Mike Calou

Commentary Four

My over-riding thought, as I read the “Culture on the Page: Experience, Rhetoric and Aesthetics in Ethnographic Writing,” by Bonnie Sunstein, was that this essay is giving me some tools to write up and document my own ethnographic research; the idea that I need to include narrative when I write about my classroom observations and that I also need to be consider the audience I am writing for. Sunstein explains rather clearly that “I needed to craft myself…and the story into text readers would recognize as information but feel compelled to read” (184). She is saying that the audience needs to: be engaged with the text and to feel a part of the situation and not just be deluged with data. One way Sunstein accomplished this in her own research was to consider the cultural perspective of the informant: Jewish Center ethnography. There is a responsibility for the researcher to inform the reader about a topic of study. But the implied question Sunstein raises is what good is a research report if no one reads it? The concept of readability can sometimes be forgotten by the researcher in her quest for informing and disseminating information.

Another thoughtful idea in this essay is the fact that tension is not necessarily a bad thing; when it exists as a productive part of the writing process. Both the researcher and informant experience this “liminal” (178) tension during the process of writing. As I write this commentary I’m thinking, why is writing stressful? The process of writing is stressful because it is an act of growth or as Sunstein quotes Myerhoff and Metzger as saying the writing experience is “the great moment of teachability” (178).

The main idea of this week’s essay is that the work of the ethnographer is made more difficult because the story she is telling is a story written to someone, the reader, and this story needs to “convey information according to the conventions of an academic discipline” (179). On the other hand the ethnographer is telling a story about someone, the informant, and in the process the researcher feels guilt because observing is a form of voyeurism (177); voyeurism for the sake of teaching and disseminating knowledge both to the reader and the participant. The guilt the researcher feels is “an expression of a sense of responsibility for another’s (informants) well being” (Myerhoff 178).

As I consider how to document my own ethnographic research the approaches discussed by Sunstein, the Jewish Center and the teacher summer school writing school ethnographies, appear relevant. All of the considerations Sunstein writes about are worth taking note of. The researcher needs to take into account the informant and the reader when crafting her final text: the audience. Sunstein mentions the conflicting demands to informants and readers. Sunstein makes it clear that audience is important to the researcher (Aristotle’s rhetorical choices: ethos, pathos, and logos). The author makes use of another rhetorical tool: the use of intertext (185). Intertext reminds me of the note-making I use when making a classroom observation; my own thoughts about what I am observing. I thought it might be helpful to include an example of what intertext means to me. As I start to document my own ethnographic study I want to be sure and incorporate some of the ideas we have been reading about. The following is an example taken from my documentation of an observation of a CSU Stanislaus writing class:

My first ethnographic observation was today, February 26, 2009. I am observing an English 1001 Composition class. The classroom is a lecture type classroom with three levels in a stadium arrangement. There are windows along the back wall and out the window is a view of lawns and trees and the Stanislaus State library building. But, the instructor is the only person in the room who can see this panorama because the students are facing the chalk board. The teacher stands in front of the class. He is not much older than many of his students. He has an easy going style and interacts candidly with his students. You can tell this is a writing class. On the board are notes for the day’s lesson:

Group Stories Assignments

College definition Opinion Piece Newspapers

Inspirational Piece Genre Essays Debate Papers

Major Passion in Life

Collaborative Essay

Tons of Drafting

(These words are circled)

In conclusion, as I continue to write up my ethnographic observations, I will consider the two important points from what Sunstein has discussed in this essay: consider who I am writing for (audience) and be responsible to the individuals I observed (informants).