Writing An Ethnography

WRITING AN ETHNOGRAPHY
OBJECTIVES
1. To understand the nature of ethnographic writing as part of the translation process
2. To identify different levels of ethnographic writing
3. To identify the steps in writing an ethnography.
4. To write an ethnography.
Every ethnographer probably begins the task of writing a cultural description with the feeling it
is too early to start. Doing ethnography always leads to a profound awareness that a particular
cultural meaning system is almost inexhaustibly rich. You know a great deal about a cultural
scene but you now realize how much more there is to know. It is well to recognize that what you
write is true of every ethnographic description: it is partial, incomplete, and will always stand in
need of revision. Most ethnographers would do well to set aside the feelings that writing is
premature and begin the task sooner rather than later. In the process of writing one discovers a
hidden store of knowledge gained during the research process.
As most professional writers will affirm, the only way to learn to write is to write. In the same
way that learning to swim cannot occur during classroom lectures on swimming, discussion of
principles and strategies to follow in writing do not take one very far in learning to write. It is
best to observe other swimmers, get in the water yourself and paddle around, and then have an
experienced swimmer point out ways to improve your breathing and stroke.
One of the best ways to learn to write an ethnography is to read other ethnographies. Select
those that communicate to you the meaning of another culture. Those written in a way that brings
that culture to life, making you feel you understand the people and their way of life. If you read
well-written ethnographies during the process of writing, your own writing will improve
spontaneously.
Every ethnographer can identify books and articles that are well-written cultural descriptions.
In the past eight years, my colleague David McCurdy and I have scoured the professional
literature in search of brief examples of ethnographic writing of the highest caliber. Our standard
has been to identify writing that translates the meanings of an alien culture so well that someone
unfamiliar with ethnography grasps those meanings. These selections of ethnographic writing
have been collected in three successive editions of Conformity and Conflict: Readings in
Cultural Anthropology (1971, 1974. 1977). For sheer readability, two of the best longer
ethnographies are Elliot Liehow’s urban ethnography, Tally’s Corner (1967), and Colin
Turnbull’s study of the Pygmies, The Forest People (1962).
In this step I want to examine briefly the nature of ethnographic writing as part of the
translation process. Then I want to discuss the principles of the D.R.S. Method as applied to
writing an ethnography. In the process I will give some specific suggestions on writing, but
always keep in mind that the way to learn to write an ethnography is to write an ethnography.
THE TRANSLATION PROCESS
A translation discovers the meanings in one culture and communicates them in such a
way that people with another cultural tradition can understand them. The ethnographer as
translator has a dual task. For one, you must make sense out of the cultural patterns you observe,
decoding the messages in cultural behavior, artifacts, and knowledge. The more fully you
apprehend and digest the cultural meaning system operating in the social situation you study, the
more effective your final translation.
Your second task is to communicate the cultural meanings you have discovered to readers
who are unfamiliar with that culture or cultural scene. This means that every ethnographer must
develop the skills of communicating in written form. It requires that you take into consideration
our audience as well as our informants. In a real sense, a truly effective translation requires an
intimate knowledge of two cultures: the one described and the one tacitly held by the audience
who will read the description.
Many highly skilled ethnographers fail to finish the work of ethnographic translation.
They give months of time to the intensive study of another culture, analyzing in great detail the
meanings encoded in that culture. Then, without taking time to learn the skills of written
communication, without understanding their audience, without even feeling the importance of
communicating in a way that brings the culture to life, they write an ethnography. Their audience
becomes a very small group of other ethnographers, who, by virtue of their interest in the culture,
are willing to wade through the vague and general discussions, examine the taxonomies,
paradigms, and other tables or charts, and glean an understanding of the people and their way of
life. The ethnographic literature is plagued by half-translations that cannot be used as guides to
another way of life.
In discussing the steps in writing an ethnographic description I will make numerous
suggestions for creating a full translation, one that communicates the cultural meanings you have
discovered. However, one fundamental cause of inadequate cultural translations lies in the failure
to understand and use different levels of writing. During the writing of any ethnographic
description, the ethnographer must keep these various levels in mind and consciously use them to
increase the communicative power of the translation.
Levels of Ethnographic Writing
Every ethnographer deals with the most specific, concrete, human events as well as the
most general. In our fieldnotes we identify an infant with a specific name, held by a specific
mother, nursing at that mother’s breast, at a specific time and in a specific place. In those same
fieldnotes we will make observations about human love, nurturance, and the universal
relationship of mothers and children. In the final written ethnography, the range of levels is
enormous. More than anything else, the way these levels are used will determine the
communicative value of an ethnographic translation.
Kenneth Read, in his beautifully written ethnography of the Gahuku peoples of Highland
New Guinea, The High Valley (1965), suggests the underlying cause of partial translations in
ethnography:
Why, then, is so much anthropological writing so antiseptic, so devoid of anything that brings a people to life? There
they are, pinned like butterflies in a glass case, with the difference, however, that we often cannot tell what color
these specimens are, and we are never shown them in flight, never see them soar or die except in generalities. The
reason for this lies in the aims of anthropology, whose concern with the particular is incidental to an understanding
of the general (1965:ix).
In anthropology, as in all social sciences, the concern with the particular is incidental to an
understanding of the general. But when this principle is transported wholesale into doing
ethnography, it creates a travesty of the translation process. When an ethnographer studies
another culture, the only place to begin is with the particular, the concrete, specific events of
everyday life. Then, through the research process described in this book, the ethnographer moves
to more and more general statements about the culture. With the discovery of more general
categories and cultural themes, the ethnographer begins to make comparisons with other cultures
and make even more general statements about the culture studied. And all too frequently, it is
primarily this kind of analysis and understanding that finds its way into the ethnographic
description.
In writing an ethnography, as a translation in the full sense, the concern with the general
is incidental to an understanding of the particular. In order for a reader to see the lives of the
people we study, we must show them through particulars, not merely talk about them in
generalities.
There are at least six different levels that can be identified in ethnographic writing as we
move from the general to the particular. Let’s examine each of these different kinds of translation
statements.
Level One: Universal Statements
These include all statements about human beings, their behavior, culture. or
environmental situation. They are all-encompassing statements. Although the beginning
ethnographer may often feel incompetent to make any universal statements, all of us know things
that occur universally and can include them in our ethnographies. Most cultural descriptions
include universal statements. A study of air traffic controllers, for example. might assert, ‘In all
societies, people manage the movement of their bodies through space in such a way that they do
not constantly collide with other human beings.” Such a statement is relevant to controlling the
movement of vehicles in which humans move about as well. A study of clerks who record
burglaries in the police department might assert the following universal statement: “in all human
societies, some people keep records of one sort or another about their affairs.”
For each of the six levels of abstraction that appear in ethnographic writing, I want to
give an example from The Cocktail Waitress: Woman’s Work in a Man’s World (Spradley and
Mann 1975). This will clarify the nature of the various levels by showing their expression in a
single work. The following universal statement is one among several: “Every society takes the
biological differences between female and male to create a special kind of reality: feminine and
masculine identities” (1975:145). In the context of a specific bar in a specific city, we made an
assertion about a universal feature of human experience.
Level Two: Cross-Cultural Descriptive Statements
The second level of abstraction includes statements about two or more societies,
assertions that are true for some societies but not necessarily for all societies. Consider the
following statement from The Cocktail Waitress: “When anthropologists began studying small,
non-Western societies they found that people participated in a single web of life. . . . [W]hen we
turn to complex societies such as our own, the number of cultural perspectives for any situation
increases radically” (1975: 8, 9). This statement says something about two very large classes of
human societies—the small, non-Western ones and the complex ones. Such a descriptive
statement helps to convey an understanding of even the most specific place such as Brady’s Bar.
Cross-cultural descriptive statements help place a cultural scene in the broader picture of human
cultures, something every ethnographer is concerned about doing. These kinds of statements say
to the reader, “This cultural scene is not merely one little interesting group of people; it is a part
of the human species in a particular way. It is like many other cultural scenes, but it is also
different from many others.” By means of contrast you have conveyed an important dimension
of the culture.
Level Three: General Statements about a Society or Cultural Group
This kind of statement appears to be specific, but in fact remains quite general. ‘The
Kwakiutl live in villages along coastal bays” is a general statement about a cultural group. ‘The
Pygmies live in the forest and play musical instruments” is another general statement. We can
make such statements about complex societies also: “American culture is based on the value of
materialism.” Or we can make such statements about recurrent cultural scenes, or groups of
people who have learned similar cultural scenes: “Air traffic controllers work under great stress”;
“Police departments must gather, classify, and record a great deal of important information.”
In our study of Brady’s Bar, we included statements at this level; they did not refer
exclusively to Brady’s Bar, but to all the institutions of which Brady’s was one example: “Bars,
in general, are places of employment for hundreds of thousands of women, almost always as
cocktail waitresses. Their role in bars tends to be an extension of their role at home—serving the
needs of men. . . . Like most institutions of American society, men hold sway at the center of
social importance” (1975: 145).
Level Four: General Statements about a Specific Cultural Scene
When we move down one level of abstraction, we can note many statements about a
particular culture or cultural scene, Most ethnographies are filled with statements at this level.
“The Fort Rupert Kwakiutl engage in seine fishing.” “The air traffic controllers at the
Minneapolis International Airport work one of three shifts.”
Participant observation provides many statements at this level. We can say things like,
“The waitresses at Brady’s get hassled by customers” or “Tramps aren’t really tramps unless
they make the bucket,” These are descriptive statements about a particular scene or group, but
even so, they are still general in nature. Moreover, even when expressed by an informant and
used in an ethnography as a quotation from an informant, they represent an abstraction. Every
culture is filled with these low-level abstractions that must find their way into any ethnographic
description. Here is an example from Brady’s Bar: “At one level, Brady’s Bar is primarily a
place of business. At another level, Brady’s Bar is a place where men can come to play out
exaggerated masculine roles, acting out their fantasies of sexual prowess, and reaffirming their
own male identities, Brady’s Bar is a men’s ceremonial center” (1975: 130-31).
This level of ethnographic writing contains many of the themes the ethnographer wants to
present to the reader. Thus, the theme of males expressing their identities in many different
ways—in the way space is organized, the way drinks are ordered, and the like—is described in
statements at this level. Sometimes one can encapsulate general statements at Level Four in a
quotation from an informant: they still remain statements of a very general nature. Making use
of an informant quotation helps provide a sense of immediacy and gives the reader a closer
acquaintance with the culture, but we must move to even more specific levels.
Level Five: Specific Statements about a Cultural Domain
At this level, the ethnographer begins to make use of all the different terms in one or
more cultural domains. We are now dealing with a class of events, objects, or activities as you
have discovered them in the cultural scene. For example, here is an ethnographic statement at
this level from my research on the factory that makes tannery equipment: “One of the most
important jobs that men do is to make drums. A drum can be small, such as a barrel, or more
than thirty feet across. There are many stages in making a drum, including making heads, making
pins, making cross pieces, making staves, making doors, and making door frames. The entire
process of making a drum can take as long as a week and involve the work of several men.”
Descriptive statements at this level can make reference to taxonomies and paradigms that
encapsulate a great deal of information. However, these representations in themselves seldom
communicate more than a skeleton of relationships to the reader. In order to translate these into a
description that will be understood, a great deal of narrative description at this level and the next
more specific level is required.
Here is a brief example of a specific statement about the domain, “asking for a
drink,” which makes up part of the culture of cocktail waitresses. ‘One frequent way that men
ask for a drink is not to ask for a drink at all. In the situation where it is appropriate to ask for a
drink, they ask instead for the waitress. This may be done in the form of teasing, hustling,
hassling, or some other speech act” (1975:132).
Level Six: Specific Incident Statements
In one sense, Levels One through Five all contrast sharply with Level Six, which takes
the reader immediately to the actual level of behavior and objects, to the level of perceiving these
things. Consider an example from Brady’s Bar at this level, closely related to all the examples
given at the other five levels of abstraction: “Sandy is working the upper section on Friday night.
She walks up to the corner table where there is a group of five she has never seen before: four
guys and a girl who are loud and boisterous. She steps up to the table and asks, “Are you ready to
order now’?” One of the males grabs her by the waist and jerks her towards him. ‘I already know
what I want! I’ll take you,” he says as he smiles innocently up at her” (1975:132). As a reader,
you immediately begin to see things happening, perhaps feel things the actors in this situation
feel. Instead of merely being told what people know, how they generate behavior from this
knowledge, and how they interpret things, you have been shown this cultural knowledge in
action. A good ethnographic translation shows; a poor one only tells.
Perhaps another example of the six levels in ethnographic writing will clarify the effect
on the reader. Drawing from my research among tramps, the following statements all describe a
single aspect of their experience: begging, borrowing, panhandling, lending, and otherwise
exchanging things.
LEVEL ONE: Reciprocity among human beings is balanced where two people give to each other
over time, each giving and each receiving. Such reciprocity occurs in all societies.
LEVEL TWO: Tramps, like those who live in tribal villages, depend on one another in time of
need. They expect others to reciprocate. A Kwakiutl Indian will give in a potlatch and later
receive gifts at someone else’s potlatch. A tramp will give to another tramp and also beg from
another tramp.
LEVEL THREE: Tramps engage in much more reciprocal exchange than do other members of the
larger society. This kind of exchange takes many forms.
LEVEL FOUR: A tramp in the Seattle City Jail will exchange goods and services with other
tramps. If he is a trusty in the jail, he might exchange a service for money with someone in
lockup.
LEVEL FIVE: (Informant’s statement) “Yes, a tramp will beg from other tramps. If you’re
panhandling you can expect another tramp to give you money or a cigarette if he has it. You
realize that sometime he will need something and then it will be your turn.”
LEVEL SIX: It was a dull Tuesday afternoon and a slight mist of rain was blowing gently in from
the Puget Sound. Joe had become a kickout an hour earlier; several minutes ago he walked off
the elevator on the first floor of the Public Safety Building and found his way to the street.
Pulling the collar of his worn tweed jacket up around his neck, he hunched his shoulders slightly
and headed downtown, wondering where he would find money for a drink or even a cigarette. He
might have to make a flop under the bridge on Washington Street tonight to stay out of the rain.
He saw a man approaching him as he headed slowly down James Street, obviously another
tramp. Looked like a home guard tramp, but he couldn’t tell for sure. “Can you spare a quarter
for a jug?” he asked. “I just got a kickout.” “No, I’m flat on my ass myself,” the other man said,
“but how about a smoke, all I got are Bull Durhams.” After taking a light too, Joe started on
down James Street looking for a tourist or businessman to panhandle.
Ethnographic writing includes statements at all six levels on the continuum from the
general to the particular. Effective writing, that which serves to communicate the meanings of a
culture to the reader, is achieved by making all these statements, but doing so in a
certain proportion. Professional journals, in which the author writes primarily for colleagues,
tend to consist of statements at Levels One and Two; that is, the description is made in general
terms, the author avoiding specific incidents. Those outside a narrow professional group often
find these articles dense, dull, antiseptic, and inadequate translations. Some ethnographic
writings, whether articles, papers, or books, adopt a formal style using Levels Three and Four.
Most dissertations and theses are written at these middle levels of abstraction, although they may
contain a great deal of information also at Level Five. They tend to present the bare bones, the
skeleton of knowledge, without the flesh of examples and specific incident statements of Level
Six. At the other extreme, some ethnographic novels and personal accounts consist entirely of
statements at Level Six, with, perhaps, a few statements from Level Five thrown in now and
then. This kind of writing holds the reader’s attention hut may fail to communicate the overall
structure of a culture or the nature of ethnography.
It should be clear that mixing the various levels in the desirable proportion depends on
the goals of the ethnographer. In You Owe Yourself a Drunk: An Ethnography of Urban
Nomads (1970), 1 made a great deal of use of Levels Three through Six, ranging back and forth
among statements about tramps generally, to specific incidents. Many of the incidents were
contained in quotations from informants. In The Cocktail Waitress (Spradley and Mann 1975),
we sought to communicate to a wider audience and included many more statements at Level Six,
the most specific level. We also tried to relate the culture of Brady’s Bar to the universal level of
writing more frequently. In retrospect, we tended to scale down the middle level of
generalizations. In Deaf Like Me (Spradley and Spradley 1978), an in-depth study of a family
coping with a deaf child, we moved almost entirely to the most concrete level in order to
communicate with the widest possible audience. Although much of the data were gathered by
ethnographic interviewing and other ethnographic techniques, we recounted specific incidents in
order to communicate more effectively to the reader. We sought to show what the culture of
families was like, how they coped with a deaf child, what strategies they used, and the
consequences for communication. Although statements appear in this study at all the other levels
of generalization, they are woven into the particular so thoroughly that they do not stand out. We
attempted to communicate more general statements through the use of particular statements.
Each ethnographer will have to determine his or her intended audience. I believe that
ethnographic research holds important values for all people and that ethnographers should write
for those outside the academic world. I urge students and others to use the middle levels of
generalizations sparingly. Emphasize the most general and the most specific. In ethnographic
writing, the concern with the general is incidental to an understanding of the particular for an
important reason. It is because generalities are best communicated through particulars. And the
second half of all translation involves communicating to outsiders the meanings of a culture.
STEPS IN WRITING AN ETHNOGRAPHY
Like doing ethnographic research, writing an ethnography can appear to be a formidable

