Reflective Blog Post #4

This week we are focusing on the aspects of research and observations on discourse communities within the UNC Charlotte system. In conducting such surveys and assumptions, we must pick a club or group and take note of how they do things, talk, act, and participate within their community as whole. My group and I have narrowed it downt to focusing on either intermural volleyball or a volunteer organization, such as Habitat for Humanity.

As a class we talked about how we would take such insights into studying a group of people. We need to be able to create observations that will help us better understand how the community functions and work. It is ideal, when field notes we bring a notebook so that we can write down everything we see. So it able to be written in the moment. Such items that should be inlcuded within our field notes are date, times, place, specific facts, numbers, personal responses, questions, sights, soundsm and insider language.

When obtaining primary research we must get it from the source itself. It involves is researching the data from the real world. For example, if we obtain information from the volleyball team we can watch a game and then interview the players from the team to gain the right data for the research. How do we start?

What do we want to discover?

Hw do I plan?

Who am I going to talk to?

What do I expect to discover?

Such research questions that will help us are.....

Whats the purpose of this club?

How do members communicate with one another?

Who are the experts? How do they treat novices?