Wednesday, February 8, 2012
For Thursday, February 9: Positioning Yourself (Box 10)
Read the instructions and the example for "Positioning Yourself" on page 113 in your FieldWorking textbook. The purpose of this activity is to "help you uncover the assumptions, preconceptions, personal experiences, and feelings that influence you...throughout your research process" (113). In other words, consider how your own experiences and biases might influence how you select, read, interpret, and interact with your sources. Note that the authors refer to a "fieldsite," but the same approach is useful for thinking about the kinds of books and articles you will encounter on your topic: After all, real people are behind those texts.
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I feel that with my topic i do have many personal experiences that make me think about how im going to write my paper. i think it's a good idea to have some of your own experiences with the topic you are writing about becasue it gives you a chance to show your readers a real life situation and that you're not just writing information that you have read. It's important to understand what you are writing about and have a connection to it. I do have some biases, i think mainly its the fact that people have judged me in the past and i sometimes just assume that they will all judge me. I also kind of tend to already have my personal beliefs on how matters should be handeled and some people dont always agree with that.
ReplyDeleteI chose my topic because I am interested in the business world. I realized that I wasn’t as knowledgeable as I should be, and I thought there’s no one better to ask about the business world that my uncle. I had a pretty open mind going into the interview, so I didn’t necessarily have any “fixed positions.” I guess if there was anything it would be the age difference. He has much more experience than me, so I am more likely to listen to what he has to say and believe it. The only “subjective position” I may have that influences my interview, is that I think very highly of my Uncle and I would assume that everything he says and does is the best way of doing it. The only negativity that these “positions” would have on the interview, would be if my Uncle told me wrong information because I am likely to believe him regardless of its truthfulness.
ReplyDeleteWith my topic, I feel like I will have a pretty good understanding of at least the age group. I am a 19-year-old white female who enjoys watching videos on youtube and likes to share these videos with her friends. I love quick paced humor and funny people. The demographics of the vlogger genre tend to be young adult aged and are comfortable in front of the camera and are witty and fast, making is so you don't get bored with the video. The person varies from male to female, and male vloggers tend to get more air if they are funny, the females if they are more sttractive. I really think this will be a good topic for me to research further.
ReplyDeleteMy experiences and biases might change my opinion of credibility on my sources. If i can allready disprove the title atleast in my opinion i will not pick those books. When i read the books and i can see where they are going and i think the opposite i will read the whole article/page or whatever im reading and interpret how it could be true. If it is credible to what i have experienced or what i believe i will interact by using the material in my essay.
ReplyDeleteI chose my topic because I found it interesting that my mom grew up with foster care in her house, and I wanted to learn more about it. Since the age group is mostly about children, that might have some influence on how I learn about my data because I am in between the ages of foster parents and the foster children. I don’t feel like my race will influence me, and I don’t think my class will affect me that much either. The only thing the class might affect is how I view the biological parents of the foster children, sometimes it is harder to see why they chose something else above the needs of their children, but I don’t think it should really influence my research that much. I don’t have personal experience with my topic though, so I think I will have a more open view and attitude to the whole process and will enjoy learning more about it.
ReplyDeleteI tried to keep an open mind on the topic of homosexuality. As it is a very controversial topic it is important to use specific wording and be careful not to offend either side of the argument.
ReplyDeleteI have some bias toward the subject as I was raised in an open-minded and accepting family. Many of my friends have been outed as gay for a long time and some I can tell they have been gay their entire lives, which, in my opinion, makes me believe that it is not a choice. Although I may not understand why religious or conservative people are against homosexuality, I must do my best to try to understand and convey their emotions accurately. My experiences/my interviews with homosexual people will help me "get inside" their minds in an easier way.
I definitely have a bias toward the subject that I am researching. The only point of reference I have is my own. My goal for this research project, though, is to gain insight into others' viewpoints. I do try to approach every subject with thoughtful consideration of the perceptions and ideas of other people, but it's impossible to empathize and fully understand situations that you've never been in yourself. I don't know the younger crop of high-schoolers in my hometown very well, and sometimes find myself making generalizations about them that I might've not made about my peers when I was that age. I try my best to keep from drawing unfounded conclusions or stereotyping the situation.
ReplyDeleteI chose my topic because I have friends in the Armed forces. With the topic I have chose I tried to keep my own bias and opinion out of the subject. I believe that the topic I have chose will be a very interesting one. I think that I will learn alot that I do not already know about this topic. Post Traumatic stress is a disorder that many people go through when they come back from war and researching and learning more about this topic will be interesting to me.