task if seen as a single task. All too often, the beginning ethnographer conceives the writing as
simply writing. You sit down with blank paper and all your fieldnotes and begin writing the
ethnography. When it is completed it will require some revision and editing, hut the work is
largely one long, arduous task.
Underlying the D.R.S. Method of research is the assumption that breaking a large task
into smaller ones and placing these in sequence will simplify the work and improve one’s
performance. This assumption applies equally to writing. However, because each of us has
developed patterns of writing from years of experience, it is far more difficult to create a series
of steps that have wide applicability. The following steps must be considered as suggestions
only. Readers will want to create their own series of steps to organize writing in a manner that
best fits patterns developed through past experience. However, the underlying premise, that it is
valuable to divide up the writing of an ethnography into tasks, does have wide applicability.
Step One: Select an audience. Because the audience will influence every aspect of your
ethnography, selecting an audience is one of the first things to be done. All writing is an act of
communication between human beings and in that sense it is similar to talking. When speaking
to someone, there are innumerable cues that remind us that our audience is present. The writer
needs to select an audience, identify it clearly, and then keep in mind throughout the writing who
that audience is.
When writing for a specific journal or magazine, the ethnographer must carefully
scrutinize past issues of the journal to discover the style of writing. You are, in fact, discovering
the audience that such a journal is written for. If one intends to write a book-length ethnography,
then the audience may be scholars in the field, students, the general public, or some other group.
The best advice I have ever received for selecting an audience came from Marshall
Townsend, the editor at the University of Arizona Press:
A basic concept we stress at the University of Arizona Press is that of the “target reader.”
What we urge YOU as an author to do is to pick out a “target reader” and write in book form for
only one reader. Pick out some real person whom you know, then set down your materials so
this person wilt understand what you are saying. When you have a “target reader,” you effect a
single level of presentation. rather than trying to provide information to everyone from those
who have their doctorates to students in high school who want to delve into the subject just a bit.
Choose your level of communication and stay with it—by addressing yourself in your writing to
only this one person. We believe you will find this concept a highly workable one.
When you as an author write successfully for one, we as a publisher may he able to take
your book and sell thousands of copies because each person feels “this was meant for me.” On
the other hand, if you try to write for thousands, and embrace all of their varied interests and
viewpoints, we may not he able to sell a single copy. Stick to your one-level approach, and we as
publishers will take care of informing readers at all levels of interest and of understanding how
the hook will fit Into their realm.
Step Two: Select a thesis. In order to communicate with your audience, you need to have
something to say. All too often, ethnographic descriptions appear to be like meandering
conversations without a destination. Although of interest to the ethnographer and a few
colleagues, such writing will not hold the attention of many more. A thesis is the central
message, the point you want to make. There are several sources for finding a thesis.
First, the major themes you have discovered in ethnographic research represent possible
theses. For example, a major theme in the culture of tramps was that being in jail affected one’s
identity, even made a man want to go out and get drunk. In jail a man learned to “hustle,” and
this reinforced his identity as a tramp trying to “make it” on the street. This theme became the
thesis of the ethnography: that jailing drunks, rather than being therapeutic, actually played an
important role in creating the identity of tramp. This thesis was summed up in the title of the
ethnography, which came from an informant who said, “After thirty days in jail, you owe
yourself a drunk!”
Second, a thesis for your ethnography may come from the overall goals of ethnography.
You may, for example, state your thesis in the following way: “To most people, a bar is a place
to drink. But to the cocktail waitress, it is much more complex. It is a world of varied cultural
meaning that she learns in order to carry out her work and cope with difficulties. In this paper I
want to show just how complex the cultural knowledge of the cocktail waitress is, in contrast to
the casual impressions of the outsider.” Your thesis can simply be to show that cultural meaning
systems are much more complex than we usually think.
Another way to formulate this type of thesis is in terms of a set of recipes for behavior.
Culture can be viewed as a set of instructions for carrying out life’s ordinary activities. Your
thesis would be to show the reader the recipe for being a tramp, a cocktail waitress, or some
other kind of person. Frake in a series of articles, has made effective use of this kind of thesis.
For example, he has written on “How to ask for a drink” (1964c) and “How to enter a house”
among the Yakan in the Philippines (1975).
Still another way to formulate this type of thesis is to show the tacit rules for behavior.
This thesis argues that much goes on in social life that we do not see, that there are tacit rules of
behavior that people have learned but seldom discuss. The point of your paper is to make those
tacit rules explicit.
Third, a thesis may come from the literature of the social sciences. In one paper on tramps
I reviewed the literature on the concept of “reciprocity.” Then, I formulated a thesis that linked
the patterns of reciprocity among tramps to these more general concepts (Spradley 1968).
When a thesis has been selected, it is useful to state it briefly, perhaps in a single
sentence, and place it before you as a constant reminder as you write. This will help organize
your paper and integrate it around a single major idea. It will also help the reader to grasp the
meanings of the culture ma way that a simple listing of domains and their meanings will not.
Step Three: Make a list of’ topics and create an outline. Any ethnography will necessarily deal
with only selected aspects of a culture. Furthermore, you will use only part of the material you
have collected. This step involves reviewing your fieldnotes and the cultural inventory you made
and listing topics you think should be included in the final description. Some of these topics will
be things like “introduction” and “conclusion.” Once listed, you can then make an outline based
around your thesis. This will divide up your actual writing into sections, each of which can be
done as a separate unit. If you have been writing short descriptive pieces throughout the project
(See Appendix B), many or all of these may fit into the outline.
Step Four: Write a rough draft of each section.. A rough draft is intended to be rough,
unfinished, unpolished. One of the great roadblocks for many writers is the desire to revise each
sentence as it goes down on paper. Constant revision not only slows the entire writing process
but also takes away from the free flow of communication. Constant revision seldom occurs in
speaking; we may now and then restate something, but usually we talk without revising. Write as
you talk is an excellent rule to follow in composing a rough draft of each section.
Step Five: Revise the outline and create sub/heads. Almost always the outline from which one
writes becomes changed in the process of writing. Once a rough draft is completed for each
section, it is a good idea to make a new outline, rearranging sections as appropriate. You may
want to use subheads to give your reader a clue to the structure of the paper and also to act as
transitions from one part to another. Native folk terms can often be used as subheads in an
ethnography, helping to create a view that reflects the cultural knowledge of your informants.
Step Six: Edit the rough draft. At this point in the writing you will have a rough draft of your
paper, a fairly clear outline, and a number of subheadings you want to use throughout the paper.
Now it is time to go over it with an eye to improving the details of writing. Work through each
section and at the same time keep the entire description in mind. Make changes directly on the
pages you had previously written. When you want to add a paragraph or sentence, write them on
the back of the page or on a separate piece of paper with instructions as to where they will
appear. At this stage, it is often useful to ask a friend to read over the manuscript and make
general comments. An outside perspective is especially useful for making improvements that
will enhance the communicative power of the description.
Step Seven: Write the introduction and conclusion. By now the description has taken on
substantial form and you can write these two parts of the paper in a more effective manner. Some
writers find that they write better if they write a rough introduction at the start of the writing but
save the conclusion until the end. In either case, now is the time to review both the introduction
and conclusion and revise them to fit the paper.
Step Eight: Reread your manuscript for examples. Examples involve writing at the lowest level
of abstraction. Because of their importance in communication, a special reading of the paper to
see if you have used enough examples is highly desirable. Look for places where general state-
ments have made your writing too “dense” and see if you can insert a brief or extended example
at those places.
Step Nine: Write the final draft. In some cases this will merely involve typing the paper or
turning it over to someone else to type. In other cases. you will need to go carefully over the
manuscript again, making the final editorial changes. Using steps such as this means you have
been over the entire manuscript numerous times during the course of writing. Instead of a single,
first-draft-as-final-draft, your paper has gone through a series of developmental stages.
In this chapter we have discussed ethnographic writing as a part of the translation

process. Writing is a skill learned slowly and one that shows great variation from one person to
another. The suggestions in this chapter are offered only as general guidelines, not as hard-and-
fast rules that every writer should try to follow.
STOP
How do you write a ethnography paper?

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2 Answers
Patricia Carter, Freelance Writer and Passionate Blogger!

Answered Sep 26, 2016 · Author has 230 answers and 726.3k answer views
Before you write an ethnography, make sure that you have had enough time to talk to
members of the culture.
Have the results of a questionnaire before you begin. Most anthropological studies require
that you have asked members of the culture a series of questions to make sure that you
understand their perspective on their culture and the reasons for their behaviors. The ideal
situation is to have a leader of the society answer the questions, but in a more specific
cultural study may require the questions to be answered by the specific people you are
studying.
Write an introduction page that tells the reader exactly what you wanted to study and how
you went about studying. The reader of your ethnography should get a sense of why you are
qualified to write about the culture that will be described. talk about what questions you
were attempting to answer and what others knew about this culture before your study.
Continue the ethnography by describing the way in which you gathered your information.
Talk about specific conversations you had, the number of people you talked to and
interacted with, etc.
Analyze the research you did and write about how the data you gathered can answer the
questions you posed. You can use your experiences, your opinions, observations and the
questionnaires to analyze what you learned during your study. Conclude your ethnography
with a suitable conclusion page that sums up what you did and what you learned. Restate
your main points so that the reader is left with the impact of your work and what it will
mean in the overall study of that culture.
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1. To understand the nature of ethnographic writing as part of the translation process
2. To identify different levels of ethnographic writing
3. To identify the steps in writing an ethnography.
4. To write an ethnography.
Every ethnographer probably begins the task of writing a cultural description with the
feeling it is too early to start. Doing ethnography always leads to a profound awareness that
a particular cultural meaning system is almost inexhaustibly rich. You know a great deal
about a cultural scene but you now realize how much more there is to know. It is well to
recognize that what you write is true of every ethnographic description: it is partial,
incomplete, and will always stand in need of revision. Most ethnographers would do well to
set aside the feelings that writing is premature and begin the task sooner rather than later.
In the process of writing one discovers a hidden store of knowledge gained during the
research process.
As most professional writers will affirm, the only way to learn to write is to write. In the
same way that learning to swim cannot occur during classroom lectures on swimming,
discussion of principles and strategies to follow in writing do not take one very far in
learning to write. It is best to observe other swimmers, get in the water yourself and paddle
around, and then have an experienced swimmer point out ways to improve your breathing
and stroke.
One of the best ways to learn to write an ethnography is to read other ethnographies. Select
those that communicate to you the meaning of another culture. Those written in a way that
brings that culture to life, making you feel you understand the people and their way of life. If
you read well-written ethnographies during the process of writing, your own writing will
improve spontaneously.
Every ethnographer can identify books and articles that are well-written cultural
descriptions. In the past eight years, my colleague David McCurdy and I have scoured the
professional literature in search of brief examples of ethnographic writing of the highest
caliber. Our standard has been to identify writing that translates the meanings of an alien
culture so well that someone unfamiliar with ethnography grasps those meanings. These
selections of ethnographic writing have been collected in three successive editions
of Conformity and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology (1971, 1974. 1977). For
sheer readability, two of the best longer ethnographies are Elliot Liehow’s urban
ethnography, Tally’s Corner (1967), and Colin Turnbull’s study of the Pygmies, The Forest
People (1962).
In this step I want to examine briefly the nature of ethnographic writing as part of the
translation process. Then I want to discuss the principles of the D.R.S. Method as applied to
writing an ethnography. In the process I will give some specific suggestions on writing, but
always keep in mind that the way to learn to write an ethnography is to write an
ethnography.
THE TRANSLATION PROCESS
A translation discovers the meanings in one culture and communicates them in such a way
that people with another cultural tradition can understand them. The ethnographer as
translator has a dual task. For one, you must make sense out of the cultural patterns you
observe, decoding the messages in cultural behavior, artifacts, and knowledge. The more
fully you apprehend and digest the cultural meaning system operating in the social situation
you study, the more effective your final translation.
Your second task is to communicate the cultural meanings you have discovered to readers
who are unfamiliar with that culture or cultural scene. This means that every ethnographer
must develop the skills of communicating in written form. It requires that you take into
consideration our audience as well as our informants. In a real sense, a truly effective
translation requires an intimate knowledge of two cultures: the one described and the one
tacitly held by the audience who will read the description.
Many highly skilled ethnographers fail to finish the work of ethnographic translation. They
give months of time to the intensive study of another culture, analyzing in great detail the
meanings encoded in that culture. Then, without taking time to learn the skills of written
communication, without understanding their audience, without even feeling the importance
of communicating in a way that brings the culture to life, they write an ethnography. Their
audience becomes a very small group of other ethnographers, who, by virtue of their interest
in the culture, are willing to wade through the vague and general discussions, examine the
taxonomies, paradigms, and other tables or charts, and glean an understanding of the
people and their way of life. The ethnographic literature is plagued by half-translations that
cannot be used as guides to another way of life.
In discussing the steps in writing an ethnographic description I will make numerous

