Following a stressful week of exams, hurricane Ian, and a big win over Virginia Tech football, students are pushing through as Fall Break is in near sight. After the introduction of unit 2 and the submission of Feeder 2.1, students are working on their newest submission of Feeder 2.2. ENGL105 students are motivated to capture the real identity of their selected subculture through interviews and observations. In this week’s assignments, students discussed all their group has to offer and all the unknowns. Having spoken to a stranger outside Wilson Library on Thursday last week, students are almost starting to feel like they are experts in the field as they approach members surrounding their research.
It was chilly early in the week at Chapel Hill, but the students were fearless in attending observation sites. It was a relief to see that the weather cleared up during the course of the week as students were completing their final observations and conducting last-minute interviews. Being cognitive of how they felt, how they were treated, and specific characteristics when visiting their subculture became critical in creating prime observations. The timing was ideal as they had only a couple of days left to perfect their final document before it was due the following week. In the beginning of unit 2, I questioned my ability to thoroughly collect enough information about my chosen subculture in such a short period of time, especially being an outsider. To my surprise and many other classmates’, our groups have been pretty welcoming for the most part allowing us to become efficient at gathering research to include in our final project. When workshopping our classmates work, we discover so much about subcultures that we would have never know about otherwise. Some students picked very specific, yet intriguing subcultures that a majority of UNC students wouldn’t know exists. This really shines light on certain groups of people that are overlooked and do not get enough credit here on campus. There is something about the melting pot of Chapel Hill that makes this town and the university so special.
English105 students are beginning to become proficient in their writing techniques, especially in the natural sciences. We are now moving ahead and learning to become skillful writers in the social sciences. This week, we did an exciting exercise with our newly formed groups. Having done this, we were able to understand the context of the writing, and then we could fix it so that it would be more appropriate for the situation. Having heard what the original paragraph was and seeing how well it was improved by each group was both comical and surprising at the same time. As part of our efforts to become proficient writers, we are also developing a sense of teamwork and meeting new people through our classwork, our conversations with our classmates and through our interviews as well.
As the week winds down into the weekend, students enjoy parents weekend and celebrate a close football win over the University of Miami. Although it was an away game, tarheel pride was present throughout Chapel Hill. Students got ready for the next week to come, finishing up their feeder papers in preparation for our unit 2 final project. Students prepare by last minute studying how to write ethnographies. The excitement is building up.
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