Rhetorical Devices in Speech Essay Example

Rhetorical Devices in Speech Paper How does Obama use Rhetorical Devices In his speech effectively to engage his audience? Throughout Beams speech he uses many different examples of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, personification, trial, allusion and an Inclusive pronoun. Alliteration is used effectively In Beams speech. An example would be depths of despair to the greatest heights of hope. The fact that he goes from the worst to the best corrects the listeners minds and provides an Insight Into Just how good things are going for America In Beams eyes. It proves how far theyve come ND gives the listeners hope for even greater things to come In the future. The use of the word despair suggests that there was very little hope for Americas future In the past and reinforces how bad things must have been for them. To then use the word hope suggests bigger and better things to come, it implies the listener that the best is not here yet and there is a lot more to come and although they have already came so far they are still yet to reach the greatness the country is impending. We will write a custom essay sample on Rhetorical Devices in Speech specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Rhetorical Devices in Speech specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Rhetorical Devices in Speech specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer This makes the audience feel hopeful and trustful in the future for their country. Personification is also used effectively. An example of this would be we care so strongly about its future. In this example Obama is talking about America as a country and referring to it as if it is a real life person. The fact he does this gives likeness and attributes of life to the country, and makes it seem unstoppable in a way as Just like a person, America will keep moving forward and develop new ways of doing things and dealing with situations. Personification is much used in visual arts, so Obama using it in this beech works effectively as it immediately makes the audience picture America in their brains and focus on its future rather than its past. The word strongly has synonyms like able, tough, powerful and Vigorous so it seems the perfect word for Obama to use as it not only makes the people of America feel stronger and more united as a country but also makes them believe they can overcome their past and can move forward and achieve all their goals in the future. By using personification Obama animates a lifeless thing; America which creates excitement In the audience s they feel it isnt the end for Americas and again there are greater things to come. Obama also uses Triad in his speech. An example would be we believe In a generous America; In a compassionate America; In a tolerant America. This Is effective as It almost leads to a climax within the audience as each thing he lists that they believe In seems to get better and more appealing to the people. The fact he uses triad makes his message stand out more and become more memorable In the audiences minds. It allows a speaker to express a concept, emphasize It, and then make It memorable. It also makes the audience more trustworthy of Obama as a leader as It shows he doesnt have one singular goal for America and he Isnt looking to Improve lust one thing. They may feel motivated for change as Obama uses such effective words wanly all link together Ana gall almost give America a Tie as en careless ten country the same way you would a person, which may make the audience feel like one with each other and for America to be all these things they must become these things themselves. Allusion is another effective rhetorical device in Beams speech. An example of this is Tonight more than 200 years after a former colony won the right to determine its own destiny. This works well during his speech as he is convincing America how greater things are to come regardless of the great things that have happened for the country so far. The fact he uses this allusion almost proves to the audience Just how much things may change for the good of America as long ago they couldnt even determine their own destiny this makes them believe Just how much of an impact they can have on their own future. He simplifies the idea of hang by using a well-known story to explain Just how greatly things may change for the country. This makes the audience even more hopeful and prepared for the changes to come in the future of their country. Lastly the use of inclusive pronouns works very effectively. An example would be it moves forward because of you. This implies that without the people, America would be nothing and would be at a standstill. This not only makes the audience feel worthy but also as if they all have a role to play in order to keep America together and as one. The use of the word you addresses the mass audience as though they were individuals having a one on one conversation with Obama, by doing this he keeps the whole audience engaged and interested in what he has to say. To conclude it is clear that Obama uses a variety of different rhetorical devices in order to keep his audience engaged and pleased with his speech. He uses all effectively and manages to make the mass audience still feel like an individual by his use of rhetorical devices. Each rhetorical device creates a different impact or emotion on the audience whether it be individuality, worth, important or trust.