suggestions for creating a full translation, one that communicates the cultural meanings you
have discovered. However, one fundamental cause of inadequate cultural translations lies in
the failure to understand and use different levels of writing. During the writing of any
ethnographic description, the ethnographer must keep these various levels in mind and
consciously use them to increase the communicative power of the translation.
Levels of Ethnographic Writing
Every ethnographer deals with the most specific, concrete, human events as well as the most
general. In our fieldnotes we identify an infant with a specific name, held by a specific
mother, nursing at that mother’s breast, at a specific time and in a specific place. In those
same fieldnotes we will make observations about human love, nurturance, and the universal
relationship of mothers and children. In the final written ethnography, the range of levels is
enormous. More than anything else, the way these levels are used will determine the
communicative value of an ethnographic translation.
Kenneth Read, in his beautifully written ethnography of the Gahuku peoples of Highland
New Guinea, The High Valley (1965), suggests the underlying cause of partial translations
in ethnography:
Why, then, is so much anthropological writing so antiseptic, so devoid of anything that

brings a people to life? There they are, pinned like butterflies in a glass case, with the
difference, however, that we often cannot tell what color these specimens are, and we are
never shown them in flight, never see them soar or die except in generalities. The reason for
this lies in the aims of anthropology, whose concern with the particular is incidental to an
understanding of the general (1965:ix).
In anthropology, as in all social sciences, the concern with the particular is incidental to an
understanding of the general. But when this principle is transported wholesale into doing
ethnography, it creates a travesty of the translation process. When an ethnographer studies
another culture, the only place to begin is with the particular, the concrete, specific events of
everyday life. Then, through the research process described in this book, the ethnographer
moves to more and more general statements about the culture. With the discovery of more
general categories and cultural themes, the ethnographer begins to make comparisons with
other cultures and make even more general statements about the culture studied. And all
too frequently, it is primarily this kind of analysis and understanding that finds its way into
the ethnographic description.
In writing an ethnography, as a translation in the full sense, the concern with the general is
incidental to an understanding of the particular. In order for a reader to see the lives of the
people we study, we must show them through particulars, not merely talk about them in
generalities.
There are at least six different levels that can be identified in ethnographic writing as we
move from the general to the particular. Let’s examine each of these different kinds of
translation statements.
Level One: Universal Statements
These include all statements about human beings, their behavior, culture. or environmental
situation. They are all-encompassing statements. Although the beginning ethnographer may
often feel incompetent to make any universal statements, all of us know things that occur
universally and can include them in our ethnographies. Most cultural descriptions include
universal statements. A study of air traffic controllers, for example. might assert, ‘In all
societies, people manage the movement of their bodies through space in such a way that
they do not constantly collide with other human beings.” Such a statement is relevant to
controlling the movement of vehicles in which humans move about as well. A study of clerks
who record burglaries in the police department might assert the following universal
statement: “in all human societies, some people keep records of one sort or another about
their affairs.”
For each of the six levels of abstraction that appear in ethnographic writing, I want to give
an example from The Cocktail Waitress: Woman’s Work in a Man’s World (Spradley and
Mann 1975). This will clarify the nature of the various levels by showing their expression in
a single work. The following universal statement is one among several: “Every society takes
the biological differences between female and male to create a special kind of reality:
feminine and masculine identities” (1975:145). In the context of a specific bar in a specific
city, we made an assertion about a universal feature of human experience.
Level Two: Cross-Cultural Descriptive Statements

The second level of abstraction includes statements about two or more societies, assertions
that are true for some societies but not necessarily for all societies. Consider the following
statement from The Cocktail Waitress: “When anthropologists began studying small, non-
Western societies they found that people participated in a single web of life. . . . [W]hen we
turn to complex societies such as our own, the number of cultural perspectives for any
situation increases radically” (1975: 8, 9). This statement says something about two very
large classes of human societies—the small, non-Western ones and the complex ones. Such a
descriptive statement helps to convey an understanding of even the most specific place such
as Brady’s Bar. Cross-cultural descriptive statements help place a cultural scene in the
broader picture of human cultures, something every ethnographer is concerned about
doing. These kinds of statements say to the reader, “This cultural scene is not merely one
little interesting group of people; it is a part of the human species in a particular way. It is
like many other cultural scenes, but it is also different from many others.” By means of
contrast you have conveyed an important dimension of the culture.
Level Three: General Statements about a Society or Cultural Group
This kind of statement appears to be specific, but in fact remains quite general. ‘The
Kwakiutl live in villages along coastal bays” is a general statement about a cultural group.
‘The Pygmies live in the forest and play musical instruments” is another general statement.
We can make such statements about complex societies also: “American culture is based on
the value of materialism.” Or we can make such statements about recurrent cultural scenes,
or groups of people who have learned similar cultural scenes: “Air traffic controllers work
under great stress”; “Police departments must gather, classify, and record a great deal of
important information.”
In our study of Brady’s Bar, we included statements at this level; they did not refer
exclusively to Brady’s Bar, but to all the institutions of which Brady’s was one example:
“Bars, in general, are places of employment for hundreds of thousands of women, almost
always as cocktail waitresses. Their role in bars tends to be an extension of their role at
home—serving the needs of men. . . . Like most institutions of American society, men hold
sway at the center of social importance” (1975: 145).
Level Four: General Statements about a Specific Cultural Scene
When we move down one level of abstraction, we can note many statements about a
particular culture or cultural scene, Most ethnographies are filled with statements at this
level. “The Fort Rupert Kwakiutl engage in seine fishing.” “The air traffic controllers at the
Minneapolis International Airport work one of three shifts.”
Participant observation provides many statements at this level. We can say things like, “The
waitresses at Brady’s get hassled by customers” or “Tramps aren’t really tramps unless they
make the bucket,” These are descriptive statements about a particular scene or group, but
even so, they are still general in nature. Moreover, even when expressed by an informant
and used in an ethnography as a quotation from an informant, they represent an
abstraction. Every culture is filled with these low-level abstractions that must find their way
into any ethnographic description. Here is an example from Brady’s Bar: “At one level,
Brady’s Bar is primarily a place of business. At another level, Brady’s Bar is a place where
men can come to play out exaggerated masculine roles, acting out their fantasies of sexual
prowess, and reaffirming their own male identities, Brady’s Bar is a men’s ceremonial
center” (1975: 130-31).
This level of ethnographic writing contains many of the themes the ethnographer wants to
present to the reader. Thus, the theme of males expressing their identities in many different
ways—in the way space is organized, the way drinks are ordered, and the like—is described
in statements at this level. Sometimes one can encapsulate general statements at Level Four
in a quotation from an informant: they still remain statements of a very general nature.
Making use of an informant quotation helps provide a sense of immediacy and gives the
reader a closer acquaintance with the culture, but we must move to even more specific
levels.
Level Five: Specific Statements about a Cultural Domain
At this level, the ethnographer begins to make use of all the different terms in one or more
cultural domains. We are now dealing with a class of events, objects, or activities as you
have discovered them in the cultural scene. For example, here is an ethnographic statement
at this level from my research on the factory that makes tannery equipment: “One of the
most important jobs that men do is to make drums. A drum can be small, such as a barrel,
or more than thirty feet across. There are many stages in making a drum, including making
heads, making pins, making cross pieces, making staves, making doors, and making door
frames. The entire process of making a drum can take as long as a week and involve the
work of several men.”
Descriptive statements at this level can make reference to taxonomies and paradigms that
encapsulate a great deal of information. However, these representations in themselves
seldom communicate more than a skeleton of relationships to the reader. In order to
translate these into a description that will be understood, a great deal of narrative
description at this level and the next more specific level is required.
Here is a brief example of a specific statement about the domain, “asking for a
drink,” which makes up part of the culture of cocktail waitresses. ‘One frequent way that
men ask for a drink is not to ask for a drink at all. In the situation where it is appropriate to
ask for a drink, they ask instead for the waitress. This may be done in the form of teasing,
hustling, hassling, or some other speech act” (1975:132).
Level Six: Specific Incident Statements
In one sense, Levels One through Five all contrast sharply with Level Six, which takes the
reader immediately to the actual level of behavior and objects, to the level of perceiving
these things. Consider an example from Brady’s Bar at this level, closely related to all the
examples given at the other five levels of abstraction: “Sandy is working the upper section
on Friday night. She walks up to the corner table where there is a group of five she has never
seen before: four guys and a girl who are loud and boisterous. She steps up to the table and
asks, “Are you ready to order now’?” One of the males grabs her by the waist and jerks her
towards him. ‘I already know what I want! I’ll take you,” he says as he smiles innocently up
at her” (1975:132). As a reader, you immediately begin to see things happening, perhaps feel
things the actors in this situation feel. Instead of merely being told what people know, how
they generate behavior from this knowledge, and how they interpret things, you have
been shown this cultural knowledge in action. A good ethnographic translation shows; a
poor one only tells.
Perhaps another example of the six levels in ethnographic writing will clarify the effect on
the reader. Drawing from my research among tramps, the following statements all describe
a single aspect of their experience: begging, borrowing, panhandling, lending, and otherwise
exchanging things.
LEVEL ONE: Reciprocity among human beings is balanced where two people give to each
other over time, each giving and each receiving. Such reciprocity occurs in all societies.
LEVEL TWO: Tramps, like those who live in tribal villages, depend on one another in time
of need. They expect others to reciprocate. A Kwakiutl Indian will give in a potlatch and
later receive gifts at someone else’s potlatch. A tramp will give to another tramp and also
beg from another tramp.
LEVEL THREE: Tramps engage in much more reciprocal exchange than do other
members of the larger society. This kind of exchange takes many forms.
LEVEL FOUR: A tramp in the Seattle City Jail will exchange goods and services with other
tramps. If he is a trusty in the jail, he might exchange a service for money with someone in
lockup.
LEVEL FIVE: (Informant’s statement) “Yes, a tramp will beg from other tramps. If you’re
panhandling you can expect another tramp to give you money or a cigarette if he has it. You
realize that sometime he will need something and then it will be your turn.”
LEVEL SIX: It was a dull Tuesday afternoon and a slight mist of rain was blowing gently in
from the Puget Sound. Joe had become a kickout an hour earlier; several minutes ago he
walked off the elevator on the first floor of the Public Safety Building and found his way to
the street. Pulling the collar of his worn tweed jacket up around his neck, he hunched his
shoulders slightly and headed downtown, wondering where he would find money for a drink
or even a cigarette. He might have to make a flop under the bridge on Washington Street
tonight to stay out of the rain. He saw a man approaching him as he headed slowly down
James Street, obviously another tramp. Looked like a home guard tramp, but he couldn’t tell
for sure. “Can you spare a quarter for a jug?” he asked. “I just got a kickout.” “No, I’m flat on
my ass myself,” the other man said, “but how about a smoke, all I got are Bull Durhams.”
After taking a light too, Joe started on down James Street looking for a tourist or
businessman to panhandle.
Ethnographic writing includes statements at all six levels on the continuum from the
general to the particular. Effective writing, that which serves to communicate the meanings
of a culture to the reader, is achieved by making all these statements, but doing so in a
certain proportion. Professional journals, in which the author writes primarily for
colleagues, tend to consist of statements at Levels One and Two; that is, the description is
made in general terms, the author avoiding specific incidents. Those outside a narrow
professional group often find these articles dense, dull, antiseptic, and inadequate
translations. Some ethnographic writings, whether articles, papers, or books, adopt a formal
style using Levels Three and Four. Most dissertations and theses are written at these middle
levels of abstraction, although they may contain a great deal of information also at Level
Five. They tend to present the bare bones, the skeleton of knowledge, without the flesh of
examples and specific incident statements of Level Six. At the other extreme, some
ethnographic novels and personal accounts consist entirely of statements at Level Six, with,
perhaps, a few statements from Level Five thrown in now and then. This kind of writing
holds the reader’s attention hut may fail to communicate the overall structure of a culture or
the nature of ethnography.
It should be clear that mixing the various levels in the desirable proportion depends on the
goals of the ethnographer. In You Owe Yourself a Drunk: An Ethnography of Urban
Nomads (1970), 1 made a great deal of use of Levels Three through Six, ranging back and
forth among statements about tramps generally, to specific incidents. Many of the incidents
were contained in quotations from informants. In The Cocktail Waitress (Spradley and
Mann 1975), we sought to communicate to a wider audience and included many more
statements at Level Six, the most specific level. We also tried to relate the culture of Brady’s
Bar to the universal level of writing more frequently. In retrospect, we tended to scale down
the middle level of generalizations. In Deaf Like Me (Spradley and Spradley 1978), an in-
depth study of a family coping with a deaf child, we moved almost entirely to the most
concrete level in order to communicate with the widest possible audience. Although much of
the data were gathered by ethnographic interviewing and other ethnographic techniques, we
recounted specific incidents in order to communicate more effectively to the reader. We
sought to show what the culture of families was like, how they coped with a deaf child, what
strategies they used, and the consequences for communication. Although statements appear
in this study at all the other levels of generalization, they are woven into the particular so
thoroughly that they do not stand out. We attempted to communicate more general
statements through the use of particular statements.
Each ethnographer will have to determine his or her intended audience. I believe that
ethnographic research holds important values for all people and that ethnographers should
write for those outside the academic world. I urge students and others to use the middle
levels of generalizations sparingly. Emphasize the most general and the most specific. In
ethnographic writing, the concern with the general is incidental to an understanding of the
particular for an important reason. It is because generalities are best communicated
through particulars. And the second half of all translation involves communicating to
outsiders the meanings of a culture.
STEPS IN WRITING AN ETHNOGRAPHY
Like doing ethnographic research, writing an ethnography can appear to be a formidable

