Empoword

Part One: Description, Narration, and Reflection 63 2b clothing blue jeans 3a medical condition respiratory infection the common cold 3b school college 4a artist pop singer 4b structure building The White House 5a coffee Starbucks coffee 5b scientist Sir Isaac Newton 6a 6b 6c Compare your answers with a classmate. What similarities do you share with other students? What differences? Why do you think this is the case? How can you apply this thinking to your own writing? Micro-Ethnography An ethnography is a form of writing that uses thick description to explore a place and its associated culture. By attempting this method on a small scale, you can practice specific, focused description. Find a place in which you can observe the people and setting without actively involving yourself. (Interesting spaces and cultures students have used before include a poetry slam, a local bar, a dog park, and a nursing home.) You can choose a place you’ve been before or a place you’ve never been: the point here is to look at a space and a group of people more critically for the sake of detail, whether or not you already know that context. As an ethnographer, your goal is to take in details without influencing those details. In order to stay focused, go to this place alone and refrain from using your phone or doing anything besides note-taking. Keep your attention on the people and the place. • Spend a few minutes taking notes on your general impressions of the place at this time.