Week 15

I feel like I have improved on a lot of things with being in this class. One of the things I have improved on is being able to cite correctly within my paper. Also, within my writing I think I have improved upon giving more detail to something. I could still probably give more detail in my writing, but I feel like I have improved some in that aspect. Also, I have learned about the various different subcultures just from reading some of the blogs. I feel as if the ethnography paper has helped me in many ways become a better writer with other different writings. With the ethnography I did a lot of researching and observing. With having that experience, I think it will help me in my other papers. The things that I feel still like I struggle with today is my use of vocabulary in the paper. I could have better word use to give the readers the idea that I am very knowledgeable. Also, I feel like I could do a better job at searching for book and article sources besides just the usually internet sources. Some of my suggestions for next year is to have more conferences because I felt like when I met one on one with my professor I got a better understanding of what he expected within my paper. Overall the class was very organized and I would not change anything else. I like the fact that we do these blog posting and I really like that the professor put up samples of other student's works in the past so we had a basic idea of what we needed to do for our assignments.

Week 14

My favorite piece of data has probably came from observation. When observing you go to your subculture sight and visit and you are surrounded with their atmosphere. For me, I feel like I learn a lot from just watching and getting a feel for things. Not only have I visited my subculture, but I am apart of this subculture too. When taking the time out to observe some of the things we do and some of the things about us, I realized a little more about my subculture then I did before. I tried to look around and observe everything in my head in extreme detail so that I could give my readers a good picture of what my subculture is really like. With being in the subculture for along time, I have a strong credibility for what I observe.

Week 13

As I walked into the gym the lights were dim and I could see the dark shadow of a few people sitting on the floor. I had just arrived at cheer practice and was not looking forward to all the work we had ahead. All us cheerleaders were waiting patiently in the dark gym for our coach to appear. After waiting for a couple minutes the lights in the gym turned on blinding us with there rays of brightness. As the coach walks in she hollers, "5 laps then get on the line." This means we had to run five laps around the gym, then stretch and get ready to tumble on the baseline of the basketball court. After she said these words, you could hear grunts and sighs come across the whole gym. When we were finished running our laps our coach made us get on the baseline and repeatedly throw tumbling tricks. If we threw our tricks without landing at the same time then we had to do them again. We practiced our gymnastics tricks for a good half hour of our practice and I just kept wondering if it was ever going to end. Every minute I looked up at the clock and it seemed like the time never moved. When we finished tumbling we moved on to stunting. Stunting is what consumes most of our practice time. During this practice we first worked on basic stunts and then move on the harder ones. We could never end on a stunt if it did not hit and land as it was supposed to. This practice was already not going to well. In many of he stunts one build group would hit and the other one wouldn't and it kept alternating throughout the practice. Also, many people were getting hurt during these builds. In one stunt a flyer was falling and she happened to brake a girls nose. The practice ended up being very dangerous and it just wasn't going well. Our coach finally decided to let us go because of all the injuries that where happening, but before we left we all had to run stairs. Stairs were the worst thing that we ever had to run. After a point of running them your legs start feeling numb and you feel like your not even in control of them anymore. These stairs were long very long and never ending. Every time I would climb them I'd look up to see how many were left and it made me feel as if I was running in place, going nowhere.   

Week 12

Rhetoric to me mean a form of language that uses certain skills to persuade people of an idea. The skills that it consist of is ethos, logos, and pathos. Rhetoric ideas mainly come from our own beliefs from our credibility within the subculture. Also, it comes from research and reasoning for some of the things that are done in the subculture and from ideas based on your own emotions. I mainly hear the word Rhetoric come from my english classes or my communication classes for when we are writing or speaking to persuade people. I believe many of the rhetoric concepts are used in my subculture because I am trying to persuade people that cheerleaders are not the snobby and stuck up girls that people sometimes think they are. In order for me to persuade them I have used many rhetoric ideas. I have stated my own credibility within the subculture because I am an insider and I have also talked about some of the different rules and things that we do and have given an explanation. Lastly, I have stated my own emotions about some of the stereotypical ideas thought about cheerleaders. For my mini-ethnography I plan on writing about my own experience with the subculture. I also with write about some of the roles cheerleaders go by and some of their rules. I also will talk about some of my on emotions and thoughts about the subculture and give explanations for my ideas.