task if seen as a single task. All too often, the beginning ethnographer conceives the writing
as simply writing. You sit down with blank paper and all your fieldnotes and begin writing
the ethnography. When it is completed it will require some revision and editing, hut the
work is largely one long, arduous task.
Underlying the D.R.S. Method of research is the assumption that breaking a large task into
smaller ones and placing these in sequence will simplify the work and improve one’s
performance. This assumption applies equally to writing. However, because each of us has
developed patterns of writing from years of experience, it is far more difficult to create a
series of steps that have wide applicability. The following steps must be considered as
suggestions only. Readers will want to create their own series of steps to organize writing in
a manner that best fits patterns developed through past experience. However, the
underlying premise, that it is valuable to divide up the writing of an ethnography into tasks,
does have wide applicability.
Step One: Select an audience. Because the audience will influence every aspect of your
ethnography, selecting an audience is one of the first things to be done. All writing is an act
of communication between human beings and in that sense it is similar to talking. When
speaking to someone, there are innumerable cues that remind us that our audience is
present. The writer needs to select an audience, identify it clearly, and then keep in mind
throughout the writing who that audience is.
When writing for a specific journal or magazine, the ethnographer must carefully scrutinize
past issues of the journal to discover the style of writing. You are, in fact, discovering the
audience that such a journal is written for. If one intends to write a book-length
ethnography, then the audience may be scholars in the field, students, the general public, or
some other group.
The best advice I have ever received for selecting an audience came from Marshall
Townsend, the editor at the University of Arizona Press:
A basic concept we stress at the University of Arizona Press is that of the “target reader.”
What we urge YOU as an author to do is to pick out a “target reader” and write in book form
for only one reader. Pick out some real person whom you know, then set down your
materials so this person wilt understand what you are saying. When you have a “target
reader,” you effect a single level of presentation. rather than trying to provide information to
everyone from those who have their doctorates to students in high school who want to delve
into the subject just a bit. Choose your level of communication and stay with it—by
addressing yourself in your writing to only this one person. We believe you will find this
concept a highly workable one.
When you as an author write successfully for one, we as a publisher may he able to take your
book and sell thousands of copies because each person feels “this was meant for me.” On the
other hand, if you try to write for thousands, and embrace all of their varied interests and
viewpoints, we may not he able to sell a single copy. Stick to your one-level approach, and
we as publishers will take care of informing readers at all levels of interest and of
understanding how the hook will fit Into their realm.
Step Two: Select a thesis. In order to communicate with your audience, you need to
have something to say. All too often, ethnographic descriptions appear to be like
meandering conversations without a destination. Although of interest to the ethnographer
and a few colleagues, such writing will not hold the attention of many more. A thesis is the
central message, the point you want to make. There are several sources for finding a thesis.
First, the major themes you have discovered in ethnographic research represent possible
theses. For example, a major theme in the culture of tramps was that being in jail affected
one’s identity, even made a man want to go out and get drunk. In jail a man learned to
“hustle,” and this reinforced his identity as a tramp trying to “make it” on the street. This
theme became the thesis of the ethnography: that jailing drunks, rather than being thera-
peutic, actually played an important role in creating the identity of tramp. This thesis was
summed up in the title of the ethnography, which came from an informant who said, “After
thirty days in jail, you owe yourself a drunk!”
Second, a thesis for your ethnography may come from the overall goals of ethnography. You
may, for example, state your thesis in the following way: “To most people, a bar is a place to
drink. But to the cocktail waitress, it is much more complex. It is a world of varied cultural
meaning that she learns in order to carry out her work and cope with difficulties. In this
paper I want to show just how complex the cultural knowledge of the cocktail waitress is, in
contrast to the casual impressions of the outsider.” Your thesis can simply be to show that
cultural meaning systems are much more complex than we usually think.
Another way to formulate this type of thesis is in terms of a set of recipes for behavior.
Culture can be viewed as a set of instructions for carrying out life’s ordinary activities. Your
thesis would be to show the reader the recipe for being a tramp, a cocktail waitress, or some
other kind of person. Frake in a series of articles, has made effective use of this kind of
thesis. For example, he has written on “How to ask for a drink” (1964c) and “How to enter a
house” among the Yakan in the Philippines (1975).
Still another way to formulate this type of thesis is to show the tacit rules for behavior. This
thesis argues that much goes on in social life that we do not see, that there are tacit rules of
behavior that people have learned but seldom discuss. The point of your paper is to make
those tacit rules explicit.
Third, a thesis may come from the literature of the social sciences. In one paper on tramps I
reviewed the literature on the concept of “reciprocity.” Then, I formulated a thesis that
linked the patterns of reciprocity among tramps to these more general concepts (Spradley
1968).
When a thesis has been selected, it is useful to state it briefly, perhaps in a single sentence,
and place it before you as a constant reminder as you write. This will help organize your
paper and integrate it around a single major idea. It will also help the reader to grasp the
meanings of the culture ma way that a simple listing of domains and their meanings will
not.
Step Three: Make a list of’ topics and create an outline. Any ethnography will
necessarily deal with only selected aspects of a culture. Furthermore, you will use only part
of the material you have collected. This step involves reviewing your fieldnotes and the
cultural inventory you made and listing topics you think should be included in the final
description. Some of these topics will be things like “introduction” and “conclusion.” Once
listed, you can then make an outline based around your thesis. This will divide up your
actual writing into sections, each of which can be done as a separate unit. If you have been
writing short descriptive pieces throughout the project (See Appendix B), many or all of
these may fit into the outline.
Step Four: Write a rough draft of each section.. A rough draft is intended to be
rough, unfinished, unpolished. One of the great roadblocks for many writers is the desire to
revise each sentence as it goes down on paper. Constant revision not only slows the entire
writing process but also takes away from the free flow of communication. Constant revision
seldom occurs in speaking; we may now and then restate something, but usually we talk
without revising. Write as you talk is an excellent rule to follow in composing a rough draft
of each section.
Step Five: Revise the outline and create sub/heads. Almost always the outline from
which one writes becomes changed in the process of writing. Once a rough draft is
completed for each section, it is a good idea to make a new outline, rearranging sections as
appropriate. You may want to use subheads to give your reader a clue to the structure of the
paper and also to act as transitions from one part to another. Native folk terms can often be
used as subheads in an ethnography, helping to create a view that reflects the cultural
knowledge of your informants.
Step Six: Edit the rough draft. At this point in the writing you will have a rough draft of
your paper, a fairly clear outline, and a number of subheadings you want to use throughout
the paper. Now it is time to go over it with an eye to improving the details of writing. Work
through each section and at the same time keep the entire description in mind. Make
changes directly on the pages you had previously written. When you want to add a
paragraph or sentence, write them on the back of the page or on a separate piece of paper
with instructions as to where they will appear. At this stage, it is often useful to ask a friend
to read over the manuscript and make general comments. An outside perspective is
especially useful for making improvements that will enhance the communicative power of
the description.
Step Seven: Write the introduction and conclusion. By now the description has
taken on substantial form and you can write these two parts of the paper in a more effective
manner. Some writers find that they write better if they write a rough introduction at the
start of the writing but save the conclusion until the end. In either case, now is the time to
review both the introduction and conclusion and revise them to fit the paper.
Step Eight: Reread your manuscript for examples. Examples involve writing at the
lowest level of abstraction. Because of their importance in communication, a special reading
of the paper to see if you have used enough examples is highly desirable. Look for places
where general statements have made your writing too “dense” and see if you can insert a
brief or extended example at those places.
Step Nine: Write the final draft. In some cases this will merely involve typing the paper
or turning it over to someone else to type. In other cases. you will need to go carefully over
the manuscript again, making the final editorial changes. Using steps such as this means
you have been over the entire manuscript numerous times during the course of writing.
Instead of a single, first-draft-as-final-draft, your paper has gone through a series of
developmental stages.
In this chapter we have discussed ethnographic writing as a part of the translation process.
Writing is a skill learned slowly and one that shows great variation from one person to
another. The suggestions in this chapter are offered only as general guidelines, not as hard-
and-fast rules that every writer should try to follow.[1]
Footnotes
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Where to Get the Best Ethnographic Essay Examples

Writing an ethnographic essay can be easy with the help of a well-written example. There are a few
options to consider in finding suitable examples for your essay writing. You want to use sources that
have a good reputation of providing essay examples to academic students. This means you can use
sources such as the library catalog, academic paper databases, school websites, and so on. Here are a
few points to help you get an idea on where to search for ethnographic essay examples.
Homework Help Sites Offering Ethnographic Essay Writing Advice

You can get helpful information on how to write your paper through homework help sites for writing
assignments. You may also find examples that can help you write your paper. A number of homework
help sites may have parts or a whole example assignment you can view. When a site features parts of a
paper they often share tips on how to write about your topic. Some sites may not have examples but
they will give leads on where you can find them. Don’t forget to consider blogs as some homework help
sites have article content giving advice on finding quality examples.
Colleges Providing Steps on How to Write an Ethnographic Essay

Many college students are issues writing assignments for ethnographic topics. Few school websites may
have examples written by other students you can download. Check your school website first before
considering other schools. You may find your school wants you to produce content differently than
another school. Some writing assignments may have different standards due to guideline variations. A
school may have examples to show how they expect their students to produce such content.
Online Essay Databases with Documents for Research Purposes

You can find a wide range of examples through academic paper databases online. They may be
accessed through your school library or your school may suggest a database for you to use. This option
will offer a great amount of examples based on topic and subject. You can access such documents that
were written by other students and professional writers. Speaking of professional writers, if you are not
able to find the example you want through the database you can consider working with a professional
writing service. They can produce an example from scratch on the topic you want. The example will
have original content and made exclusively for your use.
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Ethnography Essay
Different Culture in Guest of the Sheik by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea
777 Words | 3 Pages

is unique and individualistic with many exclusive qualities. Everyone in the world has a
culture but it is not easy to accept or agree with other people’s culture. The ethnography,
“Guests of the Sheik”, written by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea really captures what it is like
to live and to be immersed into another culture. Ethnography is “comprised of the writings
of the anthropologist, detailing the life ways of a particular culture, investigated by means
of direct fieldwork” (Arenson, and Miller-Thayer…
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Buddhist Ethnography Essay
1276 Words | 6 Pages

The Buddhist Experience Buddhism is a religion that focuses more on the individual and
the actions of that individual, which was prevalent to me when I made my way into
Portland and set foot in a Buddhist temple. The man I met within the walls of this temple
was far from my stereotypical thoughts of Buddhist monks. The man I met looked like
your plain old, average Joe, American man. Before I delve into the depths of my visit to
this inspiring place, I need to sum up the Buddhist religion and why…
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Essay on The Role of the Reflexive Ethnographer

emotionalizing it produce interesting and somewhat effective ethnographies.
Visweswaran, another female and self-proclaimed reflexive anthropologist, explores what
it is to be a reflexive feminist anthropologist in a field that is dominated by men. Reflexivity
is thus a hot topic for past and present ethnographers to discuss. With the help of the
women’s movement and the rise of feminism, female anthropologists were able to publish
their own ethnographies. However, women ethnographers continued to be left…
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Anthropology

to be comprehensive would be left incomplete. The anthropologist Renato Rosaldo has
been particularly criticized for his statement on reflexivity in Culture and Truth: The
Remaking of Social Analysis. In this work, he revisited his previous ethnography Grief and
Headhunters Rage with a new perspective. Many years after his fieldwork, he realized the
importance of personal experience in understanding the context. He states, "During all
those years I was not yet in a position to comprehend the force…
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Essay on Cultural Anthropology and Ethnographic Fieldwork

attempt to surmount several formidable cultural questions: How can one understand
another's culture? How can culture be qualitatively and quantitatively assessed? What
aspects of a culture make it unique and which connect it to other cultures? If
ethnographies can provide answers to these difficult questions, then Spradley has
correctly identified this method as revolutionary. Cultures are infinitely complex. Culture,
as Spradley (1979) defines it, is "the acquired knowledge that people use to interpret…
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Exam: Scientific Method and Research Essay

themselves. 12. Discuss how ethnography and participant observation are related.
Ethnography is the research methodology that has origins in anthropology. And a
research procedure in which the anthropologist carefully detects, records, and involves in
the everyday life of another culture and. Participant observation is more related to
ethnography. However, there is different people that have different thoughts about the
particular relationship between the both. Ethnography and participant observation…
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Ethnography Essay

Ethnography Works Cited Missing Reflexivity is a qualitative method of research that
takes an ethnography one step further, displaying the personal thoughts and reflections of
the anthropologist on his informants. Ethnographies generally take an outside or foreign
perspective of a culture, like reading a text, and reflexivity introduces a new component of
inside description. Here, the anthropologist may describe personal interactions and
experiences with natives and use this inside information…
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Summary & Critique About Article the Science of Desire Essays

Summary The article The Science of Desire presents ethnography and its proponents
play an important role in modern business world. Author Ante began with an example, the
satellite-radio war, to show how ethnography worked in business. In satellite-radio war,
Sirius Satellite Ratio made a team of social scientists, designers, and ethnographers.
Through studying customers’ habit of listening to music, watching TV and reading
magazines, the team concluded several facts that can defeat competitors…
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Essay on Ethnography on Cambodian Americans
903 Words | 4 Pages

Bond, Michael. "Which Ethnography to Do." E-mail interview. 09 Dec. 2013. CAHI.
"Welcome to The Cambodian-American Heritage, Inc. Website." Welcome to The
Cambodian-American Heritage, Inc. Website. Cambodian-American Heritage, Inc., 14
Oct. 2013. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. Chhim, Porthira. "Overcoming Unimaginable Atrocities."
The New Face of Asian Pacific America. Ed. Eric Lai and Dennis Arguelles. UCLA Asian
American Studies Center, 2003. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. Kang, David. "Ethnography."
Telephone interview…
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Alex's Restaurant, an ethnography Essay

Alex's Restaurant, an ethnography The Wiseguys (scene one): *These four old guys
(definitely into their late sixties, early seventies) sell cars at one of the dealerships on the
boulevard. I would bet fifty dollars that they all work for Cadillac. They come in once a
week, on Friday afternoons. They love me. They like to give me a hard time, ask why I
don’t love them anymore, when I’m going to run away with them, etc, etc. They are
caricatures of car salesmen but are obviously unaware of this…
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Call Bells

believe the “Dance of the Call Bells” is a qualitative study. Ethnography was used in this
study, and it is a qualitative method of research. (Rebar & Gersch, 2015). “Ethnographers
listen to what people say, and observe what they do,” (Deitrick, 2006). The study focused
on subjective information, observing and interviewing people in the context of the problem
addressed. 3. Define ethnography and the possible benefits of using ethnography?…
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Mini-Ethnography on Gamer Culture Essay

"Man, Fragged by the LPB Sniper again!!!" That may sound like nonsense to the average
person but to the seasoned Counterstrike veteran it speaks volumes. Today, millions of
people of all ages are coming together on the Internet to compete against each other in a
variety of online games. The most popular of which is an online modification of the game
Half-life entitled Counterstrike. <br> <br>Counterstrike itself is comprised of players
broken up in to two teams, terrorists and counter terrorists…
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Critical Review: with No Direction Home: Homeless Youth on the Road and in the
Streets by Marni Finkelstein

