Reading Response # 3

After reading the guideline of the ethnography essay given in the class, I felt a little nervous because I have never written this kind of essay before. I was able to get the idea of subculture, a particular group of people who has certain behavior and belief, but I did not have a picture of how to write and what to observe. However, through reading the two ethnography essays, “The coffee shop” by Andrea Casassa, and “The dope in head shop” by Mathew Dudley, and the basic structure of an ethnography essay given by Ballenger in the textbook, I had a better understanding of writing an ethnography essay.

According to Ballenger, “… writer/researcher’s observations are the source of data in ethnography. It’s an openly subjective form of research (372).” And also Ballenger states that ethnography should be based on close observation over time and that research takes place in the natural settings where group members gather so it is very subjective due to the nature of human beings (373-374)
These points were significantly showed in Casassa’ s “ The coffee shop”. She wrote down her own experience in the Gourmet coffee shop in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, and she gave a lot of details she observed as an employee of the shop. It was interesting because she did not see things as a member of the subculture, but as a third person who observe by standing one step back. Casassa also wrote down her interview with Dennis that “it’s not the building, but the coffee and the people” (B36).

On the other hand, in “The dope in head shop” by Mathew Dudley, he included less information based on his own observation than Casassa did.
He wrote the essay based on his historical and scientific research. You can observe this point by looking at numerous works cited and citations he did in his essay. He did a different way to describe the subculture which people would rather call the Hampest a “hemp-clothing boutique” than a head shop, by giving a historical background “the head shop is an establishment of the marijuana-using sub-section of America’s counterculture, and first emerged in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco in 1966” (B39).

Ballenger also describes that ethnography focus on people who identify themselves as group members (373). Both essays by Casassa and Dudley seem not described the group members identifying themselves, but they both authors pointed out people still have their own ritual even if they are in a diverse group of people. For example, by Casassa, “a football coach enters the store before practice, as usual. He buys a copy of the Herald and the Globe and drinks his medium regular at a corner stool” (B36). She also categorized people into “earlys” and “regulars”. For the regulars, they “define this small coffee shop and create a sense of family not often found in the commercialized chains. When one expected patron fails to visit, the equilibrium of the store wavers, not dramatically but noticeably” (B35). Casassa successfully indicated the subculture which people have a certain interest or custom in common. In addition to Casassa ‘s example, Dudley described that the Hempest has its own range of various customers but still have a common interest in the merchandise.

I like the way Casassa composing her essay by giving a lot of detail of her observation as a member of the subculture. And I found it interesting that she could see things happened around her as a third person though she is one of the employee of the coffee shop. In my opinion, it is always hard to notice a thing around us to be special because we get used to, and we are part of it. I wanted to write an ethnography essay which myself is also a part of the subculture, but since I think it is better to write an ethnography essay as an outsider, I would find a subculture which I am not belong to, but close to me. And I would like to include a lot of details of my own experiences and observation just same as we did in our personal and research essays.