CMP-125 (Titus, Spring 2020)

Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) are made up of a main topic (main heading) and subtopics (called subdivisions), separated by a dash ("--").

Some headings, like "African American male college students" are very specific.  Others, like "Children--United States" are very broad. Such headings will help you gauge the scope and specificity of the book.  A book with a subject heading "Children--Psychology--United States" will be more specific than the book with a heading of "Children--United States."  However, it is possible that each book could have information on children and Internet usage: you would want to check the table of contents and index of the book.  A book with a subject heading "Internet and children" is specifically on that topic.

If a main heading does not have subdivisions, that means it is about that topic in its broadest sense.  Subdivisions (subtopics) tell us that the book focuses on specific themes.

Here are some subdivisions that might be helpful in your ethnography research.  You can combine your keywords with these subject terms in the advanced search.

[main heading]--Social aspects [used for topics]

[main heading]--Psychological aspects [used for topics]

[main heading]--Economic aspects [used for topics]

[main heading]--Attitudes  [used for individuals or classes of persons and ethnic groups]

[main heading]--Social life and customs [used for individuals or classes of persons and ethnic groups]

[main heading]--Psychology [used for individuals or classes of persons and ethnic groups]

[main heading]--Social conditions [used for classes of persons, ethnic groups, and places]

Examples:

African American youth--Social life and customs

Internet--Social aspects

Internet users--Psychology

You can also use these terms to search WorldCat.org, a database of the contents of over 10,000 libraries.

CMP 125 Essay 1: Ethnography Proposal

Important Dates:

2/10: Library Session with Melissa Hofmann

2/12: First Draft of Essay 1 Due; one copy in class; one copy to Canvas

2/17: Graded Draft of Essay 1 Due by the end of the day to Canvas

This semester, our research will focus on conducting an ethnography of a subculture that we must examine from an “insider” stance; that is, where we “‘step in’ to unfamiliar groups and examine them closely” (Sunstein 2). This first essay will be a proposal for your ethnography study this semester.

So far we have done various in and out-of-class activities to help you get started in thinking about which subculture you might be interested in researching. For your proposal, you will write an essay that argues your case for conducting your research on a particular subculture. The proposal should have a thesis (which sets up your position on why this would be a successful ethnography), and should use the following questions to discuss your thesis:

1. What are your reasons for choosing this subculture?
2. What do you already know about this subculture? What insiders do you know? How/why will your knowledge and connections be useful?
3. How easy or difficult would it be to enter this subculture as either an insider or outsider? Why?
4. What kinds of connections do you have with the subculture now? How do you plan to build connections?
5. In what ways are you either an insider or outsider already?
6. Which of your own “fixed positions” (personal data factors that do not change during research such as age, nationality, gender, etc.) may affect what you see? How will you address these fixed positions in your research?
7. Which of your own “subjective positions” (life experiences) do you carry into your fieldwork? How might these impact your analysis of the data?
8. Why do you believe it is important to conduct research on this subculture? What do you hope to find out? And, why might these findings be interesting/useful/important?

For this essay, use at least three (3) secondary sources to help back up your reasons for conducting this research. You must have at least one (1) academic source. You can use these sources to help establish your ethos (credibility/voice) as a researcher of this subculture, and to help answer the questions listed above.

This essay should be approximately four pages, double-spaced, with proper MLA formatting and a Works Cited page.