Directions for the Ethnography of Communication:

This paper is a combination of academic research and ethnographic research. Select a Subculture/Community of Practice/Linguistic Community to research throughout the semester and gather your finds and discuss them in relation to the concepts from our text and class. Many aspects of the paper follow Hyme’s SPEAKING. 

 

The paper should be 8-10 pages in length (not including the Works Cited page ) with standard margins and 12pt. Font.  Please proof read your paper to avoid losing points based on typos or spelling errors.  You will also submit a brief presentation about your community.

 

You should have at least four additional academic sources (not including the text book) referenced in your paper regarding the group you selected or linguistic and anthropological theory. Be sure to cite your sources (APA) and include a works cited page. (Suggested groups: different ethnic groups, sports groups, subcultures like gamers or magicians, online forums, communities of practice. etc.) 

 

Content should include:

Introduction- explain the subgroup you selected and the reasons for selecting this group. Give a brief history to provide background to the group.

 

Context includes: Discern Cultural Models/Culture of groups studied. Include information on all the following aspects of context. Where is the group you are studying, location (i.e. classroom, in-laws house, friend’s house, etc.)

 

Participants- who are the people in your study group, relation to you and relation amongst your study group (i.e. friends, employer, employee, stranger, family)

Goal of interaction- friendly exchange, acquiring information, etc.

Speech Acts- explain the various speech acts that took place and the relevance to the information from the text and class. 

 

Address how variation exists within the sub-culture/speech community

differences in situations

differences in social distinctions/statuses w/in communities 

variation reflected in speech performance

gender, age, class, region, ethnicity, occupation- all factor in– 

 

Conclusion- what did you learn from this experience? How did you incorporate the emic and the etic perspectives throughout your research? What ethnolinguistic methodologies did you use