Both of the essays do a great job studying and proving their evidence about the subculture they researched. Dudley’s essay is focused on the history of the Hemp culture. It shows the origin and how it has evolved from hippies to people of all ages. Cassa’s essay is a firsthand account of coffee lovers. No history, no facts just a typical day in a small hometown coffee shop.
One characteristic of a ethnographic essay is to explore a subculture to see how and when it started. Dudley’s did exactly this by showing the progression of Hemp stores and also a walk through of a major store that exist today. As Ballenger said the point of a ethnographic essay is to “test your research skills by bringing them out of academia and into the field”. This essay requires work but the topic are about people and a deeper understanding of the thing that they have in common. Marijuana a illegal drug and banned from the American society is still makes companies a lot of money. How is this, head shops more commonly called head shops. Dudley’s says that they shops are not hidden and far and few between but in most major cities. This is one thing I find interesting and I think also helps the essay is the historical knowledge and the first hand experience of something currently happening. As he shows the items in the store such as pipes, bongs, rolling paper, tee shirts, male and female clothing and other paraphernalia it shows when marijuana was banned and when it was how head shops used to be. They sold everything including hemp and were allowed to even partake of this practice openly. Now they are not as open by having signs saying “for tobacco use only” but not not having any agreements on using them only for tobacco. This is good to show that the practice of use is still going on and that these stores support it even though it is illegal. As Dudley points out, “In 1966, head shops could be extremely open about their facilitation of marijuana use and still remain open”. This comparison to past and present shows that true research was done. As Ballenger says about ethnography essays, “they depend on close observation over time”. This essay is a good example of a well researched ethnography essay.
Cassa’s essay was a little less researched however it was more personal. A key ingredient of ethnography is “spending time in the field simply watching and taking notes” (Ballenger). Cassa tells you the day in a life of a coffee shop and shows that all coffee lovers are different they hold a bond stronger than coffee but a sense of community. Another ingredient for ethnography is “a bulk of the research takes place in the natural settings where group members gather” (Ballenger) and this common gathering is the local coffee shop. I think time spent in the environment that you are researching is key. You can only get so much information from books, articles and research but in person watching and observing allows you to see how people in the subculture view themselves and their beliefs. The customers think of themselves is as a community. They could get the same coffee if not better at Starbucks, but they would have the same talks with familiar faces, celebration of one’s birthday, a personal greeting from everyone, their orders already made because everyone knows everybody. This essay as I said has a personal touch and makes you feel the warm comfort of this small town. With the breakdown of every hour and the story of customers bringing in cakes to celebrate each other’s birthdays shows this subcultures true colors. You can’t research things like this because this is deeper than academic knowledge. As the saying goes it takes one to know one and in order to know about subcultures you have to emerge yourself into one to see just how great it might be.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
Research Essay Topic
Topic: Wall Street Crisis
Question: How are financial institutions not financially stable
Affect on society and myself: Well being a business student and current investor it has alot to do with investing decisions that I will make in the near future. For others entire 401K's, retirement plans and life savings were lost. Now the government is looking to buy 700 billion of lost shares so this affects not just Wall Street but the American economy as well.
Question: How are financial institutions not financially stable
Affect on society and myself: Well being a business student and current investor it has alot to do with investing decisions that I will make in the near future. For others entire 401K's, retirement plans and life savings were lost. Now the government is looking to buy 700 billion of lost shares so this affects not just Wall Street but the American economy as well.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Reading Response #2
Both of these essays are discover essays rather than traditional essays because they state facts about the topic but do not take a side and they speak on the subject objectively. Ballenger states that research papers “make a extended argument about something in an effort to prove a claim” (430). This would normally be used in science experiment or history paper. You stated your opinion on a subject and state facts to prove your point and stated facts that discredit the other view. It is almost personal because there are two views to the subject but you only choose one and prove that one is right. Research essays also incorporate facts but it is more presenting evidence about a matter that was once less understood and further discovered. It is not your opinion or we are right and they are wrong kind of argument. It may be as simple as do airbags really save lives to are drugs really dangerous.
Holmquist starts off stating his experience with drugs, something that was not seen as harmful or deadly because it was not as “harsh as heroin and cocaine” (B25). Then he incorporates experiences either his or those he has seen through his friends. What makes Holmquist essay different is that he list both sides, the good and the bad. You will never read or write a research paper that gives evidence to support both sides of the argument because that would not even be a argument if you give both credit. He start with the fact the LSD (acid), MDMA (ecstasy) and GHB are not addictive. You take the drug out of want and not need. He tells his encounters and shares the great effects you feel from the drug. In a traditional research paper it would look as if he is in favor of legalizing drugs and that he was a hippie of some sort. However after explaining the positives he brings out the negatives which by far out weigh the positives. He discusses long term affects, short term affects and even the cases of death that have occurred and can occur. The beauty of this paper is even though it is not a research paper proving a point but it is still stating facts and research was done so the paper has substance and just opinion.
