Where did you go and why? Explain the process of wading in and connecting with the locals and finding informants and establishing rapport.

Your final assignment is to write a paper that uses Thematic Content Analysis, Grounded Theory, or Critical Discourse Analysis (please choose only one method) to analyze your mini-ethnography data and present findings. Your paper should be divided into the following sections: Section 1: Introduction—describe the setting. Where did you go and why? Explain the process of wading in and connecting with the locals and finding informants and establishing rapport. Section 2: Data Collection – describe the process of fieldnote-taking and figuring out what to observe. What did you notice first? Second? Tell the story of how you progressively figured out what was important to pay attention to. Section 3: Findings—describe the social activities you decided to focus on and why. Then describe the main themes that emerged through your analysis in detail!! This section should be the longest section (at least 2 full pages). Please make clear how your chosen method of analysis helped you discover the themes that you highlight. To complete this portion of the paper, you will be conducting EITHER a Thematic Content Analysis, a Grounded Theory analysis, or a Critical Discourse Analysis (see special note on the latter below).

These analytic methods were covered in the course in Weeks 12, 13, and 15 respectively. You will need to go back and re-read the chapter that was assigned for the method of analysis that you choose, and follow the steps or guidelines described in that chapter. PLEASE NOTE: If you choose to conduct a Discourse Analysis, you will need to record, transcribe, and analyze naturalistic interactions that occurred at your fieldsite. Ideally, you would want at least several minutes of recorded conversation between 2-3 participants at your fieldsite. This is NOT the same thing as an interview with you. If feasible and appropriate/ethical for your chosen site, you may return to the site before starting the paper specifically to obtain this recording. *The paper should be in Times New Roman, 12-point font, double-spaced, and be at least 4 pages long, with an appendix (not part of the 4 pages) that includes ALL of your field notes typed up. You are required to have at least 5 separate fieldnote entries, which may include mapping and/or other visual data but should also involve detailed narratives of your field observations, including things that you noticed and thoughts that you had.

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