Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- 1001:2020:story_analysis [2020/03/19 00:06] – created Ryan Schram (admin)
+++ 1001:2020:story_analysis [2020/03/19 00:07] (current) – Ryan Schram (admin)
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-# Tell me a story...: A writing assignment that explores the use of qualitative data in cultural anthropology
+# Tell me a story...: An analysis of qualitative data
 Emma Young and Ryan Schram
@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 You can interview your chosen family member in person, over the phone, or using Skype, etc. Your tutor will post general advice on how to conduct an interview, but in anthropology the procedure is not really that complicated. Less is more. Let them talk. As anthropologist Danilyn Rutherford says, "An anthropologist's job is to be interested in what the people around her are interested in" (Rutherford 2003, xviii). Briefly, to prepare for the interview you should have a few questions already written down about the kinds of stories that you know your interview subject likes to tell, but would mainly let your interviewee do the talking. You want to give them an opening to tell a story from beginning to end, that is, as a complete, continuous narrative. Then you'll write a description and analysis of the narrative drawn from your interview.
-Your 1,000-word report will analyse the narrative from your interview by drawing attention to and explaining the tacit rules and norms it uncovers. Just like Richard Lee (1969) needed the help of a few friendly fieldwork informants to understand the situation that unfolded when he bought the Christmas ox for his !Kung friends, you'll be drawing on your cultural knowledge to unpack the narrative shared by your informant, so that your reader (that is, your tutor) will understand the cultural norms and practices which the storyteller assumes that a listener would already know. Imagine that your tutor is "from outer space" and doesn't know anything about the storyteller's culture. What would your tutor need to know to understand the point of the narrative, that is, why it is a meaningful, interesting, valuable story? You need to explicate the cultural perspective in which this story is worth telling, or what makes it tellable (Sacks 1995). Your paper should not only summarize the narrative, but build a bridge between the storyteller's [[emic and etic|emic]] description of events and the etic description which the alien from outer space would be able to grasp. We encourage you to draw on readings from Module 1 and Module 2 of this course, as well as lectures, to help you unpack the interview narrative.
+Your 1,000-word report will analyse the narrative from your interview by drawing attention to and explaining the tacit rules and norms it uncovers. Just like Richard Lee (1969) needed the help of a few friendly fieldwork informants to understand the situation that unfolded when he bought the Christmas ox for his !Kung friends, you'll be drawing on your cultural knowledge to unpack the narrative shared by your informant, so that your reader (that is, your tutor) will understand the cultural norms and practices which the storyteller assumes that a listener would already know. Imagine that your tutor is "from outer space" and doesn't know anything about the storyteller's culture. What would your tutor need to know to understand the point of the narrative, that is, why it is a meaningful, interesting, valuable story? You need to explicate the cultural perspective in which this story is worth telling, or what makes it tellable (Sacks 1995). Your paper should not only summarize the narrative, but build a bridge between the storyteller's [[:emic and etic|emic]] description of events and the etic description which the alien from outer space would be able to grasp. We encourage you to draw on readings from Module 1 and Module 2 of this course, as well as lectures, to help you unpack the interview narrative.
 ## Grading criteria