Garret - Brown’s essay also starts with a question which is common factor of research papers and research essays. He does not understand why you would pay for something you could get for free. He then tells a tan can be earned by just going outside and doing yard work or going to the park a beach. That is how it has always been done. Now that we are in the technology era we of course use a machine, what else is new. It is not that getting a tan is the problem because he himself tans but why do people choose to use a machine and pay for artificial lighting which in results in some form of cancer and do not even make your skin wrinkly and leathered. Though as the research shows people feel better and healthier by going to tanning salons. This paper is a research essay just as Holmquist but just not as many facts and very well said. He more or less states a few facts and his opinion, which I feel he uses too much of. Comparing Holmquist to Garret – Brown, you can see the difference. Holmquit states facts from good to bad, personal stories, third party accounts such as his friends Eric and Chris. This just makes his paper a experience backed by facts and evidence it makes it exciting and informative. In the end he does not say that the drugs are bad but he just does not like that lifestyle, but yet still likes drugs a lot. Which shows even though they are not addictive you still have a craving for them even after detoxing. It gives you a deeper understanding about illegal substances and shows the good things and the dark side. Garret – Brown is a not as engaging maybe because he uses more opinion than anything. He uses facts but he does not get deeper than the surface and does not discover the issue just plainly state a few points.
Holmquist starts off stating his experience with drugs, something that was not seen as harmful or deadly because it was not as “harsh as heroin and cocaine” (B25). Then he incorporates experiences either his or those he has seen through his friends. What makes Holmquist essay different is that he list both sides, the good and the bad. You will never read or write a research paper that gives evidence to support both sides of the argument because that would not even be a argument if you give both credit. He start with the fact the LSD (acid), MDMA (ecstasy) and GHB are not addictive. You take the drug out of want and not need. He tells his encounters and shares the great effects you feel from the drug. In a traditional research paper it would look as if he is in favor of legalizing drugs and that he was a hippie of some sort. However after explaining the positives he brings out the negatives which by far out weigh the positives. He discusses long term affects, short term affects and even the cases of death that have occurred and can occur. The beauty of this paper is even though it is not a research paper proving a point but it is still stating facts and research was done so the paper has substance and just opinion.
Garret - Brown’s essay also starts with a question which is common factor of research papers and research essays. He does not understand why you would pay for something you could get for free. He then tells a tan can be earned by just going outside and doing yard work or going to the park a beach. That is how it has always been done. Now that we are in the technology era we of course use a machine, what else is new. It is not that getting a tan is the problem because he himself tans but why do people choose to use a machine and pay for artificial lighting which in results in some form of cancer and do not even make your skin wrinkly and leathered. Though as the research shows people feel better and healthier by going to tanning salons. This paper is a research essay just as Holmquist but just not as many facts and very well said. He more or less states a few facts and his opinion, which I feel he uses too much of. Comparing Holmquist to Garret – Brown, you can see the difference. Holmquit states facts from good to bad, personal stories, third party accounts such as his friends Eric and Chris. This just makes his paper a experience backed by facts and evidence it makes it exciting and informative. In the end he does not say that the drugs are bad but he just does not like that lifestyle, but yet still likes drugs a lot. Which shows even though they are not addictive you still have a craving for them even after detoxing. It gives you a deeper understanding about illegal substances and shows the good things and the dark side. Garret – Brown is a not as engaging maybe because he uses more opinion than anything. He uses facts but he does not get deeper than the surface and does not discover the issue just plainly state a few points.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Reading Response #1
I think that both bodies of work relate to what Ballenger describes as
characteristics of a personal essay. They both are told in narrative form and give a first person view into the reading and makes us more able to connect with what they are saying. I find it interesting that Ballenger says “personal essays relies on and observation” and both stories completely rely solely on pure memory and recollection of times past. Both stories review the past to relate us to the present, one starts out with the past and the other correlates it within the story but both use reflection to come to that “so what” point.
In the first story, Hogg shows a young girl infatuation with a musical artist. His charm, wit and smile capture her and even though every girl in America is fantasying about him, she takes his words personal as if he writes his songs for her. This is true of most young girls obsession with a pop singer, every girls takes his words to heart as if he was thinking of them personally when he was writing the song. I recall when the Back Street Boys and N’Sync came on the scene women of all ages, grade school to house wives dreamt of being swept away by one of the members. However as noted in the reading as many facts you can know about a person and can actually never really know the person by just what you read and see on television. This is that person’s persona as she later says in the reading, this is the way they come across to audiences to save face and look good. When she attends the first concert she has the image of a young and charming Davey Jones, but notes he had lost his baby face and looks much older than what she has seen on shows and her own perception. Still she is overwhelmed and overlooks the minor differences. This shows when you idol or look up to a figure of some sort no matter what anyone says or thinks you always have your thoughts of them as that hero or whatever they mean to you. I even fall prey to this as well. I consider Michael Jordan the greatest basketball player ever and Tom Brady the best quarterback in the NFL. It doesn’t matter to me that Kobe Bryant scored eighty one points in a game and that Jordan never scored more than seventy. Just because Peyton Manning threw fifty one touchdowns in a single season and Brady only threw forty nine in my mind regardless to whatever else anyone else does I consider them the best.
