Voice

It is important for your essay to sound like you. Many people try to use big words to make themselves sound more intelligent. Sometimes using a thesaurus is helpful, but most of the time it does not turn out well. Some people will use the word even when they do not know how to use it. A big "intelligent" word when used out of context can ruin a perfectly good sentence. Even some authors keep sentences simple.

Organization

Organization as discussed in the chapter is key to being able to write at your best. I for one am very disorganized. Fortunately on the computer I can save things to folders to keep all of my files together when I write. When talking about tools for writing as tools in a toolbox it kind of made me think about how I use physical tools. I am not a handyman by any standards to beyond basic hammer and nail type projects I am out of my league. I can make some educated guesses and maybe use a few more advanced tools correctly but the end result would still be sloppy. Just as a to become effecient with physical tools you need to observe their use and follow directions. Similarly with writing I can write in my own voice fairly well but when doing scientific or research based writing I struggle. So I need to take advantage of reading other people's work and help build my skills using different writing tools.

Toolbox

In Stephen King's entry, Toolbox, it really open my eyes to all the "tools" one really need to be a good writer. He also explains why it is important why even if you are strong in a certain field such as vocabulary it does not mean you can slack in other aspects of writing such as grammar or organization. While the things at the top of your toolbox may be the strong points in your paper, your paper could be ruined without the things at the bottom of your toolbox. Kings makes it clear to the reason why it is important for one to have multiple layers in their writing "tool box." One needs to expand their toolbox as much a possible to improve their writing skills.

ORGANIZATION IS KEY!

I really like how on page 447 it talks about the different strategies. I am a very organized person and I like things to be "black and white" sort to speak so this part of the text really helps organize my thoughts. It talks about experiential strategies. Those consist of fieldnotes, double-entry notes, notes from our background reading, and other feildwork records like tapes and transcripts, photos and artifacts. It explains how in our fieldwriting, we will use this information to convince our readers that we were there, and that we saw the places, heard the people, and treid to interpret what they were doing. I really like how the author explains into detail what experiential stragegies are because it gives me a clear picture in my mind. It helps to remind me that I have been working hard on this project and I know a lot of information from all the observations and interviews and I need to give myself more credit for it. Another way to represent myself and my information is by rhetorical strategies and by aesthetic strategies. I think the other two are wonderful strategies as well but I really like the first one the best because it is the most personal. I do like the aesthetic strategy too because it talks about representing our information in a creative way and that is something I like to do! I love to be creative so I think that part of the project would be really fun. The text on pages 439-449 was very imformative and I believe it will help me for my final project!!

Toolbox

After reading Stephen King's entry Toolbox it got me thinking.  I really liked his thinking about the "toolbox". He doesn't necessarily mean an actual toolbox he is talking about what you use to assist you in something.  I think each and everyone of us has a toolbox in writing.  The things that help us out the most on top. And the least used on the bottom and so on and so on.  It's a great way to look at things.

Resisting Writing

I enjoyed reading this part of the chapter. I mainly enjoyed it because it described me in a lot of ways. I feel like it is hard for me to just sit down and write on the computer. This is because these days there are so many distractions once you get onto your computer. There is facebook, aim, email, and just plain surfing the internet that can distract you from hours on end. I liked the quote even when you're prepared to begin writing, it's difficult to " just do it." I usually have to sit down, get comfortable and think for five to ten minutes about what I am going to say in a blog or what I am going to focus on in order to be able to start writing and entering a successful blog entry. I thought it was interesting to read that even professional writers procrastinate. I am not surprised by that but it made me feel like I wasn't dumb for procrastinating and going on different websites before I write since even professionals do the same thing. I also enjoyed the quotes that this passage provided from professionals, I thought that they were very informative and smart. Writers are not born but dependent on work habits, daily discipline, and reader response, as well as the voices of other writers they've read. You have to be motivated and disciplined in order to be a great writer, and focus on what you're saying whenever you are writing so you don't sound like an idiot.

