Ethnography Reflection

Vivienne Do
ENC-1101
Ethnography Reflection 29 April. 2013

My first task in writing the Ethnography was to gather enough information to support the arguments I presented. This naturally occurred as I invaded personal space for dining guest, crew members as well as my boss. This paper represented more of a research-paper based outline than an actually essay in my opinion. The internet’s resources didn’t compared to actual on-site observation. I only say this because, unlike chain restaurants, my discourse community is owned and operated by a small family. After interviewing countless people, taking days’ worth of observation notes, it was time to present my research. (This is why I stated this paper was more research-based outline)

                My initial take to tackle this paper was quite simple and bleak, I wanted to focus on mainly the serving staff at Hanamizuki and base all of arguments about discourse community on the front of the house. This not only shorted the amount of time spent on interviews, but would aid as a solid focal point. However, once I thought about it, it was just plain wrong to leave out other members of this Discourse community. I had to include other role attributors in order to support Swales’ argument that discourse communities usually have different communities within them. Even though it took three times as much effort, I knew it would pay off in terms of the amount of support I had in my Ethnography. I divided Hanamizuki into three communities: customer, kitchen and serving. This was the basic organization outline that I would be using to guide the reader around a restaurant’s fundamentals.

                Unfortunately, I did not post my paper on the blog site, thus I have no feedback to bounce back on. I read through the example Ethnography papers presented by the Professor in order to have a general feel of what the paper should be like. My first draft was reviewed by my old English teacher (Mr.Fedell) and he told me it was great, but there needs to be more organization in the arguments presented. He suggested I used bold letter to outline the questions, then provide a respond (evidence) followed by analysis. I used this frame-work all throughout my paper and hope it helped keep the thoughts organized.

The most difficult aspect of this paper was the ‘’presenting’’ part. Take for example, for a final exam, you have to read countless pages of information.. but you’re only tested on what the professor decides. Out of all the information I gathered, it was very difficult to select which ones were suitable in my essay. Another problem area I ran into was the actual definition of discourse community. There were so many examples in the WAW book, and countless definitions online. I actually used resources from one of my peer’s Ethnography paper to help me have a better understand of discourse community!

Overall, the process was very long but well worth the benefits! I now have a better understand of the community and respect the kitchen/ customer/ serving staff on a whole new level. It’s funny how once you ‘’research’’ into a topic, you have a better understanding on the motives, thus making you more interested.