artifacts); these include shots of our multiple practice uniforms and game uniforms, our cubbies, our locker room keypad, our field banners, our “spit circle”, our national anthem, our team line-up, our whiteboard on the wall, etc.
2. Fieldnotes and Explanded Fieldnotes: these include fieldnotes from all practices, home games, away games, and away trips. This will also house my first interview fo WA4. Also, I have my fieldnotes from the Commerce Week on Writing.
3. Permission Slips: This holds the forms that teammates sign, allowing their names and faces to support my research in both interviews and photographs.
4. Writing Assignments: although I have a digital collection of these at www.lindseydurham.wordpress.com, I wanted to have a solid copy of them with my research material. This also allows me to display my multiple peer reviews and paper revisions.
5. Research Journal: again, same as my Writing Assignments, I would like to have a solid collection of them. I think it looks more professional and organized. As of now, I have RJ#1-19… #20 will obviously be added after this post is completed!
6. Surveys: my most interesting forms of research will be displaying particular motives (“fear, obligation, excitement”) that each girl feels while completing a particular act in regards to what “we are supposed to do”.
My most interesting data has come from surveys thus far. These papers display each girls motives, which can later be collaborated together to provide insight from the team’s motives regarding tradition, rules, and practices. Initially, I had thought that the majority of motives would develop out of fear (specifically from our coach, Neil Piper)… but a re-occuring theme has risen out- that many girls are more “going through the motions”. Although all of my surveys are not complete, I feel that in the bigger picture, an individual of a team may suppress negative attitudes in order to let the team flourish positively. I know that if this is true, it will have to a be judgement call on my part, as their surveys and interviews may be affected by this attitude. My next step it to complete these surveys. I would also like to add an additional aspect to my interviews, specifically “putting them in the spot” and asking, “Are you suppressing any negative attitudes to not harm the team?” “If so, I can use your pseudonym to prevent reprocutions from both Neil and the other girls.” Maybe with this comfort, I will be able to get untainted information and insight. Fieldnotes are definately going to continue as long as the season does. I have found the most interesting come from away trips, as we are all literally together for days at a time. This allows us to discuss team issues and feelings, as opposed to just all going out seperate ways when practices/games end on our home field. In regards to outside reading, I feel that my past Research Journals house great scholarship, but just as Dr.Carter’s insight has provided, I need to actually use them to support my research. So, my goal in these next two writing assignments, specifically WA5, need to make more use of our readings… for my project: Brandt and Moss.
Code Book:
LR locker room
Cub our practice cubbies, holding our practice uniforms
PU practice uniform (refer to past Research Journal discussing specific vocab)
GU game uniform
H home (used with either practice, game, warm-up, etc.)
A away (used with either practice, game, warm-up, etc.)
SC “spit circle”
*F fear motive (in question)
*O obligation motive (in question)
*E excitement motive (in question)
RJ#19: Fieldworking, Chapter 7
Chapter 7′s subject is archives, defined as collections of documents and artifacts. Much to our comfort as students today, the internet has enabled our research to extent farther than we could imagine. Artifacts are examples of tradition which can support our data. When approaching a collection of archival material, as researchers we must organize it- “chronologically, by size, by type or shape, by order from beginning to end or from inside to outside.” Archives support ethnohistory, defined as a study of the development of cultures. Again, as the chapter states, electronic archives (such as the internet, audio, video, music, etc.) help support our research.
Box 28: A Box about Boxes
Unfortunately, both my mother and father’s families live in Houston. So, I am unable to easily access particular archival collections that they may have. Also, being here at Commerce, I can not view my parents collections either. I must rely on an archival collection of my own. I have been in a serioud relationship for three years, with Glenn, my boyfriend. Since we started dating in 2006, I have maintained a keepsake box throughout the years, little did I know that it would benefit my English 102 class!
After taking out everything from that overcrowded shoe box, I have developed three specific categories: paper materials, photographs, and solid objects. I can concously arrange them chronologically, but someone who does not share that relationship would not be able to by just looking at the contents.
Paper materials include: movie stubs (including out first date, October 27, 2006) ranging from our first to most recent movie (Paranormal Activities, October 19, 2009). cards (anivversary and holiday, also those “just because” cards). items from Junior Homecoming and Senior Prom include the table settings, the menus, the itinerary, and the invitation/ticket. there are also numerous notebook notes that have been added over the past three years.
Photographs include: our first picture taken together (Homecoming football night, October 13, 2006) up until pictures from last semester. [The majority of our pictures are housed in either my computer or in a frame.] The majority of the pictures are from our Senior Prom, 2008. The range from the afternoon getting ready (makeup, dress, etc) to the gathering with other dates, to the dance itself, to Project Prom, the event post-prom at Gameworks at the Grapevine Mills Mall.
Solid objects include: Although this is the smallest category, there are some solid objects arranged in the shoe box. There is a pink and a blue golfball, illegally taken from one of our first dates there is also a toy pig that I had sent him in while he was going to school in Kansas (it represented an “inside joke”). There is also a small, metal license plate that says “GLENN” on it, from California, which I bought while on our soccer trip to San Diego last season. The most inportant solid items are our dried boutineer and corsage from our Senior Prom. I love that I have been able to keep these items unharmed and for so long.
RJ#18: Fieldworking, Chapter 6
Fieldworking‘s Chapter 6, “Researching Language: The Cultural Language”, is all about well…language. “The visual and musical arts, dance and athletics, and scientific notation are all examples of nonverbal languages with which we communicate.”
Box 25: “Listening for Words: Creating a Glossary”, pg. 314
Uniform options
Kappa navy blue shorts with the Kappa logo, with a man and a women sitting back-to-back
Blue Reebok navy blue shorts with “Reebok” on the thigh; shiny material
Yellow Reebok yellow shorts with “Reebok” on the thigh; checkered fabric
White Reebok same description as Yellow Reebok, just white; checkered fabric
Yellow RBK yellow shorts with the Reebok logo (imagine two lines that are marked through by one slash, going opposite directions); matte material
White RBK same description as Yellow RBK, just white; matte material
White logo white t-shirt with the Commerce logo on the right side of the chest and number on left side (navy number)
Gray logo same description as White logo, only gray
Yellow AMC yellow shirt with “A&M-Commerce Soccer” written across the chest, with navy number on upper left of chest (above the writing)
White AMC same description as Yellow AMC, just white
Remaining Vocabulary
“Spit Circle” a pre-game tradition where our opponent’s team name is drawn in the dirt, circled, and then spit on by each of us (preceding walking onto the field)
Practice Uniform Schedule a monthly calendar that lists the multiple options of our practice uniform for that day; list shirt, shorts, and socks
Roster a numerical list of each team member; lists jersey “number”, “name”, “position”, “yr [year]“, “height”, “hometown-HS/college”
eg. “17 Lindsey Durham Midfield So-1L 5-3 Irving, TX-Nimitz”
it also names the head coach, his win-loss-tie record (Shown as a whole, and also split up into “Lone Star Conference Record” and “2008 Record”), and how many starters are returning, how many letterman are returning, how many freshman, and how many transfers
Cubby individual cubes that are designated to each team member, and labeled for each player; they hold all of our clean practice uniform pieces
There are many more vocubulary terms that are significant to my project, however, after talking to some non-athletes, I have found the rest to be common sense. Regardless, if I compile any more that I find aren’t self-explanatory, I will update this post.
RJ#17: Fieldworking, Chapter 7 and “Box Activity”
Look for Research Journal #17, covering Fieldworking‘s Chapter 7 and the “Box Activity”, titled as Research Journal #19…as it has been assigned to be due either 10/27 or 11/3.