Tools of Writing

Withing writing are many aspects. You have to look at writing as not one entity, but as a multi-faceted device. When writing you have to use nouns, verbs, adjectives, verb/subject agreement, gerunds, no runons and the list continues. They are the little things that make up the overall paper or writing. You have to know how to use these in order to write effectively. If you can't then you don't get your point across. People need to practice and figure out all of their tools while they have the time. High school was a great time for figuring out. College is also another great time. It is more crucial to have more of an understanding at a college level, but you can still practice. People do not want to hire someone who does not know how to properly write. Writing is within every discipline that exists. Reading, writing, and speaking correctly all make up how a person is perceived. If they can't do all of them or even just one of them well, they will be looked down upon. That will result in problems, not only for themselves but for those they are around. Writing well is something everyone needs to master to be able to have a life that people respect. Use the tools and learn how they better support writing.

aesthetically pleasing strategies...

they suggest using metaphors, similes, images, ethnopoetic notation, and spatial gaze.... all of these should will be extremely useful for my mini-ethnography presentation... all of these aspects will make my presentation more interesting and easier for my classmates to follow along and get involved, well as long as i use them in the correct way....

sensory expressions also show the audience a lot of what you are trying to explain and sort of put them into the environment along with you... and since my mini-ethnography has to deal with environment i want to somehow include in some or all of the senses in a unique way showing my creativity and also explaing why environments can affect your creativity...

Your Toolbox

Having your own toolbox is a great way to describe how every writer should write to the best of their abilities. Stephen King gives some great examples of some authors/writers who have a well put together toolbox and some that don't. Just because if someone has a huge vocabulary doesn't mean they're a good writer because when they use all these long words in their writings, no one knows what the heck they are talking about. He tells us to use simple vocabulary because not only will people like it more but they can follow and understand it more. I like how he puts all this into perspective because he pretty much says that everyone can write no matter how smart or well educated you are, it just depends on what all you have in your toolbox.

drafts, drafts, drafts.

"the single quality that distinguishes the unpublished writer from the published is not talent but work" (pg.421)-- this quote can really give you a sense of hope and an achievable goal to make your writing better.. just through work habits. as they say "practice makes perfect"through writing, studying, working, and any daily habits.

one of the stages they talk about is really shitty first drafts. which also goes to show that good writers dont just come up with these masterpieces out of no where... it takes time and lots of changes. so next time ill remember its okay if my first draft is in fact really really shitty.

one change i can make after writing my shitty first draft is to question it?... what surprised me? what intrigued me? what disturbed me? some of these questions might be a little tough to answer on your own just because you have been the one researching and dealing with this information for awhile now and you already know what youve said or want to get across.... but group members could really be useful in this stage....

419-427 Resisting Writing

During my reading of this assignment this particular portion caught my eye because it involves not writing! I found it really interesting to notice that even people who love to write procrastinate almost as much as I do. Even the people who wrote the book we're learning our study habits from are telling us that procrastination is almost like a given habit for being a writer. Although their ways of resisting writing are slightly different than my they all serve the same purpose. This small paragraph was very comforting for me to read because it let me know that it's normal for a writer to procrastinate.

Writing a Draft

I know that I am not a good writer. To hear (or read) that people who write for a living have to write rough drafts makes me feel better. I know that I have to think about what I write and come up with a few drafts to polish what is in my head. You have to work out what you want to say exactly. You have all these notes and they need to be worked into a well written piece of information, not a jumble of a multitude of things. I guess I should have thought about professional writers needing to write drafts, they aren't perfect either. As they say, "practice makes perfect." That is necessarily true when writing a piece of work with the information that you have. You must practice writing your paper to make it the perfect piece in the end. It will show what you are trying to convey much better.

Procrastination

I was more relieved than anything to find how professional writers procrastinate. Many times that is what prevents me from writing well. I put off writing when I have good ideas and istead wait until dyas before the deadline and forcing the issue to meet length requirements. I also found the section about drafts important. Sometimes I take advantage the fact that drafts are rarely graded and tend to either ignore them completely or not really work hard on them and just do enough to get by. I could improve my writing a great deal by putting my mind to it and getting it done rather than putting things off.

Resisting Writing

I found it very interesting that even professional writers procrastinate actually writing.  For me, it takes a lot of motivation to actually start writing.  What's funny is that as soon as I start the actual process, it actually seems to go by really fast.  It is also hard to come up with good ideas, or if I have a good idea, how to start it.  Once I actually start the introduction, it normally starts to flow pretty steadily.  

