Week 15 Posting...

Since the semester started, my writing is a lot better. I can actually understand what I am writing. As far as what need work still, I would have to say my organizational skills. When i am writing my papers, I start going off on things not even related to my topic. I also need to work on this because my papers will make a lot more since when i read them if I could organize them better. This class has helped a lot of my writing skills improve. If I could change something about the class, I may do more than one topic for a paper. Like in my paper, my topic can go with about three to four other topics. If I could write individual papers on them, I believe it would help me work to define my skills.

Week 14 Posting...

For my mini-ethnography, I would say that my favorite piece of data is interviews. I like doing interviews because I am able to sit with the person, and get their reactions when I ask them a question. I also like doing interviews because I get more information then if I was to look online for the same material. In an interview you can get more information than you need, but if want to give opinions in the paper interviews are a great source. People give their opinions all of the time in interviews and it makes my paper stronger because I have evidence of why people believe what they believe.

Week 13 Posting...

My most significant experience that I have had as a fieldworker is when I was in high school. I was researching for a movie that I was getting ready to shoot for my senior English class. I needed to find different place around my community to shoot this video, but could not find any really good spots. I found this one spot that was perfect. It was inside of an old grain factory. Since I was shooting a horror movie this location worked out very well. When I walked into the factory, I heard the old steel banging up against each other since pieces of it were hanging down. This gave the eerie effect I was going for. To find this building it took me around to weeks to find. I had only a month to shoot and edit this video for class, so I figured that the site was the most important thing. This is why I took so long to pick one.

Week 7 Posting...

I believe that through my research I can give back information on the sport to new riders that are just starting. I can help the new riders learn about the sport, and what to expect when they first start to ride. I was in the sport for about 4 years until i blew my knee out riding a contest. I have fallen out of the sub-culture and I am trying to get back in. I have a lot of friends that have helped me through my research, and i believe that this will help any rider or parents of riders that want to learn the sport.

Week 4 Posting...

I believe that if I went around the United States, my sub-culture would be the same as here in Muncie. People in the sport might conduct themselves differently, but as far as the community I believe would be about the same. There are not very rituals in this sub-culture. The only thing you will always hear if you see a group riding is he phrase, "Go big, or go home." Other than that there is not really a lot of daily rituals we go through.

Week 3 Posting...

So far in my research I have already interviewed two informants that are in my sub-culture. While interviewing them I found hat we were both distracted by what was going on around us instead of answering the question thoroughly. My site is a big steel warehouse that has a skate park built on the inside. If you yell inside the building you can hear your echo for about a minute because of the steel walls.I have tried to do some research, but have not had a lot of luck with the academic research. I have found interviews in my magazines that I am going to use.

week 12 posting...

What does rhetoric mean to me? I really do not know what rhetoric means, but when I think of it, I think of certain things in ones culture like clothing and materials to perform a sport or anything else. In my culture rhetoric could be the way we dress or the way we act while riding our bikes. Most of the time I see rhetoric used in a negative way, mainly through politics. They lie to persuade people to do something, or just to get their vote. I might use rhetoric in my mini-ethnography by showing how people use it in a negative way from they way we dress.

In Class 4/2/09...

The quote that describes my writing process is keep on, keeping on. This pertains to my writing process because I hate to write and if I keep on writing I might like it. I say this quote over and over in my head while writing, I also use it in my everyday life.If you tell yourself to keep on writing then you will keep on writing and not stop to play video games or any other distraction around you.

Week 11 posting...

My writing process has not changed that much since this class first started. I still need to work on not waiting till the last minute to write my papers. The research proposal and literature review has been the hardest paper for me because I have no clue on what I am doing in it. I am not sure if my writing process is affected by this paper because I do not understand what I am doing. The annotated bib paper was the easiest paper for me because I just went through my sources and wrote how it was going to relate to my paper. As far as why I write, I really do not know why I write because I do not write very well. In my career writing will not be an issue for me because all i have to o is sit at a computer all day and edit pieces of video together and the times of my cuts.