In Black’s story she is reflective and appreciative. The saying goes you never realize what you had until it is gone and this statement holds true to this passage and life in general. I am even realizing that now, my mother’s cooking, a room to myself, free laundry the list is endless. Yet when you are in the situation instead of appreciativeness we often mumble, complain and take for granted the things we do have rather than what we don’t. Black hated the lack intelligence of the local people because their mindset was not that of hers. She fought hard not to accept their ways and waited for the day that she could break away and not be subject to it any longer. It amazes me how we resist things this without even giving them thought or the time of day. Many people would love to visit the beautiful sandy beaches of Hawaii and soap of the sun and scenery yet Black sees it as uncivilized and unmannered people. So she leaves at the first chance she gets which is college as most of us do.
So where is this “so what” point it is simple. The once something is taken away you realize its importance as does Black. When she is digging through the mud and is refreshing by how satisfying the work is she wonders how she ever left. She realizes that in order to see true beauty all it takes is a open mind and a will to explore the wonderful things around you. Hobb’s point is a little different. She realizes after putting her childhood idol on a pedestal even into her late twenties that people are just people like everyone else and that what is seen on TV and the real them is complete opposites. For both stories it takes them into adulthood to realize the simplistic ways of their childhood.
characteristics of a personal essay. They both are told in narrative form and give a first person view into the reading and makes us more able to connect with what they are saying. I find it interesting that Ballenger says “personal essays relies on and observation” and both stories completely rely solely on pure memory and recollection of times past. Both stories review the past to relate us to the present, one starts out with the past and the other correlates it within the story but both use reflection to come to that “so what” point.
In the first story, Hogg shows a young girl infatuation with a musical artist. His charm, wit and smile capture her and even though every girl in America is fantasying about him, she takes his words personal as if he writes his songs for her. This is true of most young girls obsession with a pop singer, every girls takes his words to heart as if he was thinking of them personally when he was writing the song. I recall when the Back Street Boys and N’Sync came on the scene women of all ages, grade school to house wives dreamt of being swept away by one of the members. However as noted in the reading as many facts you can know about a person and can actually never really know the person by just what you read and see on television. This is that person’s persona as she later says in the reading, this is the way they come across to audiences to save face and look good. When she attends the first concert she has the image of a young and charming Davey Jones, but notes he had lost his baby face and looks much older than what she has seen on shows and her own perception. Still she is overwhelmed and overlooks the minor differences. This shows when you idol or look up to a figure of some sort no matter what anyone says or thinks you always have your thoughts of them as that hero or whatever they mean to you. I even fall prey to this as well. I consider Michael Jordan the greatest basketball player ever and Tom Brady the best quarterback in the NFL. It doesn’t matter to me that Kobe Bryant scored eighty one points in a game and that Jordan never scored more than seventy. Just because Peyton Manning threw fifty one touchdowns in a single season and Brady only threw forty nine in my mind regardless to whatever else anyone else does I consider them the best.
In Black’s story she is reflective and appreciative. The saying goes you never realize what you had until it is gone and this statement holds true to this passage and life in general. I am even realizing that now, my mother’s cooking, a room to myself, free laundry the list is endless. Yet when you are in the situation instead of appreciativeness we often mumble, complain and take for granted the things we do have rather than what we don’t. Black hated the lack intelligence of the local people because their mindset was not that of hers. She fought hard not to accept their ways and waited for the day that she could break away and not be subject to it any longer. It amazes me how we resist things this without even giving them thought or the time of day. Many people would love to visit the beautiful sandy beaches of Hawaii and soap of the sun and scenery yet Black sees it as uncivilized and unmannered people. So she leaves at the first chance she gets which is college as most of us do.
So where is this “so what” point it is simple. The once something is taken away you realize its importance as does Black. When she is digging through the mud and is refreshing by how satisfying the work is she wonders how she ever left. She realizes that in order to see true beauty all it takes is a open mind and a will to explore the wonderful things around you. Hobb’s point is a little different. She realizes after putting her childhood idol on a pedestal even into her late twenties that people are just people like everyone else and that what is seen on TV and the real them is complete opposites. For both stories it takes them into adulthood to realize the simplistic ways of their childhood.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