A book Don Murray wrote call Shoptalk: Learning to Write with Writers, talks about the habits it takes to write, rather than talent.  One of the quotes that I liked was, "Writing... is like rearing children--willpower has very little to do with it.  If you have a little baby crying in the middle of the night, and if you depend only on willpower to get you out of bed to feed the baby, that baby will starve.  You do it out of love."  That was interesting to me because it seems true.  Even writers procrastinate, but what makes them actually start writing is the fact that they love doing it.

Madeline L'Engle

Madeline L'Engle's quote on page 421 struck my interest. It says, "Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it." I took this as you can not be inspired by something that is not there. The first step is always beginning. After you have the ball rolling, it is easier to come up with fresh thoughts and ideas to continue. This has happened to me a lot. I won't have any ideas on what to write, so I just start writing an introduction and see where it leads me.

First Drafts are COOL not stupid

I really liked the analogy of comparing research to chaperoning an 8th grade dance. I thought it was funny how they compared the two. But that's kind of irrelevant. Anyways, I read "Shitty First Drafts" by Anne Lamott. I like how in the first paragraph the story talks about professional book writers. It really stresses how drafts are important. It talks about how professional writers don't sit down at the desk every morning and feel like a million bucks and just can write whatever they feel like. It takes a lot of time and thinking and rough drafts to create a great final paper. I laughed out loud when I read the quote from an unknown writer, " It's not like you don't have a choice, because you do-you can either type or kill yourself." I think quotes like that give writing a little humor. I also like how the text breaks down the rough drafts into different types. The first draft is like a child's rough draft. It can be where you pour out all your emotions. I really like that idea because that could be a big stress reliever for a lot of writers. I like how the text emphasizes the difference between editing and revising. They both can take place during the drafting process, but revision always involves making substantial changes, not just fine-tuning a sentence or two; i'll have to remember that one.

Inspiration

As I was reading through the quotes from Don Murray's book, I came across I really believe to be true. "Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it" by Madeline L'Engle.  This is so true!  Often I find myself thinking before I sit down to work on a paper coming up with nothing.  But when I get started it just all begins to come to me.  She says it perfectly in her quote that you must begin the work to get the inspiration.  It's helpful to remind myself of this every time I am starting a paper.  I can't just sit around expecting something to come to mind.  I need to begin and then it will all slowly come to me in my writing.

Resisting Writing and Shitty First Drafts

I agreed 100% with the resisting writing assignment and found this true all the way through high school till now. As I have grown older I have also found it harder and harder to just be able to sit down and write. With distractions such as Facebook, eBay, and many other websites I am easily distracted before and while writing a paper. I found it interesting to that not only do young student who do not care much for English find it easy to procrastinate but so do professional writers.

After reading the Shitty First Drafts article, I found this very relevant to my writing as well. I usually wind up writing multiple copies after my first draft. I have also realized that the more and more I review and edit my paper the better grade I will receive. While that seems like it would be obvious, this whole chapter basically explained this, so obviously some people do not realize this.

Questioning Your Draft

After writing your draft, many students don't go back and read through it. Not only should you go through your paper after you have finished it but you should also question it. This section talks about what questions you can ask yourself when going through your paper. We always had to do this throughout high school and it helped tremendously because sometimes you can ask yourself something you and you can't even answer it because it's not talked about in your paper. This is why you should make up a few questions that you want to answer before you start writing you paper. It helps because you have a better chance of answering the questions better and more thoroughly.

Drafts

This reading talked about drafts and how people tend to resist writing, at least initially. This chapter covered subjects that are really just common sense, I honestly feel that this stuff at this point should already be well within a person's knowledge. It's obvious that you need all the information you gathered spread out before you as you write your draft. And, it's no secret that most drafts are originally very "shitty", which is to say they are not very good. Which is why the writer must question their draft, as indicated on page 427. As a whole I didn't find this particular chapter to be all that enlightening, in fact, the only page that would offer me much, if any, assistance is page 427.

Electronic Archives: UsinIg tge Internet

I cannot imagine life without the internet. The book was right saying that the internet has become a big part of our lives. We really rely on it for research and what not. I know I could not have done my project on wallyball without some help from the internet. I have searched through a lot of data to find valueable information on my subculture. I can remember in the beginning of this project I had some trouble finding the information I actually needed, and about gave up hope for finding it. Like the book stated, I remained patient to find information and started to choose my words carefully. After I started that information on my subculture started becoming easier to find, and made my research so much easier.

