Write an ethnography essay focused on a particular group of people and the routines or practices that best reveal their unique significance as a group.

Unit 3 Assignment: Ethnography Essay

• Due: Sat. Oct. 31 (Week 10)


• Format: Typed, double-spaced, submitted as a word-processing document.
  
  12 point, text-weight font, 1-inch margins.


• Length: 1200 - 1800 words (approx. 5-7 pages)


• Value: This project will be graded out of 100 possible points, and will be worth 20% of the grade for the course (Unit 3 Assignment Grade).


• Overview: In Unit 1 and Unit 2, we focused on ways that writers build ideas from personal memories and experiences into interesting narratives that convey significance and meaning to new audiences. In Unit 3, we have been discussing how writers invent ideas by interacting with other communities through firsthand observation and description. These relationships and discoveries can give writers insight into larger concepts or ideas that are valuable to specific communities. For this writing project, you will use firsthand observations and discoveries to write about people and the issues that are important to them. Your evidence will come from the details you observe as you investigate other people, places, and events.


• Assignment
  
  Write an ethnography essay focused on a particular group of people and the routines or practices that best reveal their unique significance as a group.
  
  An ethnography is a written description of a particular cultural group or community. For the ethnography essay, you can follow the guidelines in the CEL, p. 110-112. Your ethnography should:
  
  


• Begin with your observations of a particular group. Plan to observe this group 2-3 times, so that you can get a better sense of their routines, habits, and practices.
  
  
  
  • Note: if you cannot travel to observe a group or community, plan to observe that community digitally through website documents, social media, and/or emails exchanged with group members. 
  
  
  
  


• Convey insight into the characteristics that give the group unique significance.


• Provide context and background, including location, values, beliefs, histories, rituals, dialogue, and any other details that help convey the group's significance.


• Follow a deliberate organizational pattern that focuses on one or more insights about the group while also providing details and information about the group's culture and routine


• As you look back over your observations and notes, remember that your essay should do more than simply relate details without any larger significance. Ethnographies also draw out the unique, interesting, and special qualities of a group or culture that help readers connect to their values or motivations. Note: Please keep in mind that writing in this class is public, and anything you write about may be shared with other students and instructors. Please only write about details that you are comfortable making public within our classroom community.
  
  
  
  Assignment Components
  
  In order to finish this project, we have worked on the following parts over course of the unit:
  
  


• Invention/Prewriting: Collect and submit several pages of the invention work you complete in preparation for writing the Ethnography essay. Specifically, include your observation notes following the questions recommended in the CEL (p. 108-110)


• Draft: Include at least one pre-revised draft of your essay. The draft needs to meet the word count of 750 words and must also apply formatting requirements for the project—in other words it must be complete. Make sure that your draft is clearly marked "draft."


• Peer Review/Teamwork Report: We will complete a guided peer-review process in class. You will need to be present for that entire class period, come prepared with your draft, and provide thoughtful and targeted feedback to your peers to earn the peer review points for this unit. For your essay submission, also include a copy of the Unit 3 Teamwork Report assigned for this project.


• Final: Your final submission, needs to show revision of your original draft(s) to incorporate the changes recommended by your peers and feedback from your instructor. This final should meet all of the assignment criteria, and will be evaluated with the Unit 3 Writing Assignment rubric.


• Reflective Self-Analysis: The essay submission will also require you to complete a reflective self-analysis assignment. This assignment is a short reflective essay analyzing the effectiveness of the research essay the writer created for this unit. In the self-analysis, the writer uses passages from their own writing and pre-writing as evidence for the claims they make about their own writing process and writing strategies.


• Objectives
  
  In this project, you will
  
  


• Observe a person or place connected to a community problem (108)


• Record the particular details of an observation (111)


• Reveal / convey the significance of a person, place, or event through specific details in writing.