2.27 Deborah Brandt & coding your autoethnography data

We spent the first part of class talking about Deborah Brandt's essay and spent some time translating it into plain English.  And you didn't do that great on the quizzes - but you gave awesome suggestions for doing better- including:
identifying key terms
group discussions
give examples of key points
read this blog
take notes *in your own words* (YES! ))
get a vampire to help you

I also noted that you took excellent notes on your quizzes.

For next class - be prepared to write a quiz on what Brandt's essay shows about the following points (the points she sets up as the focus of her essay on p. 336):

1)  the fact that even though we think of the US as the land of opportunity = there are DEFINITE inequalities with respect to literacies 

2)  the fact that literacy sponsors contribute to making and continuing these inequalites

3) that literacies in todays world can provide new opportunities for changing these inequalities

Coding your data from your autoethnography.

We are making gradual headway on this project.

As I said in class - I will work with you on this.  And yes - you are going to have to transcribe some of those sound files.  

Coding is simply naming the different actions, interactions, feelings, and other behaviors you see in your data. After you name what you see yourself doing - you can pay attention to where, when and why you do particular things => and that is a pattern.  Then you can look for that pattern (do you do it more than once?  is it different in different parts of your writing process?  What is it associated with?  Does it connect to other patterns?) 

For example, in class we noticed in Nikki's transcript that she paused some times, and we noticed that her pauses were associated with actions and comments that indicated that she felt uncomfortable when she paused - or was silent and couldn't think of what to say.  That might be a pattern. You might look for all the places when you remembered being uncomfortable - or when the language in your transcript indicates you are uncomfortable - and see if there is a "pattern" = a set of recurring circumstances or relationships associated with that discomfort.    

Transcribing:  Before you can analyze your data - you have to have it in a form where you can name and count recurring patterns and forms.  Before you caSome of our notes on Nikki's transcript (the last link on the list on the autoethnogrphy page of the Sample Portfolio).

We talked about this last class. If you have questions - I will go over it again on Thursday.

Codes/notes/reflections from our discussion of Nikki's transcript

Code: open language [about what she's going to do] (language that shows an idea is open = indefinite article,
"a draft"  one to two pages

Code: indefinite plans (link in Rose =loose ideas] = name some of what Nikki says she will do

Code: definite plans => clarifying assignment, audience, defining terms of the assignment

breaks a "too hard" rule by turning off the recorder and doing a freewrite with music

Things you might code for other than language & moves: feelings, pauses, interruptions (sample code-names for interruptions: self-imposed, external, editing, finding the right word, etc), procrastination, etc

Coding by parts of the writing process:

invention, drafting(writing), revising, editing (you might notice the sequence of which parts of the writing process you are in as you write => most of us do not go from prewriting to drafting to revising to editing;. Instead we move back and forth and around.  You might look for connections between what part of the writing process you are in when you get the most "stuck" - or what moves you make between different parts of the writing process to get unstuck. 

.

Naming parts within the different parts of the writing process:

invention/brainstorming: finding topic, finding language, finding a focus, meeting assignment, organization, figuring out supporting points. . .)=> again, you might notice where you get stuck & your best moves for getting unstuck

Naming where/how you get stuck

note what stumps you = different kinds of "stumps" = no idea what to say, not the right words, concern over grammar, worry its "not good enough". . . .

We will talk about this more on Thursday.

For next class:

practice coding of YOUR autoethnographic data

Review Brandt

Bring your data to class on your memory stick and post it on your portfolio

Thanks for your good work today and see you next class!