Electronic Archives

The internet has become an important source of information. When doing research we often surf the Web to find information on our topic. We often find a great amount of information. However, it is important to take your time going through the information in order to find out what is legitimate and what is not. It takes time and effort to do research, even on a high speed connection. Finding information is not the hard part, but finding quality information is some times difficult. The book describes how the information on the web works in a few ways. It says that it is a basic source of information and it can offer you potential contact information.

Chapter 6 talking about Language

I strongly agreed with what this chapter was saying about how not all language has to do with talking. On page 307 it says  some linguists claim that there is no thought without language, we think much of daily life moves along without the language of words. That is totally true! A lot of times when I am talking to friends, teachers, or peers I can totally see and tell there reactions by something as simple as a facial expression. If I am telling my roommate a story, often times she raises her eyebrows or opens her mouth real wide reacting to the story I am telling her and  I can tell her reaction without her even saying a word. While i observed my group Something Else I looked around the room at each of them and noticed that some of the students were slouched down which means they are bored or uninterested in the subject that is being talked about. While others were sitting up straight and smiling which led me to believe they were interested in the topic. Language isn't just word of mouth, it is your body language and facial expressions as well!

Ball Fruit Jars and Dumpster Diving

After reading about how Muncie, Indiana was going to be involved in this chapter I became very intrigued and read it very carefully. Who would have ever thought Muncie would be talked about in an English book. The best part was when they talked about the giant jars of preserved peas from the nineteenth century that they claimed were still edible today. It was very well written and informed me on a part of Muncie's history I was unaware of.

I felt the dumpster diving article was some what a waste of time. I see what he was getting at but I feel the example he used was simply dumb. I know I would not be willing to do that unless it was my very last option, but I guess you do what you have to do to get a story.

I found it interesting that the book talked about Muncie. Of course if I were writing about Ball Fruit Jars, I’d be sitting on a hotbed of information. Unfortunately, there isn’t so much history or information available about my subgroup in Muncie!

“Archives” seems to be a less than concrete noun. You can call a junk collection in your grandma’s attic an archive, but you can also call the Smithsonian an archive. These hardly seem related. Granted if you were doing a family history project the attic junk may be a more important source of information. However an unorganized collection of things can hardly be compared with the catalogued and intricately organized archives of a museum. Either way as I read about all these archives I am struggling with how to relate the information to my project.

The dumpster diving article was a little ridiculous. Obviously this man is a perfectly capable writer. Instead of telling us how to scavenge for food why not tell us how to write well. Bona fide idiot. By closing his essay acting like he had found some “better way” than those watching late night cable he made me officially ANGRY for even reading the article. They may not find a good show but they aren’t fighting the “big D” because they ate trash. Thanks for not contributing to the economy.

DUMPSTER DIVING

I think artifacts are extremely interesting....but dumpster diving?  I thought the section in our reading on dumpster diving was disgusting.  I would never dive into trash to find anything.  It also talked about EATING from the dumpster! I can't believe people actually do that.  There are tips on eating safely out of the dumpster, as far as I am concerned there is NO safe way to eat out of a dumpster!! The one statement that made me chuckle was in the three principals of eating safely from a dumpster. "Seeking always to answer the question, why was this discarded". I think it is just gross.

BALL STATE

i think it is really cool that there is an article relating to ball state and the ball brothers. i never knew that they were the ones that manufactured the BALL jars...
"you can find scripts and transcripts in many different places" --this just goes to show you that there is much more than what meets the eye....through transcripts and scripts (and any writing document for that matter) can tell you so much more than what you might already know...
since im doing my ethnography based on interior designers it would be really helpful if there some type of museum or interior design building that i could go and visit... it could really help out as another source for an archive and help me find another perspective

Public Archives

I like the article on Dumpster Diving. I think it is very interesting in many ways especially the fact that this guy really enjoys doing it. Most people wouldn't be willing to share what they enjoy to very many people especially if it's anything like dumpster diving. I also like how he italicizes certain words of importance. To me this really draws in the readers attention more and helps them feel more involved in the article. This is one of many important things to consider when writing or presenting because it shows that you actually care about and enjoy what you are talking about.