Road and in the Streets By Marni Finkelstein In this critical review of Marni Finkelstein’s
ethnography “With No Direction Home: Homeless Youth on the Road and in the Streets” I
will analyze and evaluate some of the strategies and methods used by this author. One
primary issue I will discuss is the sample population. Finkelstein may have set the
population limitations to strictly for this ethnography. Her limited observation location and
time is also a major issue. She chose to study a transient…
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Ethnography of Basketball Fan Culture
590 Words | 2 Pages

Ethnography of Basketball Fan Culture Part 1 - Introduction As a basketball fanatic, I
choose to investigate how fan culture surrounding basketball has grown and has become
such a fan-oriented league. Basketball has expanded and has become a global
phenomenon allowing fans to interact with athletes and change the way fans watch
basketball through social media. Being a basketball fan where you could only watch your
favorite teams games on television and listen on the…
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Collaborative Ethnography Essay

ethnographers believe that it is the way we interpret information that must be studied and
that the voice of societies should be advocated through an informant. They also believe
that to do this the use of collaborative ethnography is of vital importance. Collaborative
ethnography is a relationship between ethnographers and informants. This, however,
could be a team of ethnographers observing and studying a society, it could be a couple
of ethnographers and more than one informant or it could be an…
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Ethnographic Writing and Relationships with Research Subjects

do so in different ways. Sterk focuses much of her ethnography on the relationships
formed, and the information and trust gained as a result; Bourgois, however, spends only
a small fraction of his ethnography on his relationships. Both illustrate information about
their perspective-studied cultures, the difficulties faced in gathering their fieldwork, but
they differ in the amount of information they chose to include in their actual
ethnographies. Over a ten-year span Sterk, immerses herself in…
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Anaylzing the Ethnography, Witchcraft, Violence, and Democracy in South Africa

written by Adam Ashforth
918 Words | 4 Pages

In South Africa, one who performs the rituals of witchcraft was known as a witch doctor,
and they were described as healers who diagnose and cure illnesses. To better explain
the implications of witchcraft in South Africa, I will analyze the ethnography, Witchcraft,
Violence, and Democracy in South Africa written by Adam Ashforth. Ashforth first visited
Soweto in South Africa in 1990 and has been fascinated with the culture and politics that
grew there. Ashforth intended to study the transition…
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Ethnography of the American Flag Essay
720 Words | 3 Pages

In America there is a religious totem held above all else. It is a piece of square cloth with
thirteen red and white lines and 50 stars that they place on a pole over their heads. They
honor their flag in almost every aspect of their lives. They are placed at national shrines,
cathedrals, outside homes and inside of every classroom. Every the morning in schools
all across the nation children are required to pray to the flag and pledge their loyalty. In it
is raised every morning outside the school…
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Ethnographic Research Design

over time. As schools’ diversity increases, the task is to understand the cultural groups
and the role these play in the field of education. Even though ethnography studies fall
under a variety of categories, the three clearly identified forms of ethnographic design
include realist ethnographies, ethnographic case study, and critical ethnographies
(Creswell, 2008). The three types of ethnographic design vary in their characteristics,
approach, and purpose. Therefore, researchers need to analyze the…
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Ethnographic Research Essay

his research in Morocco. This makes it easier for the reader to understand his ideas then
just having a technical book about the many different aspects of Moroccan life that he
may have discovered. In Writing Culture: the Poetics and Politics of Ethnography, edited
by James Clifford and George E. Marcus, many of the different ideas of how an
ethnographer should go about his or her research are explored. Using their own ideas
and incorporating them with the ideas of collogues, they emphasized a broad…
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Glt1 Task 4 Essay
946 Words | 4 Pages

variation among humans and collecting data regarding the impact of global economic and
political processes on local cultural realities is the cultural anthropology branch of
anthropology. (Wikipedia, 2013). Anthropologists use participant observation,
ethnography and cross-cultural comparison as methods of data collection. Participant
observation intends to develop a close and intimate familiarity with a chosen group of
people and their practices through complete involvement with them in their environment…
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Ethnography of Performance Essay
685 Words | 3 Pages

Ethnography of Performance During a musical performance many elements to be looked
are not easily recognized by the average critic. A musical performance has multiple
interactions taking place between the music, text, performers, audience, and space that
all can contribute to a great performance. Overwhelming majority of the audience does
not realize so much can be looked at during a single performance. At a performance by
the University of Maryland Marching Band I was able to analyze the Musical…
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Cultural Ethnography, Schein's Model Essay

internal access to the organizational culture of the Cingular store was gained. The
research for this ethnography also benefited because as an employee the basic workings
of the company was easily accessible, the other employees are not
Applying Schein‟s Model To Cingular Wireless-9 uncomfortable interacting with me, and
access to internal documents and meetings was possible. The goals of this ethnography
are to gain a better understanding of the basic assumptions of the organization. The
representatives…
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Ethnography Research of a Sub-Culture

Ethnography Research of a Sub-Culture In the forgotten recesses of Camp Hovey,
resides a small platoon of MP's, standing in small groups in the battalion motor pool, it
must be 9:30 in the morning and its must be Monday, Feb. 13th. Behind the large
HUMMWV's stands a small tight nit group of males, their ranks range in the e-4 to e-6
range, laughing together. This is the group that always stands away from the rest of the
platoon, secluding themselves, forming a group within a group, or their own…
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Elizabeth Fernea’s Guests of the Sheik: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village

Beeja did not manage to change the society of El Nahra as she thought she might, she
was given a place within it and granted respect from both the women and men of the
society. Works Cited Fernea, Elizabeth. Guests of the Sheik: An Ethnography of an Iraqi
Village. New York: Anchor Books, 1969. Joseph, Suad, “Gender and Relationality among
Arab Families in Lebanon,” Feminist Studies 19:3 (1993): 465-486. Pierce, Leslie. The
Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman…
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Guests of the Sheik: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village Essay

Guests of the Sheik 1. You are Fatima, a middle-aged, middle-class woman in El Nahra,
Iraq in 1954. You have met an American woman for the first time in your life, and have
come to know her pretty well. But you just cannot understand how she can be happy
living according to the American customs she has described to you. Construct Fatima’s
argument for why the customs of Iraq, especially as they relate to gender roles and
gender relationships, are vastly superior to those of the United States.…
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Ethnographic Research

topic of assignment: ethnography. submitted by Umair Ijaz. (roll Number 1 BS English 4th
semester) submitted to: Sir Waseem Akhtar. date of submission: 12-06-2012. OUTLINE
In this chapter, I shall define ethnography and describe its central characteristics and
principles. I shall also look at the key research concepts of reliability and validity as they
relate to ethnography, and will discuss the importance of context to ethnographic inquiry.
In the final part of the chapter, I shall highlight…
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Ethnography of Starbucks Essay

The Status of Starbucks For my ethnography project, I decided to observe the Starbucks
on Rockside Road in Independence, Ohio. My plan was to observe the subculture of
Starbucks’ customers. A subculture is defined as a “structured social inequality or, more
specifically, systematic inequalities between groups of people that arise as intended or
unintended consequences of social processes and relationships.” My question was
twofold. Does Starbucks appeal to certain social statuses? And if so,…
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Ethnography Essay
989 Words | 4 Pages

Ethnography Works Cited Missing Anthropology is defined, in the most basic terms, as
the study of other cultures. This field can subsequently be divided into more specific
sects, and contain more precise defining characteristics, but this definition is essentially
all that is needed. Anthropology is a science that attempts to look at other cultures and
draw conclusions to questions that are raised while studying. An anthropologist is
someone who accepts what is presented before them and is…
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Primary Research Comes Directly from the Customers
682 Words | 3 Pages

size, market demand, customer behavior. Ethnography Research Ethnography is a
branch of anthropology. It helps to understand human behavior in a community. It finds
out how people live their lives. Anthropologists visit customer and try to find out how
customers are living? How customers are solving their daily problem? Finding from
ethnography can lead to a new product development can lead to new marketing strategy.
For example, Intel has used ethnography to figure out demand for microprocessor…
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Essay about Is Ethnography a Suitable method for Research

Is Ethnography a Suitable method for Research on Residential Satisfaction and
Community Participation. Ethnography within its wider field of research is described as
the study of people’s behaviour in terms of social contexts, with emphasis on interaction
in everyday situations (Lindsay, 1997). It is further defined as research that constitutes
the art and science of describing a group or culture (Fetterman, 1989). However, the
specific definition that will be used throughout this work, is…
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An Ethnography of Hunters Essays

downtown Goshen, Indiana. I called them up, explained rather inarticulately what I was
interested in, and soon set up meetings with what I believed to be thoroughly encultured,
currently involved, non-analytic individuals. My research took the form of ethnography,
with the goal of grasping my informants' point of view, their relation to life, and their
visions of their world . One of my first discoveries was that I needed to learn a new
language: (what was a muzzleloader? Why was a solid blade better…
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Essay about Ethnography

When I was a kid my parents always took me to Nathdwara to take the blessings of Lord
Krishna every now and then because my parents are so religious. So by going there
several times I am also attached to that place. Actually Nathdwara is situated in
Rajasthan state and I live in the state called Gujarat and in the city called as Ahmedabad.
It takes six hours drive from my city to Nathdwara and this is the only nearest place where
I could get mental peace. This is very important place for me and my…
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Charles Marius Barbeau’s Ethnography and the Canadian Folklore

Charles Marius Barbeau’s Ethnography and the Canadian Folklore Born on 5 March
1883, in Sainte-Marie-de-Bauce, Charles Marius Barbeau is widely seen as the first
Canadian educated anthropologist. He graduated from Université Laval in Québec, from
his studies of law, in 1907; he never practised law. Upon graduating, Marius was awarded
– as the first French-Canadian recipient – the Cecil Rhodes scholarship which allowed
him to study at Oxford University where he was introduced to the emerging…
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Ethnography Paper on Thanksgiving
850 Words | 3 Pages

As the holiday season is coming nearer each day, I found it appropriate to look further
into the traditional Thanksgiving topic. I can only describe what my family does, my
Puerto Rican and Caucasian family. As far as I can say, we are not necessarily traditional
with our celebration of Thanksgiving. So I figured why not use this assignment as a way
to further look into the holiday and how it is celebrated across America, this can mean
anything from families celebrating it in their homes, to the…
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Essay about Ethnography: Ainu

Ethnography: Ainu Worldview The Ainu, Japan’s native aboriginal people, are very much
an isolated people, living now only in the northern island of Japan, Hokkaido. They
number, as of a 1984 survey, 24,381, continuing a rise from a low point in the mid
nineteenth century due to forced labor and disease, and have largely left their old ways
and integrated into standard Japanese society, though even the majority of those still
reside in Hokkaido. The animistic religion of the Ainu is firmly…
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Kung Life: An Ethnography by Majorie Shostak

The many ethnographies produced from the fieldwork of anthropologist, account for much
of our knowledge of cultures we may consider foreign of our own. Ethnographies are
often written to provide an understanding of the practices of the studied culture, thus
bridging the gap between separate ways of life. Majorie Shostak is one of the well known
anthropologist who attempts to do just this in her writings. During her stay in the Dobe
regions of Botswana, she studied the life of !Kung women to find…
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Ethnography Essay
753 Words | 4 Pages

Greektown Ethnography I took a trip to Greek town Casino in Detroit Michigan with my
father, this trip was something of an unexpected trip but I figured it was a great place to
observe the behaviors of many different cultures as Greek town casino is the home of a
multicultural society. I wanted to observe the behaviors of those between African
American’s and Caucasian persons. I wanted to see if one race over the other tended to
gamble more or if one culture got more aggressive…
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Marni Finkelstein in With No Direction Home

The ethnography With No Direction Home: Homeless Youth on the Road and in the
Streets by Marni Finkelstein, describes the life of street youth in New York City. The
ethnography attempts to debunk myths that prior studies have formed of these street
youths. The author, Marni Finkelstein is an Anthropologist renowned for her work on
urban populations at risk. She graduated from the New School of Social Research in New
York City with her PhD in Anthropology. Finkelstein has also conducted studies on…
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Essay about Ethnography

Ethnography One of the most complex and interesting aspects of cultural anthropology is
the ethnography. The idea of being able to read stories about groups of individuals is
something that is intriguing to many people. With the ethnography, the authors many
times feel that they have control and understanding over the individuals that they are
writing about. Furthermore, many of these authors assume that the individuals among
whom they are living and studying exemplify the entire society as…
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The Inside Perspective Of An Outsider

site survey, applying for leave from university teaching, and securing funding, Stearman
traveled to Bolivia in order to conduct ethnographic research on the Yuqui. II.
Ethnography - The Work of Anthropology Spradley (1979) equates "doing ethnography"
with ''describing a culture" (p.3). In order to understand ethnography then, one must
understand the entity being described. What exactly is culture? James P. Spradley and
David W. McCurdy (1972) define culture as "knowledge people use to generate…
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Essay about The Role of Reflexivity in Ethnography

The Role of Reflexivity in Ethnography Reflexivity, as I understand it, is very well named.It
is the practice of reflecting upon oneself and one’s work, of being self-aware and self-
critical. In anthropology, it is well exemplified by the work of Renato Rosaldo, Ruth Behar,
and Dorinne Kondo, among others. In its most obvious form (or at least the form most
obvious to me), reflexivity is manifest in the practice of an ethnographer including herself
in her own ethnographic research---seeing herself…
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Ethnography Essays

Ethnography Introduction Beginning with the early stages of savagery to the complex
civilizations in the 21st century, the need to compete remains an important aspect in the
continual evolution of mankind. Competition took various forms throughout history from
the bloody attempts to kill a mammoth in order to provide nourishment, to the violent
battles between two opposing sides taking place on college football fields every Saturday
afternoon. Another form of competition involving severe contact…
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Ethnography Paper

Ethnography Paper This is my first time that I come to New York, so I am curious about
many things in this new place, such as the famous resorts, and the people here. As we
know, the Times Square is very famous in New York. When I was in China, I hope I can
visit Times Square, because I saw Times Square was very great in some of the opening
of American series. Now, I am in New York, and I have enough chances to visit Times
Square whenever I want. In there, it gives me a new horizon to understand…
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Essay about Writing an Ethnography

even more pertinent if posed about ethnographies. An ethnography is, by nature, meant
to be a description of a people (the dictionary definition actually refers to “scientific
description of individual cultures,” but that brings up questions about the meaning of
“scientific” and “culture”). How can a people (or a culture) be described truthfully? And
what is the relationship between the idealized pursuit of truth and ethical practices? In
writing an ethnography, both what the ethnographer sees (as…
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Ethnography on People Who Do Hot Yoga

working out are all ways to help me cope, but these activities never seem to fully get the
job done. I never thought that this horrible sequence of stress would find and ending, until
I experienced my first hot yoga class. I decided to do my ethnography on the subculture
of yogis to find out how these people step out of society’s craziness and enter into a world
of relaxation by connecting their bodies and minds. Lucky for me, one of my close friends,
Jamie Mack, is someone who takes immense pride…
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Ethnography Reflection

disgusting. But I would try both before passing judgment. When I spent two summers in
Japan, my tastes changed considerably because I tried everything before making a
decision about what I did or didn't like. (49, 201) 18. Mad Dogs is the first ethnography I
have read. I really enjoyed it. Raybeck really made the places and people come alive with
his storytelling. As I was reading, I kept reflecting on the time I spent in Japan. During and
after high school I lived in Japan during two summers. The…
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Book Review of 'Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street'
999 Words | 4 Pages

