For this week in English Composition II class, we continued working on the research essay. In particular, we looked at the mechanics of a research essay during Monday’s lesson, followed by individual work time which gave me a chance to review and reflect on my topic more in depth. Given that my research will deal with the practice of anesthesia, it is very important that I do in-depth research on this medical specialty. Additionally, in class we discussed the journal genre in general and read excerpts from “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia Butler. Also, in class we discussed our progress on the research essay.

The Ethnographic Methods at Work course involved reading the article titled “A Factory Without Bosses” and discussion of worker control in a capitalist society. This week’s topic relates to our previous week when we were talking about unions and worker organization. I learned that they have to take care of a lot of responsibilities including production, schedule, communication, and resolving issues. In addition, we began studying observation and interview methods in our course this week. Specifically, the teacher pointed out the importance of interviews in ethnographic research as a tool for gathering primary data about individuals’ experience. We also discovered that the best interview questions are the ones that give space for explaining something rather than giving a simple “yes” or “no” answer.