Methods of Attribution †Psychology Research Paper

Methods of Attribution – Psychology Research Paper Free Online Research Papers Subtitle: Assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of ‘traditional’ compared to ‘critical’ social psychological approach on attribution There are a lot of questions that people want to know the answer, most probably because human beings are curious at everything. Due to curiosity, people always want to know how other people think and why others think that way. Laymen try to explain others behaviour by ‘guessing’, they think it is a rather common sense thing to do; but psychologists try to generate theories to explain and predict attributions by scientific methods. Attribution generally means beliefs about the causes of behaviour that attributing causes to certain events which it is an important part of language. And attribution theory is a conceptual framework within social psychology dealing with lay, or common-sense, explanations of behaviour. Traditional social psychologists use experiments to ascertain how particular stimuli would affect causal attributions for particular events. There are several theories of causal attribution which Heider was seen as the founding father of attribution theory. He made crucial foundation towards attribution theory that he argued it was essential to know what people believed as it would guide ones behaviour. He viewed layperson as a naà ¯ve scientist seeking to find an explanation for everything. Heider classified two types of attribution: personal attributions (dispositional) and impersonal (situation attributions) ones. The theory suggested that it is all about motivations whether one should be responsible for their behaviour or their behaviour is caused by external factors. Heider’s work was built upon Jones and Davis (1965)’s correspondence inference theory which they suggested people interpret behaviour or acts in terms of stable underlying qualities, or characteristics, of the actors. There are several reasons for correspondent inference: free will, non-common effect, social desirable action, hedonic relevance, and personalism. Though this theory has significant historical impact, its impact has been limited. Kelley (1967, 1973) assumed that there should be different factors that cause a behaviour and she tried to separate out which effects are to be attributed to which of several factors. She claimed if two events repeatedly occur together, then we are more likely to infer that they are causally related. Kelley suggests people consider three variables when making attributions. The first one is distinctiveness which refers to the extent that people behaves in the same way to other stimuli. Secondly, she mentioned about consistency that refers to the extent to which people has behaved in the same way in the past towards the stimulus. Lastly, it is consensus which refers to the extent that other people behave in the same way towards the same stimulus as people whose behaviour we are trying to explain. People who weigh up those variables above make either a dispositional or situational attribution. There was also theory like fundamental attribution error that suggest there are bias in attributing other’s behaviour more to internal factors than to situational factors because of focus of attention (people’s attention on the situation have generally found greater level of situational attributions) and differential forgetting (tend to forget situational causes more regularly). In contrast to casual attribution theories, Semin and Manstead (1983) argue that research into attribution lacks ecological validity as experimental research into attribution sets out to explicitly ask someone why they believe people chose a particular course of action. However, it does not necessarily they will make causal attributions in the same when they are not called upon to explicitly explain their answers. And this suggestion contradicts Kelley’s co-variation model where it seems difficult to imagine that we always take different factors into account when making quick decisions. On the other hand, majority of the research has been conducted in Western cultures that imply the theories suggested may not take cultural variations into account. Critical social psychologists argue that attributions are rarely made solely at an individual level. They are the result of cultural and social forces which provide different information based. Traditional attribution theories underestimate the extent to which attributions are articulated through the uses of language and discourses especially. Besides, mass media play a big part in analyzing relationships that may affect our understanding of relationships which traditional social psychologists do not take into account, nevertheless, critical psychology places a greater emphasis on the role of discourse and attempt to engage more with the content and nature of conversation than traditional social psychologists. Recent research has been conducted in different areas such as relationships which have yielded more complex models of attributions. Fincham and Bradbury (1988) claim when a relationship is sound, people are less motivated to engage in engaging in sophisticated thought when making attributions and vice versa yet this does not take into account the cultural and historical variability in couple relationships. Smith and Harris-Bond (1993) so suggest that the difference between individualist and collectivist cultures leads to different attribution styles as the role in a relationship is different between two cultures. Traditional social psychology places emphasis on the fact that people often make attribution errors and suggests that the way people view the social world can occasionally be flawed. Critical social psychology on the other hand stress that people are quite realistic who rarely make mistakes because they use strategies and personal experience to interpret an attribution. Moreover, traditional social psychology fails to take into account the emotional factors behind attribution. Human beings have feelings, thoughts and emotions which all influence the attributions that one make. In conclusion, stresses the uniqueness of each individual failing to take into account how culture mediates understanding the world. On the other hand, it also fails to take into account other social processes such as social influences and the construction of knowledge by more powerful groups in society. People do not draw upon just their own personal constructs when making decisions. They actually use knowledge from a range of other sources such as books, experience, other family members and friends etc. People do not just use alternative constructs from within our own cognitive systems. Research Papers on Methods of Attribution - Psychology Research PaperThree Concepts of PsychodynamicEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalThe Relationship Between Delinquency and Drug UseResearch Process Part OneRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andHip-Hop is ArtBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesAnalysis Of A Cosmetics Advertisement

Relationship Between Iran and China in Light of Economic Sanctions Essay

Relationship Between Iran and China in Light of Economic Sanctions Imposed on Iran - Essay Example India, like many other countries, has invested billions of dollars in Iranian oil fields towards business oil trading purposes as well as research and development of oil refineries in Iran. The Economics Times reported that the Indian government-owned ONGC along with the private sector Ashok Leyland Project Services Ltd of the Hinduja group won $10 billion bid for investing in Iranian oil company, Naftiran Intertrade Co and Petropars Ltd in 2008. However, India eventually lost this deal to China after the China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) offered to contribute towards NICO's share of the $ 2.5 billion cost for developing the field that holds an estimated 42 billion barrels of oil reserves, one of the world's largest finds in the last 30 years according to The Economics Times news report. Iran’s conduit towards India’s proposition and favoring China is a result of international business relations between the countries, which are further shaped by their cultures, busin ess negotiations and political positions. It is important to note that both India and China have high demand for oil in both domestic and commercial sectors (Oil Prices, 2). Moreover, China is a larger and greater potential for business compared to India. Reports from investigation agencies revealed that inward FDI into China is at least two to three times higher than what is reported; and FDI is majorly from the United States, the United Kingdom, France and other European nations. Yet, China’s high corruption and regulations still discourage FDI by significant amount (Wei, 200). Sources also report that corruption has been tackled to a great extent in China compared to India, where corruption still continues to haunt its economic progress (Ragunathan, para 1). Reduction in Chinese corruption... This essay offers a comprehensive analysis of the impact, that international sanctions imposition on Iran would exert on the nature of the relationships between China and Iran. While most of the other nations that traded with Iran before the imposition of the sanctions, have stopped or minimized their trade, China still seemed to be inclined towards Iranian oil reserves, owing to its huge investments in Iran. In fact, Iran dismissed its deal with India’s oil company and confirmed the same with China’s oil company few years before the sanctions were announced. China did not heed to the warnings of sanctions from the US and succeeded in this and many other business deals in order to secure its oil reserves. With China already investing in oil business at international level with Iranian companies, the proposed sanctions on Iran will result in serious consequences for China. The Iran-China relationship has only intensified during last decade, despite warnings from the US to China to stay away from Iran because of Iran’s advent into nuclear program and refusal to support peace projects in neighboring countries. The US had delayed sanctions on Iran for many years because of China’s involvement with Iran, which was an obstacle to putting international pressure on Iran. China should continue to abide by its principles and norms of not seeking control, upholding principles of sovereignty, engaging in peaceful development and in being a responsible stakeholder in the international system.

International marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

International marketing - Essay Example Geocentric means employing third country national and Poly centric staffing means employing home country nationals. Home country nationals are those from the MNC’s home country. Ethnocentrism is a part of Chinese culture and it often creates barriers from one another and causes to from wrong opinions about each other. It often causes racial discrimination, hallo effect and wrong actions. â€Å"Ethnocentrism may be defined as the tendency to view the values and behavior of other peoples as invariably inferior and less "natural" or logical than those of ones own social group and to judge the values and behaviors of other peoples by the standards of ones own social  group.† (You are a Fluke of the Universe). Ethnocentric beliefs make people of the same race and class acted in the same manner, as well as believing that their race is superior. Culture is the set of values, moral beliefs, and way of doing things in a specific community or group of people. Culture is a challenge to the MNC’s in the international market. In order to succeed in the global market, it is essential to understand the local culture and can make appropriate changes in business activities. Now a days MNC’s are adopting various changes in their approach due to the new global market opportunities. They identify that the cultural aspects as important part in their strategy. BRIC economy is continuously increasing and MNC’s had realised the importance of understanding culture and norms of emerging economic powers. BRIC is the new emerging market and includes Brazil, Russia, India and China. â€Å"Although BRICS economies are growing, this growth would not adequately reflect on prosperity and per ca pita income. In this scenario, BRICS as an alliance could ensure that the benefits of this projected success story reach the people in these countries, and are not siphoned off by unfavorable trade agreements or hot money invested from other parts of the world.†

The Federalist Papers, James Madison Essay Example for Free

The Federalist Papers, James Madison Essay In the Federalist Papers, James Madison and others outline their logic both in favor of and against ratification of the Constitution.   One of the largest parts of these arguments was the discussion of separation of powers and functions.   James Madison outlined one problem inherent in having a multi-branched government—namely the idea of encroachment. He viewed this as a problem with several sources and proposed several solutions.   The Constitution redresses the problem of encroachment in several ways.   He also feels that in the views of today, we must evaluate if Madison was correct in perceiving encroachment as a problem.    We must also evaluate if Madison’s source was correct.   Madison also felt that the new Constitution did not violate a basic political maxim of having the political departments separate and distinct. First of all, we must define what Madison means by â€Å"encroachment.†Ã‚   In Federalist 47, Madison uses the British government’s constitution as a basis for his definition.   At its core, encroachment is where each branch of government encroaches upon the powers and duties of the other branches of government. Under the British system, he says, â€Å"the executive magistrate forms an integral part of the legislative authority.   He alone has the perogative of making treaties with foreign sovereigns, which, when made, have, under certain limitations, the force of legislative acts (Madison, 1788).†Ã‚   Additionally, â€Å"all the members of the judiciary department are appointed by him, can be removed by him on the address of the two Houses of Parliament, and form, when he pleases to consult them, one of his constitutional councils (Madison, 1788).† Also in Federalist 47, Madison identifies the sources of encroachment.   To whit, the sources of encroachment are the very states themselves.   He gives several examples, but points out that in each case, there is an â€Å"eye to the danger of improperly blending the different departments (Madison, 1788).†Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Complete distinction of the various branches, while an ideal goal to aspire to, was nearly impossible to gain simply because the nature of governance made each branch dependent upon each other. Madison viewed this as a problem because he felt that â€Å"the nature of a free government will admit; or as is consistent with that chain of connection that binds the whole fabric of the constitution in one dissoluble bond of unity and amity (Madison, 1788).†Ã‚   In other words, laws are made and executed by the same body, tyranny will almost certainly result.   Additionally, he felt that the governing bodies would misunderstand that pre-established limits and would not work within them, thus expanding their powers when making decisions and intentionally or not encroaching upon the different branches of government. Madison proposed several things that would help control encroachment.   One of the proposals was adopted at the Constitutional Convention.   That is, to have a lack of a hereditary monarch.   This would help usurp tyranny because placing limitations on the length and extent of the executive’s power and tenure would also control encroachment. Of all the departments, Madison was most fearful of the legislative.   Its far-reaching powers would lead most definitely to encroachment.   Additionally, he said that the assembly would seek to â€Å"indulge all their jealousy and exhaust all their precautions (Madison 1788).†Ã‚   In other words, the assembly would be more prone to encroachment because it had power over who would fill the positions in other departments—from cabinet positions to judgeships, the legislature encroaches on nearly every aspect of every department. The next solution Madison proposed was the appealing to the people through a convention.   This concept was brought forth in Federalist 49.   His idea was to call a convention whenever two of the three branches â€Å"shall concur in opinion, each by the voices of two-thirds of their whole number (Madison, 1788).† This convention would be a â€Å"convention †¦ necessary for altering the Constitution or correcting breaches of it (Madison, 1788).†   Madison thought this was the ultimate solution in correcting encroachments into each of the different departments.   He states quite forcefully in Federalist 50 that PERIODICAL appeals are the proper and adequate means of PREVENTING AND CORRECTING INFRACTIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION (Madison, 1788).† Finally, Madison proposed giving each department a constitutional means to resist encroachment.   This would definitely end the encroachment problem as Madison saw it, because each department would be armed to deal with any encroachments.   