(2009). Liquidated: An ethnography of Wall Street. Durham: Duke University Press, 2009.
In the wake of the recent financial crisis, many commentators attempted to analyze the
roots of the conflict from a political or economic perspective. Anthropologist Karen Ho, a
veteran of Wall Street as well as an academic, attempted to understand the reason that
Wall Street behaves the way it does in her 2009 anthropological study of American
finance entitled Liquidated: An ethnography of Wall Street from a…
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Ethnography Study of Coffee House

the attempt of this organisation to create a coffee culture in T&T. This evaluation will then
inform the argument of hybridization by demonstrating how cultures exchange elements
with each other thereby creating new, hybrid identities. An ethnography study was
conducted at Rituals Coffee House (Rituals) located in the city of San Fernando in T&T.
The study was conducted between 12:00-1:30pm. Interviews were conducted on five
customers to gauge how often they drank coffee and whether they believed…
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Ruth Benedict’s Ethnography of Pueblo Culture, Patterns of Culture, and Leslie

Marmon Silko’s novel Ceremony

Response Piece – Silko & Benedict As noted in the response by Janet Tallman, there are
three main themes concerning Ruth Benedict’s ethnography of Pueblo culture, Patterns
of Culture, and Leslie Marmon Silko’s novel Ceremony. Both detail the importance of
matrilineage, harmony and balance versus change, and ceremonies to the Pueblo
Indians. It is important to note that Silko gives the reader a first-hand perspective of this
lifestyle (she was raised in the Laguna Pueblo Reservation), while Benedict’s…
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STOP
Ethnography is the study of people and the cultures they represent. It is a study which
encapsulates the very essence of the individual, and can help us unravel the mysteries
behind why two communities are so very different from one another. It helps us to
understand what makes cultures and communities unique as separate entities. For a
student of anthropology, you will need to write research papers, which will decipher
what you have summed up from the study of human societies and how you have
interpreted your findings.
This indulging subject can unleash the detective as well as the journalist in you, making
you ever so alert, because you will be required to observe interpersonal behavior and
interact with the very people you are studying. This article has been developed on the
basis of taking ethnography as a whole by choosing multiracial people as the subject of
study and how they behave in different situations.
Ethnography Paper Ideas on Multiracial People
Multiracial is the sum combination of all types of people found in this world and how
they would interact when put into one given society.
#1 - Behavior in Preschool
Children of parents from different cultures will portray certain different traits. For
instance, a child who speaks in his or her native language at home, will often mix
languages while conversing with the other toddlers. Thus, the results will be a
cacophony of languages, which the teacher will rarely understand, nor will the other
children. However the message will be conveyed somehow through body language or
gestures and commonly understood words.
#2 - Behavior in School
In school, children of different cultures begin to gradually understand that the realities at
home are different from those at school. Thus, they will learn to blend with the common
crowd, by behaving like every other student. The only difference will be demarcated by
the way each student of a variant culture would appear from the others. Secondly, if the
influence of the native language is rather pronounced, that too will reflect and stand out
when two students from different cultures converse with each other.
#3 - Behavior in College
College is a place where external or foreign students join into the course in order to
pursue higher education. Students who have lived among multiracial people for many
years, will be able to readily welcome the new students. On the contrary, it may not be
as easy for the foreign students as they may find it hard to interact freely. This may
depend on their conservative cultural upbringing, or inability to converse in a common
language or the innate behavior of being wary in general. It will also be a very common
sight to notice students from the same culture, to be constantly being together and
interacting only with one another, while choosing to not mingle with the rest. In order
to write ethnography, you will need to interact with these students, to gain the reason for
their behavior. If you ask them why they do so, their answers may; more often than not,
be that they do not feel accepted by the other people or that they feel more comfortable
in the company of each another.
#4 - Behavior in a Market
It is very common to find community oriented markets within a big city, having a specific
locality, which will be set up according to their own cultural standards. These places are
representations of their own culture and a way of keeping it alive or feeling like they are
still a part of it. Here you will find people talking mostly in their native language. In many
ways, you can have a taste of their real culture by simply stepping out of your homes
and visiting these localities.
#5 - Behavior in Relationships
Couples of two separate cultures, will have certain distinct nuances about their
interpersonal relationship. The man will behave the way he has been taught and what
he has observed throughout his life. Similarly, the woman will treat her spouse the way
she has been brought up to believe. Even though, if both choose to discard their
individual cultural teachings, they will still have distinct behavioral patterns, which will
revert them back to their individual cultures. This will include cultural ideologies, imbibed
ideologies and clash of retained and discarded ideologies between the two. Differences
would also arise in terms of eating habits, cooking food, spending money, bringing up of
children and many other intricacies.
#6 - Behavior During Elections
Notice how and why certain communities show more interest in election procedures,
while some remain passive. Also, observe why they support one or two candidates and
completely ignore the ones from a particular political party or community. These will
have a lot to do with past economical, social and political treatment, which was given to
a particular community of people.
You may take inspiration from the aforementioned examples. The entire objective is to
either take a very narrow subject as your project or use a very wide based one and
have ample information to compare results with theoretical studies.
STOP
EXAMPLE OF ENGLISH RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Contoh Proposal Penelitian Bahasa Inggris
The Effectiveness of Using A1 speechTRON as a Medium to Teach

Pronunciation
(An Experimental Study of 2nd Semester Student at English Education
Program of STKIP Garut)
A Research Proposal
Submitted to the English Program of STKIP Garut as a partial
fulfillment
Of the requirements for Proposal Seminar
By:
Dimas Masduki
10223012
ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

SEKOLAH TINGGI KEGURUAN DAN ILMU PENDIDIKAN
(STKIP)-GARUT
2014
The Effectiveness of Using A1 speechTRON as a Medium to Teach

Pronunciation
(An Experimental study of 2nd Semester Students at English Education
Program of STKIP Garut)
By:
Dimas Masduki
10223012
Supervisor I Supervisor II
Dr. H. Yoyo Surjakusumah, M.Pd M. Taufiq Hidayat

S.Pd
Approved by:
Chief of Head of
STKIP- Garut English Education
Study Program
Dr. H. Imid Hamid, M.Pd Dr. H. Yoyo

Surjakusumah, M.Pd
Table of Contents
Abstract
Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 The background of the study
1.3 The assumptions
1.4 The problem statements
1.5 The objective of the study
1.6 The scope and Limitation
1.7 Hypothesis
1.8 The research method
1.9 The significance of the study
1.10 The definition of terminology
1. 11 Time table
Chapter II Literature of Related Review
2.1 Pronunciation
2.1.1 Definition
2.1.2 Elements of Pronunciation
2.1.3 The Importance and Difficulties of Pronunciation
2.2 Pronunciation teaching
2.3 Media
2.3.1 Definition of Media
2.3.2 Classification of Media
2.3.3 Function of Media
2.4 A1 speechTRON (A1 speechTRON) as a medium to teach
pronunciation
2.4.1 The role of A1 SpeechTRON as CALL (Computer-Assisted
Language Learning) in teaching and learning process
2.4.2 The procedure and implementation of the application
software to teach pronunciation
2.4.3 Advantages and disadvantages of the software
2.4.4 The correlation between pronunciation and the software
Chapter III Research Methodology
3.1 Research Design
3.2 Population and Sample
3.2.1 Population
3.2.2 Sample
3.3 Research Variables
3.3.1 The independent variable
3.3.2 The dependent variable
3.4 Technique of data collection and Instrument
3.4.1 Test
3.4.2 Documentation
3.5 Technique of data analysis
3.5.1 Pre-Test and Post-Test
3.5.2 Scoring Guidance
3.5.3 The Achievement Evidences
3.6 Hypothesis Testing
REFERENCES
Abstract
This is a research proposal. The study of the research is about the

effectiveness of using A1 speechTRON as a medium to teach
pronunciation. The background of the study is the difficulties in learning
pronunciation. This study is aimed at responding the following
questions; (1) How is the implementation of A1 speechTRON as a
medium to teach pronunciation?; (2) How is the effectiveness of A1
speechTRON as a medium to teach pronunciation?. The population of
this research will be the second graders of English Education Program of
STKIP Garut who consist of 30 students. This is an experimental
research, which will be conducted in two groups; experimental group
which will be taught by using the application software and control group
which will be taught without the software. The method of data collection
is test. There will be two tests; pre and posttest which both are in the
form of reading aloud test. All data then will be analyzed by using t- test
to determine whether there is a significance difference between two
groups after treatments.
This study will show that the first thing that the teacher has to do is to
use the software as an aid is that he or she must conduct the lesson in the
language laboratory. If it is difficult to find it, the teacher must provide
several computers or laptops and then group the students into several
possible groups to which the teacher gives a laptop or computer. The
second thing is that this is CALL-learning-based; the teacher may teach
how to conduct the software so students can practice by themselves
outside of the class. The writer assumes that A1 speechTRON will be an
effective medium to teach students pronunciation and it may be used as
one of alternative media in the teaching of pronunciation.
Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 The background of the study
Language as a mean for communication has a crucial thing within

pronunciation. As we know, pronunciation is an important part of
language when someone is transferring knowledge to other people. They
do need to pronounce some words clear enough to understand in order to
avoid misunderstanding. This refers to an important part of
pronunciation.
English pronunciation is included into one of language components
besides grammar and vocabulary. This is why it is very important for
English learners. Even though, it is still pushed-aside, ignored, and
neglected not only for teachers but also students. Nowadays, it can be
easily encountered many teachers get difficulties to teach pronunciation
of some English words, and admit to lack of their knowledge about the
theories of pronunciation. As a result, it obviously gives a big influence
toward their students at enhancing English pronunciation in the
classroom. Therefore, teachers are expected to improve their practical
skills in pronunciation teaching.
In addition, some people believed that English pronunciation was
difficult for English learner (non-native speakers). They are
compulsorily able to pronounce every word clearly and correctly. This
has been defined by Josie Whitehead statement that the problem with the
English language is “pronunciation” because what we see in English is
not necessarily what we say. It drives that spoken word is not same as
written form. Also, Rebecca M. Dauer stated that English is especially
difficult because the pronunciation of words is not clearly shown by how
they are written.
In pronunciation teaching, absolutely, teachers can deploy many ways to
enhance their students’ pronunciation. They can try to vary their
methods or media in order to make their students’ understanding
increase. Furthermore, teachers can use some electronic media such as
application software which is built-in to computer, as a phenomenon of
the globalization era; which is signed by the rapid development of
technology. It definitely gives us an alternative and interesting way to
teach and learn.
Inspired by the rapid development of technology from the early 1980s,
computer-assisted language learning (CALL) has now become an
important component of foreign language learning pedagogy. Originally
viewed as a supplement to classroom instruction, communicative
instruction-based CALL activities are now used to promote learner
autonomy and to encourage involvement with the target language both
inside and outside of the classroom. Thus, this has been defined as “the
search for and study of applications on the computer in language
learning and teaching” and is now used routinely in a variety of
instructional situations. As a result, teachers are required to possess
CALL expertise that includes both practical skills and a thorough
understanding of information technology (IT) theory.
A1 SpeechTRON is application software which can transform the
written form into the spoken form. This software is strongly predicted
that will be able to enhance students’ pronunciation. If students get
difficulties or unable to pronounce difficult words, they can easily use
this software only by inserting the words and clicking “Speak Button”.
They will directly listen to the sound of the words. This can be inferred
that it will be obviously effective for teaching students’ pronunciation in
English.
In conclusion, based on the reasons above, The writer wants to conduct
an experimental teaching on pronunciation using computer media
entitled: The Effectiveness of Using Application software as a medium
to teach pronunciation: An Experimental study of 2nd Grade at English
Education Program of STKIP Garut.
1.2 The assumptions
The assumptions deals with this research are as follow:

1. A1 speechTRON plays the significant role in learning EFL.
2. A1 speechTRON study will influence the learners’ pronunciation
mastery.
1.4 The problem statements
The research will be conducted to discover the answer of these following

questions:
1. How is the implementation of A1 speechTRON as a medium in
teaching pronunciation?
2. How is the effectiveness of using A1 speechTRON as a medium in
teaching pronunciation?
1.5 The objective of the study
Based on the problem statements, the objectives of this study are as

follows:
1. To figure out the implementation of A1 speechTRON as a medium
to teach pronunciation.
2. To find out the effectiveness of using A1 speechTRON as a
medium to teach pronunciation.
1.6 The scope and Limitation
To simplify the study, the writer limits the research on the effectiveness
of using application software as a medium to teach pronunciation. The
population of this research will be 2nd Grade of English Education
Program of STKIP Garut students.
1.7 Hypothesis
According to Creswell (2003), hypotheses are prediction The writer

makes about the expected relationships among variables. They are
numeric estimates of population values based on data collective from
sample.
Based on the definition above, the writer hypotheses are:
H0: There is no significant influence of A1 speechTRON study
toward students’ pronunciation mastery
H1: There is significant influence of A1 speechTRON study toward
students’ pronunciation mastery.
1.8 The research method
Based on the research problems and purposes, the quantitative method

will be used in this research. Quantitative research is a means for testing
objectives theories by examining the relationship among variable
(Creswell, 2003). Therefore, to prove the effectiveness of using A1
speechTRON as a medium to teach pronunciation, the writer will use the
experiment as the approach on conducting the research. According to
(Creswell, 2012), in experiments, treatment variables are independent
variables that The writer manipulates to determine their effect on the
outcome, or dependent variable. So, the subject will get a treatment to
find out the effect of using A1 speechTRON toward students’
pronunciation mastery.
1.9 The significance of the study
1. The result of this study is expected to be useful for the teachers and
students to give alternative way to overcome their pronunciation
problems in teaching learning process especially in pronunciation.
2. For teachers, the result of this study can be used to help teaching
students’ pronunciation. So, the students can be easier to understand it.
Hopefully, this A1 speechTRON can be a medium to improve students’
pronunciation.
3. For students, it can also be used to improve and develop their
abilities in English pronunciation. Because it will give them a lot of new
experiences in order that they will be more interested and enjoy in
learning pronunciation, to be a good English speaker. Furthermore, it is
hoped to give positive influences to students in their English speaking
skill directly.
1.10 The definition of terminology
To avoid the misunderstanding in this research, there are several

terminologies that the writer feels necessary to explain them. The
terminologies are as follow:
1. According to concise oxford English dictionary, pronunciation
means the way in which a word pronounced. Again, pronunciation is the
act or manner of pronouncing syllables, words and phrases with regard
to the production of sound and the placing of stress and intonation.
While, according to Richard (1992), pronunciation is the way a certain
sound is produced. Unlike articulation which refers to the actual
production of speech sounds in the mouth, pronunciation stresses more
on the way of sounds are produced by the hearer. Thus, it includes one
of the most important language skills. When people are just good in
grammar and vocabulary, and then they are not pronouncing and
stressing words correctly, the other people will not understand clearly
what they are saying. In spite of this, when their accent is pleasant, they
will enjoy talking to each other.
2. According to wikipedia, available at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_software, Application software
is all the computer software that causes a computer to perform useful
tasks beyond the running of the computer itself. A specific instance of
such software is called an application software, application program,
application or app.
3. According to Oxford Dictionaries, available at

