I’m Such a Rebel
In an interdisciplinary program called Rural Studies, I teach a capstone seminar with an ethnographic research project. You know—observations, participation, interviews. Insights about trends, patterns, What People Actually Do. My graduate credits in anthropology prepared me to lead these projects. But my terminal degree in creative writing? While planning the course, I decided to sneak in some instruction on creative writing techniques to improve the papers of those sociology and history students. I’m such a rebel.
Not
As it turns out, all of our course materials about writing ethnography explicitly suggest using creative writing techniques, including The Urban Ethnography Reader (sociology). Some texts actually suggest students write poetry and/or fiction to gain deeper insight into their research subjects. I’m aghast. And sheepish. I thought we were the only ones who knew that trick. Maybe I need to get out more.
Like, Literally
We creative writing types see the value of teaching writing craft, but we may not see how structured ethnographic methods would deepen students’ writing. Sure, we ask students to conduct simple observation (use all five senses, see what people are doing and saying). And we ask them to conduct interviews (listen to how people sound, notice how they talk around issues, mark what they don’t say). Until recently I’d been mostly disappointed at the level of detail and nuance. Even in this interdisciplinary capstone class, where fully half have training in creative writing and/or journalism, and the majority have taken (mostly quantitative) Research Methods, their field research lacked depth, insight, connections, significance.
Get Out of Here
Now I do more guiding. If the standard go-sit-and-describe doesn’t take students deep enough, let’s try something like this:
Go to a place on campus or in town where there are at least two or three people. Inside or outside.
- Thoroughly describe the physical space, using as many of the senses as practicable.
- Write about the design of the space. Flow, movement, air, light, etc. How do you think the designers intended it to be used?
- What people are here (talk demographics), and what are they doing? How do they use the space? How do they move around?
- What conclusions and interpretations do you draw?
Get Real
Example conclusions: most people in the library use mainly their own phones, the Memorial Garden’s design does not draw people in, few African-Americans attend the downtown festival. Example insight: there’s often a gap between how people think things work and how they actually work. What to do, then, about those surveys conducted in a quantitative research class? (A topic for another day.)
Providing more structure for field research has improved not only detail, but nuance, connection, and significance in both creative and analytical writing. Students tackle the assignment with more purpose and, therefore, motivation. And the ah-ha moments are sheer joy to watch.
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Sandra Giles is director of rural studies and professor of English at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Georgia. She publishes creative work, primarily creative nonfiction and short fiction, and pedagogical work, including a co-authored chapter in Creative Writing Pedagogies for the Twenty-First Century.