He saw the largest chance of encroachment to come from the legislative branch and to keep it from becoming too powerful, he proposed dividing the legislature into branches with a different election schedule and different functions, and therefore they are as little connected as possible (Madison, 1788). The Constitution redresses the idea of encroachment very easily.   It simply divides the three branches of government and assigns certain powers to each.   For example, the legislative branch does exactly that, legislates, but in order to completely do its job, it requires the executive branch to sign the bills into laws and provide a budget.   The other check on legislative power is the judicial branch.   The judicial branch makes sure that the legislative branch does not overstep its authority by passing laws detrimental to the American people. We must evaluate in our twenty first century vision if Madison did indeed get this problem right.   Is encroachment as big a problem as Madison thought, or is it simply a necessary evil?   Is encroachment as it exists, and its sources as Madison saw them, correct?   Do his solutions work in a twenty first century context or do they simply stonewall an already slow and arduous process?   These are the questions that we need to answer in order to apply Madison’s ideas to our modern governance. Encroachment as Madison saw it is a problem, but a necessary evil.   Because of our delicate democracy, we must have some level of encroachment among the departments.   The whole concept of checks and balances revolves around the idea that each department must necessarily encroach upon the power of another to keep it from moving outside its constitutional powers.   The sources as Madison saw them were indeed correct.   The traditions created by the writers of the state constitutions created the problem of encroachment.   Since the problem was so entrenched, divorcing encroachment in the states from encroachment in the federal government is nearly impossible. Tradition is a very hard thing to get rid of, and Madison was right to see it, but wrong to try to eliminate it from the federal mà ©lange.   Madison’s solutions are somewhat beneficial, as some are already in place, but others would be too difficult to implement and would stonewall an already slow and arduous process.   The limitation of the extent and duration keeps the executive from becoming too powerful.   The legislature already limits encroachment due to its expansive lawmaking abilities and duties. How did Madison not feel the new Constitution not violate that political maxim of not blending the three branches of government?   The answer is that they did not blend.   Each department is separate and distinct, with its own set of duties and responsibilities, yet each is dependent on the others so each does not gain too much power. Madison also feels that there are â€Å"means and personal motives (1788)† that will help maintain the separation of powers as defined in the Constitution.   By this, Madison means that the people that run the department should have constitutional means at their disposal in order to be able to resist the encroachments of the other branches.   He feels that human nature is such that people would make a grab for power, and such means should be in place â€Å"to control the abuses of government (Madison, 1788).†Ã‚   Constitutional restrictions would keep such grabs from happening, and control the machinations of people intent on tyranny. The Jeffersonian strict separation of powers would not work in a flexible and dynamic government.   It would be a recipe for tyranny.   By having strict separation of powers, there would be no checks on the powers of each branch, and each branch would be allowed to become almost as powerful as it wanted. The legislative branch could push through legislation of its choosing with no regards for the power of the presidency and the judicial.   The judicial could kill any legislation it did not like and pass law from the bench, and the presidency could overrun the other two branches.   This would set up a situation of tyranny that would never be able to be rectified.   However, Madison (1788) tells us that â€Å"in republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates.†Ã‚   His solution was to divide the legislature into parts, thus emasculating it to keep it from overrunning the other two branches. Madison got the idea of encroachment right.   From his perspective, encroachment was a problem with easy solutions.   Even though it was entrenched in our society from colonial days, the establishment of the three branches of government along with assigned powers assured that there would be no encroachment of one branch onto another.   Some of his solutions were easy, while others were more difficult.   Madison would be proud of what has been accomplished and would be a welcomed visitor in our time.   He would be a sage advisor and would be able to give us insight into how our constitution was designed to work and would give us direction on where to go next.   We need to continue to look at his words for insight and input in order to make our Constitution a more living, breathing document. Works Cited Madison, James. Method of Guarding Against the Encroachments of Any One Department of   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Government by Appealing to the People Through a Convention. The Federalist Papers   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   No. 49, 01 Feb 1788   6 Mar 2009 http://wwwfounding fathers.info/federalistpapers. Madison, James. The Particular Structure of the New Government and The Distribution of   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Power Among Its Different Parts. The Federalist Papers No. 47, 01 Feb 1788   6 Mar   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   2009 http://wwwfoundingfathers.info/federalistpapers. Madison, James. Periodical Appeals to the People Considered. The Federalist Papers No. 50, 05 Feb 1788   6 Mar   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   2009 http://wwwfoundingfathers.info/federalistpapers. Madison, James. The Structure of the Government Must Furnish the Proper Checks and   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Balances Between the Different Departments. The Federalist Papers No. 51 08, Feb   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   1788   6 Mar 2009 http://wwwfoundingfathers.info/federalistpapers. Madison, James. These Departments Should Not Be So Far Separated as to Have   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Constitutional Control Over Each Other. The Federalist Papers No. 48, 05 Feb 1788   6   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Mar 2009 http://wwwfoundingfathers.info/federalistpapers.