Alternative Archives

I really like how the text talks about, "Someone else's junk could be the treasure needed to understand a culture or subculture." I love that saying because it has so many meanings. Sometimes when I go over to my friends house and I raid her closet i'll find a whole bunch of stuff that she never uses or wears. To me it's great stuff but to her it's just old news. I really like how the text talks about other people's garbage. We really don't think of the value of junk because we automatically think if someone else threw it out, it's no good. Sometimes they hold important cultural meanings. 

I read On Dumpster Diving by Lars Eighner and I really liked it. It's actually a pretty long story but it is very interesting. In the middle of the text it talks about the certain things he found on a college campus. It said on one hot day he found a large jug of Pat O Brien's Hurricane mix. The jug had been open but was still ice cold. He drank a lot of it then realized that there was a LOT of rum in it. I thought that part was pretty funny!!

archives

I really enjoyed this section. I never really thought of things that they mentioned as "archives". It puts a whole new spin on the saying "One man's trash is another's treasure." I only though of archives as stuff in museums. When I went to the Louvre, there was a whole area devoted to Napoleon's stuff. They said it was set up just as his apartment was in his time. I wonder what kind of things I can find for my project. I may not be able to use actual objects, but I bet i can find pictures of old architecture supplies or schools to use as a compare and contrast between the present.

Dumpster Diving

I thought the article on dumpster diving was really gross.  I can't believe there are people that actually go to dumpsters and eat food out of them and think it is safe. It says that the new scavenger is filled with disgust and self-loathing and hides when they first start dumpster diving  which doesn't surprise me at all. I also thought it was interesting how in the article it said that people tend to gain weight that dumpster dive because more people are likely to throw away old pizza, candy, and doughnuts rather than  salads, tun and yogurt. I don't know, this article was just very strange to me and I could never eat food out of a dumpster.

Online Archives

I thought this was an interesting passage to read. Not only was it talking about different kinds of things you can find on the internet but it  basically discussed how nothing is private on the internet which is true. I enjoyed the part that said Anyone with Internet connection has access to an international treasure trove of public and private databases. I think it is bizarre that people have diaries on the internet because of that statement I just said. It is nearly impossible to keep anything on the internet private these days no matter how hard you try. Online Archives can be very useful for school but a lot of stuff online that you post is way to private to be public which is a scary thing to think about. More and more archival material is available to the public every day. The thing about that is, nothing gets completely erased from the archives of internet databases either. Weird. 

Archiving the Past

Archives are a great source of information. They can range from Washington D.C. to your own attic in your house. People archive quite a bit of information and it is something that can help in any sort of research needed. It can date back to thousands of years ago and as early as yesterday. This gives great insight into what you want to know about. It is an extended tool from journals, articles, and newspapers. Something to put in the tool belt of research tools.

Online Archives

I thought the section on the online archives was most interesting. Mostly because I never really thought of finding archives on the Internet. I also never knew that you could tour museums. I think that is so cool. I will honestly now go and look at museums online now that I know that is even possible. Also I thought it was interesting that they used an artwork that they found from online sources for the front cover. I now will try to look for archives online. 

I found the picture above from a online museum. The website was called, The Museum of online Museums. 

Archives

Using an archive can really help a researcher study a person or a subculture. Whether it is a person's garage full of old stuff or a museum full of information on a subculture, it can be very useful. Online archives are perhaps the most used and the easiest to use. People all over the world can now take virtual tours through museums and access many different archives that are full of information. Another type of archive is a family archive. Family archives can help a person learn more about their family tree. Family heirlooms such as old letters, photographs, or even old journals can be examined and learned from. I never really thought about using an archive for my project, but can now see how it could possible help me to use some kind of an archive in my research of my subculture.

Archives

I hadn't thought of looking into archives for my project. Archives are a valuable way to preserve and organize information. I hadn't thought of incorporating previous years youth groups. Since my paper is about an urban Ft. Wayne church it would have probably been quite interesting to see how the youth representation in the church shifted as the city of Ft Wayne as it developed into an industrial hub of the upper midwest and as it declined with the downturn of the economy and the closing of factories in Ft. Wayne led to a significant turn for the worst in parts of the city. Where once had been well employed and affluent families now sit condemned houses and graffiti.

Using internet archives and databases is a huge step for research in general. My parents couldnt imagine accessing so much information about such obscure topics with so minimal effort. Where people once paid hundreds of dollars for encyclopedias we can now get the answer to almost any question in the world in complete detail on our Blackberry for $20 a month. There is a reason this is called the information age. With our current ability to receive data we are probably living through the most important information illumination since the written word.