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/def inition/english/medium, medium
is an agency or means of doing something. While, Gerald Kelly stated
that media is person, material or events that established condition which
enable learners to acquire knowledge, skill and attitude.
1. 11 Time table
No
Activities
November
December
February
1
2
3
4
1
2
3
4
1
2
3
4
1.
Submitted The Title
2.
Approval The Title
3.
Submitted The Research Proposal
4.
Seminar Proposal
Chapter II
Literature of Related Review
In this chapter, the writer would like to discuss some theories related to
the research. They are theoretical review, and hypothesis. In the
theoretical review, the writer presents the definition, the elements, and
the importance and the difficulties of pronunciation.
2.1 Pronunciation
2.1.1 Definition
According to concise oxford English dictionary (2005), pronunciation

means the way in which a word pronounced. Again, pronunciation is the
act or manner of pronouncing syllables, words and phrases with regard
to the production of sound and the placing of stress and intonation.
According to Richard (1992), pronunciation is the way a certain sound is
produced. Unlike articulation which refers to the actual production of
speech sounds in the mouth, pronunciation stresses more on the way of
sounds are produced by the hearer. Thus, it includes one of the most
important language skills. When people are just good in grammar and
vocabulary, and then they are not pronouncing and stressing words
correctly, the other people will not understand clearly what they are
saying. In spite of this, when their accent is pleasant, they will enjoy
talking to each other.
2.1.2 Elements of Pronunciation
Ramelan divides the elements of English pronunciation into two parts.

The first one is Segmental Features, which refer to sound units arranged
in a sequential order. This feature can be studied in isolation. It means
that every utterance may be cut up or segmented or chopped up into
isolated features.
The other one is Supra-segmental Features, which refer to such features
as stress, pitch length intonation, and other features that always
accompany the production of segmental. On the other hand, supra
segmental, the other feature cannot be studied in isolation. It cannot
describe the supra segmental features, unless it deals with segmental.
Furthermore, we have to differentiate whether the stress is on the first,
second, or another syllable of the word. Like word good heavens [/gud-
hɛ venz/], it can be said that stress, as one feature of supra segmental,
cannot stand by itself without other features. They are five features in
supra segmental; they are stress, intonation, pitch, pause, and rhythm.
Both segmental and supra segmental features, in fact are connected to
each other. We cannot pronounce an utterance from just one side of
them. Therefore, to have a “good‟ pronunciation everyone has to master
them, so there will be a good understanding between the speaker and
listener.
2.1.3 The Importance and Difficulties of Pronunciation
Pronunciation includes one of the most important language skills. When

people are just good in grammar and vocabulary, and then they are not
pronouncing and stressing words correctly, the other people will not
understand clearly what they are saying. In spite of this, when their
accent is pleasant, they will enjoy talking to each other.
Learning how to pronounce a foreign language like a native speaker is
difficult but not impossible. The better the pronunciation, the better
people will understand. That is why pronunciation is always important,
not only for beginning students, not only when it interests with
intelligibility, but at all times. It is very important that learners are hoped
to begin and develop their pronunciation of English from the beginning
levels correctly. Because when they have bad pronunciations habits, they
will be hard to acquire a communication successfully.
However, pronunciation is not always easy. Students often face
difficulties in their pronunciation because of several factors. Ramelan
stated some reasons about why students usually do not succeed in
pronunciation the foreign sounds. The reasons are as follow:
1) The existence of a given sound in the foreign language which is
not found in the native language.
2) Sounds which have the same phonetics features in both languages
but differ in their distribution.
3) Similar sounds in two languages, which differ only slightly in
their phonetic features.
4) Sounds that have the same qualities in both languages may
constitute some learning problem if they occur in cluster or sequences of
sounds.
Another problem of pronunciation is that there are sounds which do not
exist in Indonesian. Also, the movement of their speech organs have
been set to produce the speech sounds of their own languages; it will be
difficult for them to change the habit of moving their speech organs in
such a way to produce the foreign sounds. These all above are likely
student’s problems during experiencing pronunciation of English words.
All in all, pronunciation is always an important part and very crucial,
even though it is not always easy. However, the main point refers to
someone does not need to have exact perfect native speaker
pronunciation, but someone does need to speak clearly enough to be
understood.
2.2 Pronunciation teaching
English is a foreign language taught in many schools in Indonesia. As a

result, nowadays, we can see many World Class Schools in Indonesia. It
showed that English is as an important role in education. Toward those
purposes, of course they need development in English teaching,
especially in pronunciation since it becomes one of the most important
things in teaching English.
Gerald Kelly stated that there are some techniques and activities in
teaching pronunciation. They can be divided into some kinds as follow:
a. Drilling
One of the main ways in which pronunciation is practiced in the
classroom is through drilling. The Drilling simply involves the teacher
saying a word or structure, and getting the class or repeat it. Being able
to drill properly is a basic and fundamental language teaching skill.
Drilling aims to help students achieve better pronunciation of language
items, and to help them remember new items. And given the complex
relationships between English spelling and pronunciation, drilling is best
done before students see the written form of the language.
b. Minimal pairs and related activities
The examples rat /ræt/ and rot /rοt/ were used to show the phonemic
principle in action; changing just one sound leads to a change in
meaning. The same applies to words like the soap /səύp/ and soup /su:p/,
and paper /'peipə/ and pepper /pepə/. These are all examples of minimal
pairs – words or utterances which differ by only one phoneme. Teachers
can use minimal pairs to good advantage in the classroom as a way of
focusing on sounds which have been causing difficulties for students.
c. Pronunciation and spelling activities
Homograph and homophones can provide useful opportunities for such

work. Homographs are words which have the same spelling, but with
different pronunciations (why don't you read this book? and I've already
read it; wind /wInd/ as in weather, and wind /waInd/ as in what you do
to a clock). Homophones are words which have the same pronunciation,
but have different spellings (write and right; there, their and they're; fair
and fare).
d. Taping students' English
Taping learners‟ spoken English from time to time can be effectively

conducted. Tapes can be made while students are engaged in language
practice activities, and used for all manner of language difficulties, but
especially those concerned with pronunciation.
e. Listening activities
Listening comprehension exercises in course-book are often designed to

sound as realistic as possible, with the participants talking at a normal
speed and using natural language. These can play a key role in helping
students to notice the existence of a pronunciation feature. The listening
exercise can then require students to listen out for this area of language
and listen out for how it is used and pronounced in the context of a
narrative or, say, a conversation.
f. Reading activities
In reading activities, although the medium is the written word, work on

pronunciation can be successfully integrated here too. Like listening,
reading is as receptive activity (i.e. students receive the language rather
than produce it), and so it provides a suitable means of bringing
language features to students' attention.
In this study, the writer tries to use and apply the software in improving
student’s pronunciation by drilling, reading aloud, listening, and taping
student’s pronunciation.
To acquire a goal of pronunciation, teacher can also drill with learning to
listen and imitate every phoneme that will be taught. In lines with this
condition, according to Orion quoted from William Acton's article,
describes that:
"Acquiring good pronunciation is the most difficult part of learning a
new language. As you improve your articulation you have to learn to
listen and imitate all over again. As with any activity you wish to do
well, you have to practice, practice, practice, and then practice some
more ".
According to Morley’s Statement, the aim of teaching pronunciation in

order to be the more realistic goals are: firstly, students are hoped that
they are able to increase their mind in understanding of the speech
features. Secondly, students are able to communicate using English with
other peoples. Then, their self-confidence will be increased through
teaching pronunciation. The next, students will be taught how to use of
the speech organs correctly, it is very important because when people
are speaking a language, they want to convey a message. In addition,
learners are studying how to modify their speech in the classroom.
Furthermore, according to Gerald Kelly, he writes that the fact is that
pronunciation tends to be neglected in classes, and then when it is
addressed, it often makes specific problems that occur in class. In many
language programmers, the teaching of pronunciation was pushed aside.
However, teaching pronunciation is still very important and will give a
big influence in the goals of second language acquisition.
2.3 Media
2.3.1 Definition of Media
The word media is derived from the Latin medius which means medium
(singular form) or agent or intermediary. Gerald and Kelly stated that
media is person, material or events that established condition which
enable learners to acquire knowledge, skill and attitude.
Based on the definition above, media are kinds of substances which are
used by a teacher during teaching and learning process to support the
presentation of the lesson. Thus, media have an important role in
teaching and learning process. It encourages students’ motivation and
interest in learning process. Therefore, learners are able to understand
better the material presented in a certain way.
Media can help students in acquiring lessons that are being taught.
Media give some resourceful teaching aids that help both teacher and
students in material.
2.3.2 Classification of Media
Gerald and Kelly classify media into six general categories. They are:
1) Still Picture
It consists of photographs of any object or even which may be larger or
smaller than the object or even it represent.
2) Audio Recording
Recordings are made magnetic tape, disc, and motion picture sound
track. These are reproductions of factual events or sound track.
3) Motion Picture
A motion picture is a moving image in color or black and white
produced from live action or from graphic representations.
4) Television
This category includes all types of audio-video electronic distribution
system that eventually appear on television monitor.
5) Real Things, Simulation, and Models
This Category includes people, events, objects, and demonstration. Real
thing, as contrasted with other media, is not substitutes for the actual
object or event. Simulation is the replication of real situations, which has
been designed top, and is as near the factual event or process as possible.
Many media, including the computers, tape recordings, and motion
pictures can be used for simulation. Model is a replica or representation
of reality. It is often in scale and may be miniature, exact size or an
enlargement.
6) Programmed and computers-assisted instruction.
Programs are sequences of information (verbal, visual, audio) which are
designed to elicit predetermined responses. The most common examples
are programmed text-books and instructional programs prepared for
computers.
In addition, According to the development of technology, Media can be
classified into four categories as follow:
1) Printed media.
2) Audio visual media.
3) Computer-based media.
4) Combination between printed and computer based media.
From the explanation above, it can be inferred that media are classified
into audio, visual, and audio-visual media. Audio media deals with sense
of sound such as radio and tape recording. Visual media is related to
sense of view, such as picture, chart, image, realia. Audio-visual media
deals with both of the senses, such as television, film, and video.
In this study, the writer will apply combination between printed and
computer based media named A1 SpeechTRON (A1 speechTRON). By
using this, it can help students to learn and pay attention to the material
given.
2.3.3 Function of Media
Media have an important role in teaching and learning process. It

motivates students’ interest in learning. By using media, learners are
able to understand better the message or material taught. Media also
encourage various kinds of teaching method, so they will not feel bored
with the monotonous teaching and learning process, in order that the
achievement of students’ learning is significantly increased.
INCREASE
MEDIA
MOTIVATION
UNDERSTANDING
INTEREST
ACHIEVEMENT IN LEARNING
2.4 A1 speechTRON (A1 speechTRON) as a medium to teach

pronunciation
2.4.1 The role of A1 SpeechTRON as CALL (Computer-Assisted

Language Learning) in teaching and learning process
During the development of technology from the early 1980s, computer-
assisted language learning (CALL) has now become a very important
learning device. CALL activities are now used to promote learner
autonomy and to encourage involvement with the target language both
inside and outside of the classroom. Thus, this has been defined as “the
search for and study of applications on the computer in language
learning and teaching” and is now used routinely in a variety of
instructional situations. As a result, teachers are required to possess
CALL expertise that includes both practical skills and a thorough
understanding of information technology (IT) theory.
Jolene Dockstader (1999) stated that technology has many purposes in
language learning: it can be used to provide more in-depth information
on a specific topic, to access authentic target language materials, to gain
experience with electronic literacy. Classroom technology uses facilities
higher thinking skills and knowledge construction and helps students
learn to find, analyze, and synthesize knowledge or material. Thus, it can
encourage students‟ motivation. Also, they can be more active and have
more chance to participate and work independently in order to
implement students-centered learning better.
2.4.2 The procedure and implementation of the application software to

teach pronunciation
A1 SpeechTRON is educational application software made by Caltrox

Software Systems, developers of quality Application software, Utilities
& Tools for the Personal Computer. The Program can also be used as an
Educational tool to learning English pronunciation and Vocabulary
building as well. The Software runs on all Windows Systems and has
adjustable Speaking Speeds and Voice Tones, as well as an aesthetically
designed user interface. The program comes with a realistic embedded
Speech Engine in that gives a very high quality speech synthesis.
This program is a powerful Text-To-Speech program for converting a
text file into voice. The file can be typed or pasted into the Text Window
and just pressing the speak button converts the text into clear voice of
the users choosing by the Synthesizer. The text should not contain any
abbreviations or acronyms as the text is converted literally. The program
can be used over a wide range of applications that output in text form.
The program has as an aesthetically designed user interface. The Speech
Engine is embedded in the program which gives a very high quality
speech synthesis. The Side Control bar enables setting of the Font and
adjusting the Fore-Color and Back-Color of the text display box. The
control at the top has all the word processing facilities like cut, copy,
paste, opening a file etc. The software is easy to handle. The text to be
read can be imported by the tools in the Top Control bar or the text can
be pasted on the Main Text Box.
Once the text is entered in the Main Text Box, pressing the Speak
Button will start the speaking. There are additional buttons for Stopping,
Erasing and Pausing/Resuming the text. There are sliders for adjusting
the speaking speeds and altering the Tone of the voice. There is a
dropdown list for selection from multiple voices. The sound output of
the Speech synthesizer is displayed via customizable graphical visual
display. The current speed and variable voice tones from low to high
pitch as well as the status of the synthesizer are displayed. The speech
synthesis output can be recorded as wav files to disk by clicking the
"RECORD" button. The "STOP" button can be used to stop the
recording at any time or else the recording will stop automatically when
all the text in the Main Text Box has been recorded to the .wav file. The
Speed and Tone settings cannot be adjusted while recording and the
default settings will be used. The help file is quite elaborate and the
different functions are easily understandable to utilize the utility.
This software is a self-learning program. After knowing the direction,
students can play by themselves. Thus, the writer tries to use these steps
to run this software:
1) Setting up the classroom teaching in language laboratory.
2) Giving the directions to the students on how to use the software.
3) Teacher gives the material about pronunciation of particular words.
4) Teacher practices using this software on how to pronounce it.
5) Teacher asks them to repeat after him
6) Randomly, teacher asks the students to practice pronouncing the
particular words without using the software.
7) Then, at the same students, teacher asks him or her to practice using
this software by typing the words and then practice the correct
pronunciation by the software’s guidance.
8) The next step goes so on until the last students. Teacher also can
divide them into several groups and makes it as a competition in order to
avoid the boredom.
2.4.3 Advantages and disadvantages of the software
The advantages of using this software can be explained as follow:

1) Menu is compact and has many options for the user.
2) The help file is quite elaborate and the different functions are easily
understandable to utilize the utility.
3) The Speaking speed and Tone of the voice can be adjusted by the
user.
4) The Speech Engine is embedded in the program which gives a very
high quality speech synthesis.
While, the disadvantages of using A1 speechTRON can be explained as
follow:
1) It is not a freeware.
2) Importing a file from the Side control bar Top Control bar sometimes
cause’s error.
2.4.4 The correlation between pronunciation and the software
The software has a very close relationship with pronunciation. As a

product of the development of technology, the role of this software such
as a computer assisted language learning (CALL) to facilitate ESL has a
history dating back to the 1950‟s. With advances in technology, CALL
based curriculums have become more accessible to educators in the ESL
field. CALL based programs are being used to improve reading,
comprehension, writing skills and pronunciation skills of students
engaged in ESL studies.
There are several implications of CALL designed for the improvement
of pronunciation skills. First, CALL can teach pronunciation skills
without consuming too much of the SL instructor’s time (Masatake,
Kawahara & Tsubota, 2004). Second, it allows students in large class
situations to receive important feedback immediately (Eskenazi, 1999).
Third, and possibly most important, CALL can reduce stress and anxiety
often associated with learning and producing more accurate
pronunciation skills (Culhane & Ito, 2003). CALL can be interactive
thus making the learning experience more enjoyable for both the SL
instructor and the ESL student. CALL can be interactive thus making the
learning experience more enjoyable for both the SL instructor and the
ESL student. Teaching pronunciation through CALL can be beneficial
for ESL students especially those who need more attention when
acquiring accurate pronunciation skills.
Hence, the software presents the easiest way to learn pronunciation. Just
inserting the word and clicking speak button, the native speaker sound
will be heard soon. This makes learners easy to learn English
pronunciation.
In addition, many of them have lack of their pronunciation mastery
because they never practice or just study the theory. By the guidance of
the software, they can easily practice their pronunciation by imitating the
sound of the software. In conclusion, it is glad to say that the software is
an Educational tool to make learning English pronunciation easier.
Chapter III
Research Methodology
3.1 Research Design

In this research, the writer will conduct an experimental method. An
experimental method is an approach to educational research in which an
idea or hypothesis of causal-effect is tested or verified by setting up
situation then comparing a group which was treated with a group which
was not treated (Sumardi Suryabrata, 1995).
The experiment will conduct in two groups. They are experimental and
control group. The experimental group is the group who will receive the
treatment that is the use of peer group study as an approach on teaching
speaking, while the control group is a group who will not be exposed to
the experimental treatment. In this most basic of experimental designs,
the group receiving the treatment is called the experimental group and
the other group the control group (Bordens & Abbott, 2011).
Two groups are employed in this design; one group, the experimental
group, receives a treatment (X) while the second group, the control
group, does not. Both groups were given a pretest and a posttest. Firstly,
the test was done in both groups, experimental and control group.
Secondly, the result of the test was scored by using analytic scale.
Thirdly, the means score of the two groups were determined. Finally, the
two means were compared by applying t-test formula. T-test was used to
determine if the students’ result of the test which was taught by using the
software and without using the software was significant or not.
The pretest-posttest control group design can be diagrammed as shown
below:
E O1 X O2
C O3 Y O4
Where:
E = Experimental Group
C = Control Group
O1 = Pre-test for the experimental group
O2 = Post-test for the experimental group
O3 = Pre-test for the control group
O4 = Post-test for the control group
X = Treatment with application software as an aid
Y = Treatment without software as an aid
From the design above, subjects of research will be grouped into an
experimental group (top line) and a control group (bottom line). The
quality of subjects was first checked by pre-testing them (01 and 03).
Then, the experimental treatment (taught by using the software) was
applied to the experimental group, while the control group was taught
without the aid of the application software. The results of post-test (02
and 04) are then computed statistically.
In this study, it is used quantitative approach. T-test is use to
differentiate what if the students’ test result of pronunciation of
particular words with the application software and without using the
application software is significant or not. The data will be gained by
numeric and analyzed by using statistical computation. The table of
research design can be seen below!
Research Design
Control Group
Pretest
No Treatment
Posttest
Experimental Group
Pretest
Experimental Treatment
Posttest
Source took from (Creswell, 2012)

3.2 Population and Sample
3.2.1 Population
According to (Schreiber & Asber-self, 2011), “the population in social

science research refers to all of your potential participants; think of it as
the whole group of people in which you are interested”. The writer will
take the second year’s student of English Education Program of STKIP
Garut as the population of the study. It will be narrowed as sample of
2013/2014 academic year.
3.2.2 Sample
(Bordens & Abbott, 2011), A sample is a small subgroup chosen from

the larger population. Schreiber & Asber-self (2011), the sample of
participants for your study is part of the population, and all possess some
characteristic or characteristics that make them members of the sample
group. For the sample of the study, The writer will take two classes in
order to get the data. The total number of the sample will be 30 students.
3.3 Research Variables
Variable is the object of research or something that become the concern

of research. There are two variables in experimental research. They are
Independent (X) and Dependent Variable (Y). Fred D. Kerlinger (1999)
stated that All experiments have one fundamental idea behind them; to
test the effect of one or more independent variables on a dependent
variable (it is possible to have more than one dependent variable in
experiments). While, according to Creswell (2003), Independent
variables are variables that (probably) cause, influence, or affect
outcomes. While dependent variable is variable that depend on the
impendent variables; they are the outcomes or results of the influence of
the independent variables.
This research, which uses the application software as a medium in the
teaching pronunciation, has two variables. Those variables are:
3.3.1 The independent variable
Independent variable is “variable that influences because of change or

emergence the dependent variable”. The independent variable in this
research is the use of media in the teaching learning process for both
groups. The experimental group will learn pronunciation of particular
words through the software while the control group will learn the
pronunciation without the aid of the application software (by using
lecturing only).
3.3.2 The dependent variable
Dependent variable is variable that was affected or that became the

result because of the existence of the independent variable. Dependent
variable in this study is the students’ mastery on pronunciation which is
indicated by students’ score.
3.4 Technique of data collection and Instrument
An instrument is anything used to collect data (Schreiber & Asber-self,

2011). Instrument of the research is a tool or facility that is used by
researcher for collecting data in order to get better result. To get an
accurate data, this study will use some instruments. They are:
3.4.1 Test
In simple terms, test explained as a method which is used to measure

competence, knowledge, intelligence, and ability of talent which is
possessed by individual or group to collect data. The instrument of the
test in this research is reading aloud narrative text in which contains
particular words that has to pronunce clearly and correctly, to measure
student’s pronunciation of particular words with the theory which has
been stated. This research will focus on the pronunciation of the
particular words, and not observing reading comprehension.
This test can be concluded into a subjective test, because it refers to non-
verbal test, whose process of assessing is without placing receptive or
expressive language demands on either the examinee or the examiner
(McCallum, Bracken & Wasserman, 2001). Simply, it only needs the
tester’s guidance or instruction then the testee does or answers by
demonstrating. Thus, it is needed to record student’s voice of
pronunciation. In addition, it needs a scoring guidance to reduce the
subjectivity of the test.
The choice of the test type is based on some convincing considerations.
They are:
a. The material is pronunciation.
b. It was impossible for students to avoid the pronunciation point (to
practice pronouncing) by reading aloud test.
c. This is a sensitive measure of achievement; it allows teachers to
diagnose the students’ problems on pronunciation. It has pre-test and
posttest in this research. Pre-test is given before the teacher taught new
material by the application software; the teacher will ask students to read
aloud the material which contain the particular words. Pre-test will be
given to the experimental and control class in same way. This test will
be given before the experiment run. Post-test also will be given to the
experimental and control class. It is to know students’ achievement after
they taught with the application software (experimental class) and
without the application software (control class). In this case, students
will be asked to read aloud the text. The score of students’ achievement
can be calculated by using this following formula:
Score = The number of right answer X 100%
The number of questions
3.4.2 Documentation
Documentation is tool aiming at identifying documents or the field of

study devoted to the study of documents. This is an effort to help the
writer to collect the needed data and to support the writer with the data
dealing with the school and English learning process in the class. In this
research, it was needed to get the learning devices, report of students’
development, teachers’ and the students’ name list, and sketch of
English Education Program of STKIP Garut from the academic office.
This aim is used to know the data of the students and teachers in the
school. To get the result of documentation easily and systematically, the
data will be gained by the help of English teacher of related school.
Also, to document and analyze the data of the test result to be valid, the
student voices of particular words has to be recorded.
3.5 Technique of data analysis
3.5.1 Pre-Test and Post-Test
a. Pre-test
Pre-test is given before the treatments. After giving the test, the writer
determines the statically analysis technique to find out whether both
groups have normal distribution and homogeny. If the data have normal
and homogeny distribution, the treatment and teaching can be conducted
to both classes.
1) Normality test
It is used to know the normality of the data that is going to be analyzed
whether both groups have normal distribution or not. The normality test
with Chi-square is done to find out the distribution data.
2) Homogeneity Test
It is aimed to get the assumption that sample of research came from a
same condition or homogenous. It is used to know whether experiment
class and control class, that are taken from population have same variant
or not.
3) Test of the Average
It is used to examine average whether experiment group and control
group have been decided having different average. T-test is used to
analyze the data of this research. A t-test would be the measure you
would use to compare the mean scores of the two groups.
b. Post-Test
Post-test will be held after all treatments are conducted. This test is used
to measure students’ achievement after they are given treatments. The
result of test will be analyzed statistically by looking for the mean and
the percentage of the test result. This aim is to compare between the
pretest and posttest. Then, the overall result is counted by using t-test
formula in order to know the significances of the research.
3.5.2 Scoring Guidance
On scoring data, researcher will check students’ voice one by one from
their records as the result of students’ tests in the pre- and post-test the
kind of tests is in a spoken form. So, it is needed extra attention while
checking students’ voices to get a valid data. It is used to measure their
pronunciation ability after researcher gives treatment and to know about
their improvement. On the other hand, there will be 20 particular words
on the narrative texts that should be pronounced by students.
Thus, the scoring guidance of the test which is used is as follows:
1. 5 score for every item if the student pronounced the particular words
correctly. It has 20 items to pronounce. This can be defined that the
highest score is 100.
2. 4 Score for student that pronounced related the sound is almost
correct.
3. 1 score when student pronounced the sound word incorrectly, and
4. 0 score was given to student that did not pronounce sound word.
PERCENTAGES OF STUDENTS SCORE
Test Score
Number of
Students
Level of
Achievement
Percentages
80-89
Very Good
70-79
Good
60-69
Fair
50-59
Poor
Below 50
Fail
100 %
The percentages of the column above can be counted as below:
Percentage = X . x 100
∑x
X = Number of students in each level
∑x = Number of all students

3.5.3 The Achievement Evidences
According to the score guidance in technique of data analysis, the

criteria of students’ achievement scores from the tests above are as
follows:
1. The range of 80-89 is Very Good.
2. The range of 70-79 is Good.
3. The range of 60-69 is Fair.
4. The range of 50-59 is Poor.
5. Below 50 is Fail.
3.6 Hypothesis Testing
Before hypothesis testing, the writer has to get the students’ scores of the
experimental and control group. The score check for the pre-test and
post-test. The first step is the writer calculates the mean score of
experimental group. For the purposes, to test the hypothesis, it is used t-
test with the level of significance 0.05 (5%).
Before testing the propose hypothesis, the writer took students’ score of
experimental and control groups, which is the score for pre-test and
post-test. Thus, the writer will calculate the mean score of the
experimental group. Then, the writer will compute the hypothesis
significant. It is to know whether the Ho is accepted or not.
REFERENCES
Bordens, K. S., & Abbott, B. B. (2011). Research Design and Methods:

A Process
Approach, Eighth Edition. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies,
Inc.
Creswell, J. W. (2012). Educational Research Planning Conducting and
Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative. Fourth Edition. USA: Pearson
Education, Inc.
Schreiber, J., & Asber-self, K. (2011). Educational Research. The
Interrelationship of Questions, Sampling, Design, and Analysis. USA:
John Wiley & Sons, INC.
Brown, H. Douglas, Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom
Practices,
(San Francisco: Longman, 2004)
Hornby, A.S., Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary, (NY: Oxford
University
press, 2010)
Kelly, Gerald, How to Teach Pronunciation, (England: Pearson
Education
Limited,2000)
Erben, Tony and Iona Sarieva, CALLing All Foreign Language
Teachers: Computer-
assisted language learning in the classroom, (Larchmont: Eye On
Education,2008)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_software
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/def inition/english/medium
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Writing An Ethnography

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Writing An Ethnography

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WRITING AN ETHNOGRAPHY

1. To understand the nature of ethnographic writing as part of the translation process

2. To identify different levels of ethnographic writing

3. To identify the steps in writing an ethnography.

THE TRANSLATION PROCESS

Levels of Ethnographic Writing

Level One: Universal Statements

Level Two: Cross-Cultural Descriptive Statements

Level Three: General Statements about a Society or Cultural Group

Level Four: General Statements about a Specific Cultural Scene

Level Five: Specific Statements about a Cultural Domain

Level Six: Specific Incident Statements

STEPS IN WRITING AN ETHNOGRAPHY

Like doing ethnographic research, writing an ethnography can appear to be a formidable

In this chapter we have discussed ethnographic writing as a part of the translation

How do you write a ethnography paper?

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 What are some examples of ethnography?

2. To identify different levels of ethnographic writing

3. To identify the steps in writing an ethnography.

In discussing the steps in writing an ethnographic description I will make numerous

Levels of Ethnographic Writing

Why, then, is so much anthropological writing so antiseptic, so devoid of anything that

Level One: Universal Statements

Level Two: Cross-Cultural Descriptive Statements

Level Three: General Statements about a Society or Cultural Group

Level Four: General Statements about a Specific Cultural Scene

Level Five: Specific Statements about a Cultural Domain

Level Six: Specific Incident Statements

STEPS IN WRITING AN ETHNOGRAPHY

Like doing ethnographic research, writing an ethnography can appear to be a formidable

Where to Get the Best Ethnographic Essay Examples

Homework Help Sites Offering Ethnographic Essay Writing Advice

Colleges Providing Steps on How to Write an Ethnographic Essay

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