Anorexia Nervosa :: essays research papers

Anorexia nervosa is one of many types of eating disorders that is influenced by the media, dieting programs, low-carb and fat free foods, and by the obsession to be thin. These influences make the person insecure, tense, and narrow-minded. Anorexia nervosa is when a person demonstrates abnormal eating pattern and loses severe weight, usually fifteen percent of his or her body weight. It is also a complicated mixture of emotional, psychological, and physical changes, it is often referred to as â€Å" the starvation sickness† or â€Å"the dieter’s disease† (Kirkpatrick). The disease is not a newly discovered medical problem. The basic of the illness were documented at least three years ago by an English physician named Thomas Morton. According to Morton, he considered the disease â€Å"nervous consumption† and believed that it was caused by â€Å"sadness and care†. He used the term â€Å"consumption† to describe the marked weight, and he called it â€Å"nervous† because he could not explain the severe weight loss (Kirkpatrick). To be diagnosis with the illness anorexia nervosa the person weight must be at least fifteen percent lower than normal for his or her height and age. The person has a great fear of becoming overweight and the person has an image that his or her body is overweight when it’s in fact underweight and/or the person refuse to admit the weight loss is a serious problem. And an important medical criteria for females in diagnosing the illness, is the absence of at least three or more consecutive menstrual periods (Kirkpatrick). The beginning of the illness often follows some stressful life events that have occurred in the person life. Low self-esteem is often the cause of these stresses. Most of the peoples who are anorexic began with some form of diet to lose weight. When the weight loss becomes visible to their own eyes, and to the eyes of others he or she begin to enjoy his or her special ability to master his or her hunger and control his or her life by continuing to diet without realizing the emotional an physical changes it’s causing to his or her body and mind. And that is how the majority of peoples who are diagnosis with the illness became anorexic (American). The facts about anorexia nervosa and dieting are that full-blown anorexia nervosa is a rare disease and only about ten percent of the cases occur in men. It’s limited to the developed world because in the developing world anorexia is mainly unheard of.

Ethnography

AN ETHNOGRAPHY â€Å"When used as a method, ethnography typically refers to fieldwork (alternatively, participant-observation) conducted by a single investigator who ‘lives with and lives like' those who are studied, usually for a year or more. † –John Van Maanen, 1996. â€Å"Ethnography literally means ‘a portrait of a people. ‘ An ethnography is a written description of a particular culture – the customs, beliefs, and behavior – based on information collected through fieldwork. † –Marvin Harris and Orna Johnson, 2000. â€Å"Ethnography is the art and science of describing a group or culture.The description may be of a small tribal group in an exotic land or a classroom in middle-class suburbia. † –David M. Fetterman, 1998. Ethnography is a social science research method. It relies heavily on up-close, personal experience and possible participation, not just observation, by researchers trained in the art of et hnography. These ethnographers often work in multidisciplinary teams. The ethnographic focal point may include intensive language and culture learning, intensive study of a single field or domain, and a blend of historical, observational, and interview methods.Typical ethnographic research employs three kinds of data collection: interviews, observation, and documents. This in turn produces three kinds of data: quotations, descriptions, and excerpts of documents, resulting in one product: narrative description. This narrative often includes charts, diagrams and additional artifacts that help to tell â€Å"the story† (Hammersley, 1990). Ethnographic methods can give shape to new constructs or paradigms, and new variables, for further empirical testing in the field or through traditional, quantitative social science methods. Ethnography has it roots planted in the fields of anthropology and sociology.Present-day practitioners conduct ethnographies in organizations and communitie s of all kinds. Ethnographers study schooling, public health, rural and urban development, consumers and consumer goods, any human arena. While particularly suited to exploratory research, ethnography draws on a wide range of both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, moving from â€Å"learning† to â€Å"testing† (Agar, 1996) while research problems, perspectives, and theories emerge and shift. Ethnographic methods are a means of tapping local points of view, households and community â€Å"funds of nowledge† (Moll & Greenberg, 1990), a means of identifying significant categories of human experience up close and personal. Ethnography enhances and widens top down views and enriches the inquiry process, taps both bottom-up insights and perspectives of powerful policy-makers â€Å"at the top,† and generates new analytic insights by engaging in interactive, team exploration of often subtle arenas of human difference and similarity. Through such findings ethnographers may inform others of their findings with an attempt to derive, for example, policy decisions or instructional innovations from such an analysis.VARIATIONS IN OBSERVATIONAL METHODS Observational research is not a single thing. The decision to employ field methods in gathering informational data is only the first step in a decision process that involves a large number of options and possibilities. Making the choice to employ field methods involves a commitment to get close to the subject being observed in its natural setting, to be factual and descriptive in reporting what is observed, and to find out the points of view of participants in the domain observed.Once these fundamental commitments have been made, it is necessary to make additional decisions about which particular observational approaches are appropriate for the research situation at hand. VARIATIONS IN OBSERVER INVOLVEMENT: PARTICIPANT OR ONLOOKER? The first and most fundamental distinction among observationa l strategies concerns the extent to which the observer is also a participant in the program activities being studied. This is not really a simple choice between participation and nonparticipation.The extent of participation is a continuum which varies from complete immersion in the program as full participant to complete separation from the activities observed, taking on a role as spectator; there is a great deal of variation along the continuum between these two extremes. Participant observation is an omnibus field strategy in that it â€Å"simultaneously combines document analysis, interviewing of respondents and informants, direct participation and observation, and introspection. In participant observation the researcher shares as intimately as possible in the life and activities of the people in the observed setting.The purpose of such participation is to develop an insider's view of what is happening. This means that the researcher not only sees what is happening but â€Å"fe els† what it is like to be part of the group. Experiencing an environment as an insider is