Researching Archives: Locating Culture

In this reading, it states that archives are collections of documents and artifacts.  I thought it was very interesting that we could create our own archives.  It says, "An archive can be a shoe box full of mementos from your volleyball career, a collection of pens used by a local mayor to sign laws, an elderly neighbor's egg cup collection..." I had no idea that collecting things from my marching band season could actually be considered an archive.  That seemed very interesting.

I also had no idea that the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., is one of the largest archives in the U.S.  Having no idea what was actually in this archive, it was interesting to find out that the ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore in The Wizard of Oz were located in the Smithsonian.  It also "has 10 separate archives, which hold an estimated 50,000 cubic feet of paper documents, 7 million still photographs, and thousands of motion picture films, videos, and audio recordings."  I did hear that the Smithsonian is closed down for ten years, but it would definitely be interesting to go visit that archive.

Online Archives

I did not have much knowledge about online archives, and honestly did not know what they actually were until reading about them. Upon reading about archives I had several different things I thought about them. I agree and believe they are becoming very popular, and make it easy for people to view different things or places without actually taking time or paying for them. I have had many projects I have done that involved getting pictures and what not. It saves me a lot of time to find them through the internet, and I do not have to travel or pay to get them either. I think these archives will be very helpful for my subculture, because it will help me find any information available to it, which I would be able to use.

Electronic Archives:Using the Internet

While after reading through this section, the questions they listed to help someone critique a websites usefulness and credibility caught my eye. Since the internet has basically become the first place many people look when doing research I feel these questions should become common knowledge among internet users. While we have discussed this in our class and we have been taught how to critique a website, I feel many people are very uneducated when it comes to this matter. While many people will tend to think what they find first must be right, it actually takes time and effort to do quality research on the internet. One must gain depth and credibility in their research which is made much faster with technology such as the internet but it still takes time and effort. I also like how they describe the Web working in three different way. First being a place to find information on virtually anything. Second it is a good place to go to look for contact information for you to obtain further information. Third how it has has created its own subculture in multiple ways.

Archives

Reading this article made me think about the same thing Elliot thought about, the internet and how much it has evolved. I'm sure that when the internet was first introduced no one would have ever thought we would be able to take virtual tours of places without leaving our homes. These virtual tours make it easy to see the things we need or want to see without having to take the time to actually go there to see it. It's amazing to see the different things you can do on the internet.

Chapter 7: 359-379- Online Archives Response

While reading through this section of our assignment this paragraph caught my attention because of what we've been talking about recently in class. This article discusses how we can take virtual tours of museums that we may never get the chance to visit in real life, or may give us reasons to visit in person. The article is basically showing us how far the internet has brought us. We're now able to critique works that we may never see in person, and expand our knowledge of art, documents, photographs, maps, manuscripts, collections, corporate archives, church records, and historical society records. It really is amazing what we can view through the internet these days, it seems like almost everything is just a mouse click away.

Chapter 7: pgs. 359-379: The Different Archives

After reading this section of chapter 7, I view archives in a different way. From reading this, I have learned that there are a few different types of archives including museums, online museums, and family archives. I think that the online museums are interesting because you can get the experience of going to the museum without even leaving your house with a virtual tour. I am not sure how I can use any archives, online especially, for my project unless I can find a few pictures.

Organizing Archival Material

When preparing to research and gather information, one of the most important things is how you organize everything you have collected. Without doing this your research could be all scattered out and not make any sense. There isn't one specific way to do this but you must look at everything you have gathered and collected. Depending on how you organize your information, it will build a frame for everything you did and it will keep building around all that you have gathered. Everything an anything you collect will help you in writing your material. This goes from historical artifacts to a collection of archives put together by other people.

pg. 331-357

In the section headed "Describing Occupational Terms" I found this very relevant to my project. Basically they narrow it down to what they describe as verbal art and why it is important for an outsider to understand it. To really grasp the traditions and ideals of a certain subculture you really need to spend time observing it and in doing so you will run across these different types of verbal arts the subculture have adopted. Learning these "verbal arts" rather it be a certain behavior or language and having them explained to me in depth will really help my paper out in the end.

Groundwork Activity

On page 351, there is a groundwork activity.

