Reading Response Three
Sorry it's a day late! :(
In the two short stories we read, Casassa and Dudley did a lot of the things Ballenger talked about while writing an essay. They both did fieldwork. For example, Casassa explained a day of actually working in the coffee shop while interacting with costumers and really giving us an indepth look on how the coffee shop actually is with details on what certain drinks costumers get and how different costumers interact throughout the day. For Dudleys case, he went in and visited the head shop. He explained every piece of the store in details in which you could visually imagine yourself in there. He used great insight such as the stores tactic of putting hemp lollis and lip balm by the cash register for impulse buys. In both essays, they both did interviews. However, the way in which Casassa interviewed was different from Dudley’s. Casassa actually knew the person she was interviewing and actually served him before so he probably acted differently than if he had never met her before in his life. On the other side, Dudley interviewed the store owner and a costumer which makes his interviews a little more impersonal since he had never met either of them before.
In both essays, they use really good image-like details to describe the atmosphere. In Casassa’s essay, she explained the certain type of people that always came in at a certain time. It almost made you feel like you could connect with these costumers. The early workers and school kids came in first, the people who lounged came in, then the students who had lunch break. I kind of thought to myself “oh yeah I could see myself going in there at noon to eat lunch with my friends and talk about plans for the weekend.” The visual images she gave me were very stimulating and actually made me want to visit. In Dudley’s essay, he gave a little more background on the overall image of all head shops which helped the reader understand what it actually was before he jumped right into saying about the one store in general. I feel by adding these details, it really made the essay a lot more personal to those who probably didn’t know what a head shop was before they read the essay. I also liked the way Dudley described the atmosphere in the store by saying all the employees were really layed back and kind and that they played jazz music. It gave me a sense of ooh so this is how it is there.
The thing I drew away from both of these essays was there genuine interests in their topics. I feel I can relate more to Casassa’s essay because I want to research TCU’s swim and dive team. Casassa had insight because she actually worked there so it made it easier for her to describe and interview people. I feel by having her foot already in the door, it made it easier to write the paper but also hard because she didn’t want to give bias input. For my case, my brother is a senior captain on the team so I feel like I automatically have a shoe in as well. Not in the sense where I’m there practicing every day but I’m so comfortable with my brother that I might as well feel like I am a manager on the team or something. By reading both of these essays, I feel like they both contrasted and complimented each other in great ways and it was nice to see two different perspectives on how to write an ethnographic essay. I just hope I can convey what I’m trying to say as well as they did in their essays! ☺
In the two short stories we read, Casassa and Dudley did a lot of the things Ballenger talked about while writing an essay. They both did fieldwork. For example, Casassa explained a day of actually working in the coffee shop while interacting with costumers and really giving us an indepth look on how the coffee shop actually is with details on what certain drinks costumers get and how different costumers interact throughout the day. For Dudleys case, he went in and visited the head shop. He explained every piece of the store in details in which you could visually imagine yourself in there. He used great insight such as the stores tactic of putting hemp lollis and lip balm by the cash register for impulse buys. In both essays, they both did interviews. However, the way in which Casassa interviewed was different from Dudley’s. Casassa actually knew the person she was interviewing and actually served him before so he probably acted differently than if he had never met her before in his life. On the other side, Dudley interviewed the store owner and a costumer which makes his interviews a little more impersonal since he had never met either of them before.
In both essays, they use really good image-like details to describe the atmosphere. In Casassa’s essay, she explained the certain type of people that always came in at a certain time. It almost made you feel like you could connect with these costumers. The early workers and school kids came in first, the people who lounged came in, then the students who had lunch break. I kind of thought to myself “oh yeah I could see myself going in there at noon to eat lunch with my friends and talk about plans for the weekend.” The visual images she gave me were very stimulating and actually made me want to visit. In Dudley’s essay, he gave a little more background on the overall image of all head shops which helped the reader understand what it actually was before he jumped right into saying about the one store in general. I feel by adding these details, it really made the essay a lot more personal to those who probably didn’t know what a head shop was before they read the essay. I also liked the way Dudley described the atmosphere in the store by saying all the employees were really layed back and kind and that they played jazz music. It gave me a sense of ooh so this is how it is there.
The thing I drew away from both of these essays was there genuine interests in their topics. I feel I can relate more to Casassa’s essay because I want to research TCU’s swim and dive team. Casassa had insight because she actually worked there so it made it easier for her to describe and interview people. I feel by having her foot already in the door, it made it easier to write the paper but also hard because she didn’t want to give bias input. For my case, my brother is a senior captain on the team so I feel like I automatically have a shoe in as well. Not in the sense where I’m there practicing every day but I’m so comfortable with my brother that I might as well feel like I am a manager on the team or something. By reading both of these essays, I feel like they both contrasted and complimented each other in great ways and it was nice to see two different perspectives on how to write an ethnographic essay. I just hope I can convey what I’m trying to say as well as they did in their essays! ☺
posted by Sara at
8:26 PM
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