ReplyDeleteI chose the topic of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis because my cousin is currently battling from it and one of my friends mom just passed away this past year from it. I have been wondering every since just exactly what it is and what it does to you. Because I have been doing some research, I know that it tends to affect people in their middle ages and it is heredity, which means it is somewhere in my family, I want to learn about if there is anyway to prevent it. I am sort of nervous about what I might find out about what happens to the people in the ending stage of life. I look at my cousin and see how far downhill he has gone just in a year and it breaks my heart. It will be heart to not get emotional with this subjects research, but I find it very interesting so I am excited to see what I find out.
ReplyDeleteI am somewhat bias towards my topic. The topic is childhood obesity. I come into the topic with little knowledge. This has been an increasing problem in the world today. My goal is to learn and teach about this topic. I don't recall having anyone in my life who suffers from this, but I know many children do.
ReplyDeleteI feel that having experience waterfowl hunting gives me a better inside opinion about the topic. I certainly can picture certain scenarios that people describe when talking about duck hunting. This capability certainly only comes with experiencing these things yourself. The same could be said for someone who is in a certain field of study, if you havent been taught certain material then you cannot understand what people in that field are talking about.
ReplyDeleteI chose my topic because my best friend has a boyfriend in the army and quite a few of my friends have talked about going into the army and i was wondering what it was like to have a loved one in the army and how she deals with it.
ReplyDeleteI am researching the history of blues. Specifying on its effects on todays music. I feel that I am totally objective going into this subject. I am very unfamiliar with anything about it, so I feel that every opinion will be based off of knowledge. I really wanted to explore this area because it's like another world to discover.
ReplyDeleteI feel that with my topic I have a bias, because I am a direct product of the American Dream. If my grandparents had not come over to America then I would be here today. I think it is good that I have this bias because it keeps me motivated about my topic. Having this bias makes me want to learn more. Also I have a personal connection with my topic because my grandparents are the people that I interviewed, which was very simple. Having to learn about someone else’s story might not be so easy because I’m not as close to them as I am to my grandparents.
ReplyDeleteTo continue on with what I have already been working on, I've chosen to research historical mansions and the stories behind them. I've done this because of the connection I have with it due to my family, and my growing interest in old architecture and the stories behind the structures built decades ago. Though this is related to my family, I feel as though it holds little potential for any real bias, because I go into this without many expectations of what I will find as far as stories go. I think it will be interesting to find out how many other mansions in the U.S. were built for similar reasons as my family's was, so I'm going into this purely to gain knowledge and more understanding of a topic I have never thought much about before. I hope that going into it without making many assumptions about what I will find will prevent me from becoming so biased that it affects my work, therefore making it a more interesting read.
ReplyDeleteEven though I have no connections with anyone in a cult or any personal experiences, I am sure that my own biased beliefs will come into play when reading and researching my topic. This is because some cults have been synonymous with brainwashing, mass murders, and eccentric leaders. So in my mind, cults come with a negative connotation. I will try to keep an open mind.
ReplyDeleteI chose to go ahead and continue on with my previous topic but expand as well which shifts my topic slightly. I will be focusing more on school and students as compared to strictly R.A.'s, anything that is available to a student to help them in school. My bias shouldn't affect my research too much because i am researching why students may drop out or leave school not what is smart or my opinion. Therefore, the information i expect to find will give my more background and situational depth for me to analyze my own bias - which is that it is better to stay in school doing whatever it takes. I expect to learn about why people want to leave school because in my opinion schooling is the only way to secure the opportunity to better your life. I think it will be interesting to see how different situations come into play that would affect the decision of a student to either stay or leave college.
ReplyDeleteI interviewed MIke Johnston, of whom is a professional drummer and high had two mindsets; one being that he is so very busy and it would be near to impossible to get ahold of him, let alone Facetime him, and the other being that he is such a personal and generous guy that he would do anything he could in order to help me out. He would do the same for any of his students. He always makes it pertinent that all of his students realize that we are a family which is why he created a "mikeslessons.com" family page on Facebook which is home to about 800 of his students. Other than that, I had no other bias other than I new I would receive quality information and responses. This really shows how professional Mike Johnston is. I inspire to be like him as a drummer and as a kind person.
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