 I thought this was a good activity to help you

 organize and understand your feildsites language

 much better. Ti just helps you narrow your thinking 

down to one thing rather than your mind thinking of all aspects 

of the feildsite. You can have a more detailed understanding.I just thought that was interesting. 

language in text

dialogue and showing language and conversation can be kinda tricky in writing, "here are two stories from two different waitressing situation that both show how waitresses, when stiffed or stressed, retaliate." each one of these situations will have my similarities or differences but its also the way in which the writer portrays each situation... even in a incident that is the exact same, if you have two different people the views and writing and dialogue chose will be completetly different. even lore, jargon, and the verbal art can be told in multiple views and really add character to the stories, showing what that person is feeling and thinking. i think the reading is telling us students that it is our job as writers to change the information we recieves variants... we need to add our own creativity to make the story pull together to form an interesting story that someone will want to read.

Insider Language

When I was reading about inside terms it made me think back to my subculture. With my specif subculture I have noticed that there is a lot of specif terms floated around. These terms would mean nothing to anyone outside of the group. In the section it was talking about how to effectively translate the insider terms to common terms. I believe doing this will be very in useful in my paper because terms like ruck and maul mean nothing to a person walking down the street, and by being able to communicate that those are ways of keeping play going after a tackle or penalty will help me create a better paper.

"Inside Terms"

When I read this section it made me think of "inside jokes" that some friends have that other people just don't understand. That's kind of the way some subcultures are. They have "inside terms" that are hard for people to understand if you aren't a part of that particular subculture. This section talks about how to translate these "inside terms" to "outsiders" or the people who will read your paper. It will be easier for you to have someone from the subculture sort of "dumb it down" for you, for lack of better words. If they can explain it in terms that you understand it will be easier for you to express these terms in your paper. 

Creating a New Perspective

This is a response to the reflection titled Insider of Outsider, by tdhampton04. I also find the insider verse outsider perspective very interesting. Suppose one person is on a competitive speech team and the other person plays basketball. I believe that they would both think their activity is more challenging and competitive. However, I think if someone made them switch roles their mind might change. Perhaps, they would learn to respect one another more. The basketball player wouldn’t stereotype the speech team as “nerds” and the speech team might think more of the basketball players than just “dumb jocks”. Taking people out of the comfort zones can really broaden their horizons and bring a better perspective onto the actual subject.

pg 331-357

In this section of reading the "Describing Occupational Terms" was extremely helpful for me and my current situation with my paper. In this small portion of the reading it talks about how to collect verbal art of a subculture, and how to explain it to outsiders. With my paper there are many terms and words that no one outside the subculture would understand, and because of that I have to what seems like overwriting just to explain a term. It gave me the idea on how to have the person being interviewed to explain something that would otherwise be misunderstood to a "foreign" reader.

Pg 331-357

I thought it was pretty interesting when it talked about how it describes subcultures ritualized language events into a category called lore. I have heard the term "lore" but I never knew what the actual definition of it meant, but after I read the pages about it I really started to think about the different things lore describes. One thing it made me strongly think about is baseball for some reason. For example ,I know so many different stories about it, and it was something I talked about with other teammates and even friends in general without realizing it. I think people are able to talk about many things with others when they have some sort of bond. When I played baseball for my school the team had a strong bond, so we could talk to each other about certain things like fears, stories, and etc. The lore is our everyday language as the book describes, and we are just unconscious of it, because we use it so much.

Insider or Outsider?

The text talked a lot about gathering information from verbal performances, storytelling, and working with different languages. It was all very informative but I personally found the Groundwork Activity box on page 351 very interesting. It brought up a lot of good quality questions like: In what ways do you understand its language forms? What do you wish you knew? In what ways will you always be a nonnative speaker? Then it breaks down tips into three different steps. The first step talks about making a list of words, phrases, and other verbal artforms. They tell you to do this so you can ask an insider and an outsider what they think about the words or phrases you have listed. I think it would be interesting to see what an insider and outsider thing when they are side by side. I wonder if there would be any friction on the different opinions or simply the lack of knowledge. 

Pg 331-357

This chapter talks about subjects pertaining to language, specifically in regards to language inside of a culture. Such as, insider language, proverbs, jokes, sayings, and, even, curses. It gave me an idea of how to deal with new language I encounter in the midst of observing a group. Very helpful when I need to explain the intricacies of the language to someone who doesn't know anything about it.