what necessitates the participant part of participant observation. At the same time, however, there is clearly an observer side to this process. The challenge is to combine participation and observation so as to become capable of understanding the experience as an insider while describing the experience for outsiders.The extent to which it is possible for a researcher to become a full participant in an experience will depend partly on the nature of the setting being observed. For example, in human service and education programs that serve children, it is not possible for the researcher to become a student and therefore experience the setting as a child; it may be possible, however, for the research observer to participate as a volunteer, parent, or staff person in such a setting and thereby develop the perspective of an insider in one of these adult roles.It should be said, though, that many ethnographers do not believe that understanding requires that they become full members of the group(s) being studied. Indeed, many believe that this must not occur if a valid and useful account is to be produced. These researchers believe the ethnographer must try to be both outsider and insider, staying on the margins of the group both socially and intellectually. This is because what is required is both an outside and an inside view.For this reason it is sometimes emphasized that, besides seeking to â€Å"understand†, the ethnographer must also try to see familiar settings as â€Å"anthropologically strange†, as they would be seen by someone from another society, adopting what we might call the Martian perspective. METHODOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES Following are three methodological principles that are used to provide the rationale for the specific features of the ethnographic method.They are also the basis for much of the criticism of quantitative research for failing to capture the true nature of human social behavior; because it relies on the study of artificial settings and/or on what people say rather than what they do; because it seeks to reduce meanings to what is observable; and because it reifies social phenomena by treating them as more clearly defined and static than they are, and as mechanical products of social and psychological factors (M. Hammersley, 1990). The three principles can be summarized under the headings of naturalism, understanding and discovery: 1.Naturalism. This is the view that the aim of social research is to capture the character of naturally occurring human behavior, and that this can only be achieved by first-hand contact with it, not by inferences from what people do in artificial settings like experiments or from what they say in interviews about what they do elsewhere. This is the reason that ethnographers carry out their research in â€Å"natural† settings, settings that exist independently of the resea rch process, rather than in those set up specifically for the purposes of research.Another important implication of naturalism is that in studying natural settings the researcher should seek to minimize her or his effects on the behavior of the people being studied. The aim of this is to increase the chances that what is discovered in the setting will be generalizable to other similar settings that have not been researched. Finally, the notion of naturalism implies that social events and processes must be explained in terms of their relationship to the context in which they occur. 2.Understanding. Central here is the argument that human actions differ from the behavior of physical objects, and even from that of other animals: they do not consist simply of fixed responses or even of learned responses to stimuli, but involve interpretation of stimuli and the construction of responses. Sometimes this argument reflects a complete rejection of the concept of causality as inapplicable to the social world, and an insistence on the freely constructed character of human actions and institutions.Others argue that causal relations are to be found in the social world, but that they differ from the â€Å"mechanical† causality typical of physical phenomena. From this point of view, if we are to be able to explain human actions effectively we must gain an understanding of the cultural perspectives on which they are based. That this is necessary is obvious when we are studying a society that is alien to us, since we shall find much of what we see and hear puzzling. However, ethnographers argue that it is just as important when we are studying more familiar settings.Indeed, when a setting is familiar the danger of misunderstanding is especially great. It is argued that we cannot assume that we already know others' perspectives, even in our own society, because particular groups and individuals develop distinctive worldviews. This is especially true in large complex soci eties. Ethnic, occupational, and small informal groups (even individual families or school classes) develop distinctive ways of orienting to the world that may need to be understood if their behavior is to be explained.Ethnographers argue, then, that it is necessary to learn the culture of the group one is studying before one can produce valid explanations for the behavior of its members. This is the reason for the centrality of participant observation and unstructured interviewing to ethnographic method. 3. Discovery. Another feature of ethnographic thinking is a conception of the research process as inductive or discovery-based; rather than as being limited to the testing of explicit hypotheses.It is argued that if one approaches a phenomenon with a set of hypotheses one may fail to discover the true nature of that phenomenon, being blinded by the assumptions built into the hypotheses. Rather, they have a general interest in some types of social phenomena and/or in some theoretica l issue or practical problem. The focus of the research is narrowed and sharpened, and perhaps even changed substantially, as it proceeds. Similarly, and in parallel, theoretical ideas that frame descriptions and explanations of what is observed are developed over the course of the research.Such ideas are regarded as a valuable outcome of, not a precondition for, research. ETHNOGRAPHY AS METHOD In terms of method, generally speaking, the term â€Å"ethnography† refers to social research that has most of the following features (M. Hammersley, 1990). (a) People's behavior is studied in everyday contexts, rather than under experimental conditions created by the researcher. (b) Data are gathered from a range of sources, but observation and/or relatively informal conversations are usually the main ones. c) The approach to data collection is â€Å"unstructured in the sense that it does not involve following through a detailed plan set up at the beginning; nor are the categories us ed for interpreting what people say and do pre-given or fixed. This does not mean that the research is unsystematic; simply that initially the data are collected in as raw a form, and on as wide a front, as feasible. (d) The focus is usually a single setting or group, of relatively small scale. In life history research the focus may even be a single individual. (e) The analysis of the data involves interpretation of the eanings and functions of human actions and mainly takes the form of verbal descriptions and explanations, with quantification and statistical analysis playing a subordinate role at most. As a set of methods, ethnography is not far removed from the sort of approach that we all use in everyday life to make sense of our surroundings. It is less specialized and less technically sophisticated than approaches like the experiment or the social survey; though all social research methods have their historical origins in the ways in which human beings gain information about th eir world in everyday life.SUMMARY GUIDELINES FOR FIELDWORK It is difficult, if not impossible, to provide a precise set of rules and procedures for conducting fieldwork. What you do depends on the situation, the purpose of the study, the nature of the setting, and the skills, interests, needs, and point of view of the observer. Following are some generic guidelines for conducting fieldwork: 1. Be descriptive in taking field notes. 2. Gather a variety of information from different perspectives. 3. Cross-validate and triangulate by gathering different kinds of data.Example: observations, interviews, program documentation, recordings, and photographs. 4. Use quotations; represent program participants in their own terms. Capture participants' views of their own experiences in their own words. 5. Select key informants wisely and use them carefully. Draw on the wisdom of their informed perspectives, but keep in mind that their perspectives are limited. 6. Be aware of and sensitive to the different stages of fieldwork. (a) Build trust and rapport at the entry stage. Remember that the researcher-observer is also being observed and evaluated. b) Stay alert and disciplined during the more routine middle-phase of fieldwork. (c) Focus on pulling together a useful synthesis as fieldwork draws to a close. (d) Be disciplined and conscientious in taking detailed field notes at all stages of fieldwork. (e) Be as involved as possible in experiencing the observed setting as fully as possible while maintaining an analytical perspective grounded in the purpose of the fieldwork: to conduct research. (f) Clearly separate description from interpretation and judgment. (g) Provide formative feedback as part of the verification process of fieldwork.Time that feedback carefully. Observe its impact. (h) Include in your field notes and observations reports of your own experiences, thoughts, and feelings. These are also field data. Fieldwork is a highly personal experience. The meshing of fieldwork procedures with individual capabilities and situational variation is what makes fieldwork a highly personal experience. The validity and meaningfulness of the results obtained depend directly on the observer's skill, discipline, and perspective. This is both the strength and weakness of observational methods. SUMMARY GUIDELINES FOR INTERVIEWINGThere is no one right way of interviewing, no single correct format that is appropriate for all situations, and no single way of wording questions that will always work. The particular evaluation situation, the needs of the interviewee, and the personal style of the interviewer all come together to create a unique situation for each interview. Therein lie the challenges of depth interviewing: situational responsiveness and sensitivity to get the best data possible. There is no recipe for effective interviewing, but there are some useful guidelines that can be considered.These guidelines are summarized below (Patton, 1987). 1. Through out all phases of interviewing, from planning through data collection to analysis, keep centered on the purpose of the research endeavor. Let that purpose guide the interviewing process. 2. The fundamental principle of qualitative interviewing is to provide a framework within which respondents can express their own understandings in their own terms. 3. Understand the strengths and weaknesses of different types of interviews: the informal conversational interview; the interview guide approach; and the standardized open-ended interview. . Select the type of interview (or combination of types) that is most appropriate to the purposes of the research effort. 5. Understand the different kinds of information one can collect through interviews: behavioral data; opinions; feelings; knowledge; sensory data; and background information. 6. Think about and plan how these different kinds of questions can be most appropriately sequenced for each interview topic, including past, present, and futur e questions. 7. Ask truly open-ended questions. 8. Ask clear questions, using understandable and appropriate language. . Ask one question at a time. 10. Use probes and follow-up questions to solicit depth and detail. 11. Communicate clearly what information is desired, why that information is important, and let the interviewee know how the interview is progressing. 12. Listen attentively and respond appropriately to let the person know he or she is being heard. 13. Avoid leading questions. 14. Understand the difference between a depth interview and an interrogation. Qualitative evaluators conduct depth interviews; police investigators and tax auditors conduct interrogations. 5. Establish personal rapport and a sense of mutual interest. 16. Maintain neutrality toward the specific content of responses. You are there to collect information not to make judgments about that person. 17. Observe while interviewing. Be aware of and sensitive to how the person is affected by and responds to different questions. 18. Maintain control of the interview. 19. Tape record whenever possible to capture full and exact quotations for analysis and reporting. 20. Take notes to capture and highlight major points as the interview progresses. 1. As soon as possible after the interview check the recording for malfunctions; review notes for clarity; elaborate where necessary; and record observations. 22. Take whatever steps are appropriate and necessary to gather valid and reliable information. 23. Treat the person being interviewed with respect. Keep in mind that it is a privilege and responsibility to peer into another person's experience. 24. Practice interviewing. Develop your skills. 25. Enjoy interviewing. Take the time along the way to stop and â€Å"hear† the roses. SITE DOCUMENTSIn addition to participant observation and interviews, ethnographers may also make use of various documents in answering guiding questions. When available, these documents can add additional insi ght or information to projects. Because ethnographic attention has been and continues to be focused on both literate and non-literate peoples, not all research projects will have site documents available. It is also possible that even research among a literate group will not have relevant site documents to consider; this could vary depending on the focus of the research.Thinking carefully about your participants and how they function and asking questions of your informants helps to decide what kinds of documents might be available. Possible documents include: budgets, advertisements, work descriptions, annual reports, memos, school records, correspondence, informational brochures, teaching materials, newsletters, websites, recruitment or orientation packets, contracts, records of court proceedings, posters, minutes of meetings, menus, and many other kinds of written items.For example, an ethnographer studying how limited-English proficient elementary school students learn to acquire English in a classroom setting might want to collect such things as the state or school mandated Bilingual/ESL curriculum for students in the school(s) where he or she does research, and examples of student work. Local school budget allocations to language minority education, specific teachers' lesson plans, and copies of age-appropriate ESL textbooks could also be relevant.It might also be useful to try finding subgroups of professional educators organizations which focus on teaching elementary school language arts and join their listservs, attend their meetings, or get copies of their newsletters. Review cumulative student records and school district policies for language minority education. All of these things could greatly enrich the participant observation and the interviews that an ethnographer does. Privacy or copyright issues may apply to the documents gathered, so it is important to inquire about this when you find or are given documents.If you are given permission to incl ude what you learn from these documents in your final paper, the documents should be cited appropriately and included in the bibliography of the final paper. If you are not given permission, do not use them in any way. ETHICS IN ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH Since ethnographic research takes place among real human beings, there are a number of special ethical concerns to be aware of before beginning. In a nutshell, researchers must make their research goals clear to the members of the community where they undertake their research and gain the informed consent of their consultants to the research beforehand.It is also important to learn whether the group would prefer to be named in the written report of the research or given a pseudonym and to offer the results of the research if informants would like to read it. Most of all, researchers must be sure that the research does not harm or exploit those among whom the research is done. ANALYZING, INTERPRETING AND REPORTING FINDINGS Remember that the researcher is the detective looking for trends and patterns that occur across the various groups or within individuals (Krueger, 1994).The process of analysis and interpretation involve disciplined examination, creative insight, and careful attention to the purposes of the research study. Analysis and interpretation are conceptually separate processes. The analysis process begins with assembling the raw materials and getting an overview or total picture of the entire process. The researcher's role in analysis covers a continuum with assembly of raw data on one extreme and interpretative comments on the other. Analysis is the process of bringing order to the data, organizing what is there into patterns, categories, and basic descriptive units.The analysis process involves consideration of words, tone, context, non-verbals, internal consistency, frequency, extensiveness, intensity, specificity of responses and big ideas. Data reduction strategies are essential in the analysis (Kru eger, 1994). Interpretation involves attaching meaning and significance to the analysis, explaining descriptive patterns, and looking for relationships and linkages among descriptive dimensions. Once these processes have been completed the researcher must report his or her interpretations and conclusions QUALITATIVE DESCRIPTIONReports based on qualitative methods will include a great deal of pure description of the program and/or the experiences of people in the research environment. The purpose of this description is to let the reader know what happened in the environment under observation, what it was like from the participants' point of view to be in the setting, and what particular events or activities in the setting were like. In reading through field notes and interviews the researcher begins to look for those parts of the data that will be polished for presentation as pure description in the research report.What is included by way of description will depend on what questions the researcher is attempting to answer. Often an entire activity will be reported in detail and depth because it represents a typical experience. These descriptions are written in narrative form to provide a holistic picture of what has happened in the reported activity or event. REPORTING FINDINGS The actual content and format of a qualitative report will depend on the information needs of primary stakeholders and the purpose of the research. Even a comprehensive report will have to omit a great deal of the data collected by the researcher.Focus is essential. Analysts who try to include everything risk losing their readers in the sheer volume of the presentation. This process has been referred to as â€Å"the agony of omitting†. The agony of omitting on the part of the researcher is matched only by the readers' agony in having to read those things that were not omitted, but should have been. BALANCE BETWEEN DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS In considering what to omit, a decision has to be made about how much description to include. Detailed description and in-depth quotations are the essential qualities of qualitative accounts.Sufficient description and direct quotations should be included to allow readers to understand fully the research setting and the thoughts of the people represented in the narrative. Description should stop short, however, of becoming trivial and mundane. The reader does not have to know absolutely everything that was done or said. Again the problem of focus arises. Description is balanced by analysis and interpretation. Endless description becomes its own muddle. The purpose of analysis is to organize the description in a way that makes it manageable. Description is balanced by analysis and leads into interpretation.An interesting and readable final account provides sufficient description to allow the reader to understand the analysis and sufficient analysis to allow the reader to understand the interpretations and explanations presente d. Try It Yourself Why do people see things differently? The importance of ethnographic research Apple Example Thomas Kuhn suggests that what people see depends on what â€Å"previous visual and conceptual experience has taught† them. This suggests that what we look at and what we see are two different things. Anthropologists Anne Campbell of Washington State University and Patricia C.Rice of West Virginia University give an excellent example of how what we look at and what we see can be different things, depending on who perceives a situation or thing. Try this: * gather two to three people and mentally place an apple on a table in front of the group. * Without any prior discussion, each group member should take a moment to individually write down what it is he or she sees. * After a few minutes, compare notes. What do you find? Did everyone see the same thing? What color was the apple? Are there specific colors given to the apple?What about the type of apple on the table, d id anyone acknowledge if there was a difference between a golden delicious and a Macintosh? What about the size of the apple? Did anyone include size as a characteristic of the apple? What this example shows is that no two people see the same thing. We may understand what an apple is, but in terms of describing it and â€Å"seeing† it much of our sight comes from pervious â€Å"visual-conceptual† experiences. Someone knowledgeable in produce may know that there are many types of apples, just as someone interested in quantities of food may take note of the size of the apple.