Week 11

My writing process is still pretty simple. First, I think about what I'm going to write and do some brainstorming of my ideas. Then, I try and for some kind of outline to make my paper sound organized. For me to write a good paper it is beneficial for me to write a lot of rough drafts and read them to weave out some of the things not needed in my paper and to state my ideas in a better way. Since the beginning of this course my writing process has changed a little bit. My process mainly depends on what kind of paper we are writing. One of the assignments they gave me some trouble was the annotated bibliography. This was my first time doing an annotated bibliography and I was some what unsure on what I was supposed to do. The process for this writing assignment was fairly simply once I understood what was to be done in the assignment. My process for this was to read all my sources and get the main idea of them. After getting an understanding of the sources a gave a brief description about each of the sources and gave reasoning for why this source would be beneficial for me to use in my mini-ethnography. This assignment of the annotated bibliography was surprisingly one of the easiest assignments in the class also once I understood the concept of it. I believe I write because it is a good way to express feelings and emotions. Writing makes you feel like you have some kind of a voice and people who read your writing will listen to you and understand. In my life I believe writing plays an important role. If I do not want to talk about some of my feelings I can just write them down instead of keeping them inside which is unhealthy. Everyone wants to be heard and I feel like writing is valuable in letting that happen. For almost every type of writing you give your on feeling and opinions based on what you believe. Writing for my future is also important in the previous ways they are now, but also in other ways. I plan on being a teacher and being able to write is very important for me in that career.

Week 10

I plan on structuring my mini-ethnography by first telling them my interest within the subculture and my place within it. After letting my readers know my interest I will then talk about some of the stereotypical ideas that are sometimes thought about cheerleaders. Then I will take each different stereotypical thinking and try to give an explanation to each of them from my research and from my observations. In my conclusions I hope to give people a better view of cheerleaders and let them know that just because there might be a few bad apples doesn't mean that cheerleaders as a whole are bad. I believe that this structure seems very organized and will be easy for my readers to follow. I am basically listing some stereotypical ideas and then throughout the rest of the paper giving explanation to each of them, because I want my readers to get a better idea of cheerleaders and then let them make their own opinions about them. My paper will leave people with the truth behind cheerleaders and then people will have the right to make an opinion about cheerleaders with really knowing something about them.

my relationship in this subculture is just being an insider to it. I have developed a better understanding because within the subculture I have developed relationships with fellow team members and have got a better understanding of each opinion. With my mini ethnography I want to stand some what outside of my subculture and get a new view from a different perspective. 

The meaning behind are words a very similar to my own. With being an insider it influence my own fixed positions of the subculture because I feel like the subculture has very little faults. My informant and I are good friends and cheerleading and this year we are both struggling on wether we should try out this year or not. We both enjoy cheerleading, but feel it may take up to much time with our studies.My informant speaks with confidence about her feelings and is not afraid to express them.

The hardest thing from my research has probably been trying to step out of my own subculture and looking at through the eyes of an outsider. The easiest thing was already knowing some of the rules and regulations that come with cheerleading. If I started over I would do an interview with an outsider and get their perspective and understand it so that I can give them explanation. I think that keeping a blog has helped because it has lead me to think ahead with my writing and it has been very beneficial to me. I think that it will help me in many ways with preparing my mini-ethnography because many of these blog posting help in determining what is going to be placed into them.

Week 8

The main theme that I am noticing in my subculture is that I am trying to give people the truth about cheerleaders. My theme tries to get outsiders to understand that cheerleaders are not always the snobby, ditzy, preppy girls that some may think they are. I plan on focusing on all the skill and talent it takes to be a cheerleader. The field-site has a lot to do with the theme because there are some physical things that appear in them to give people some of their perceptions. My thoughts on my subculture have not really changed, but I have discovered why people easily get some these perceptions about cheerleaders. I have come to discover that not all cheerleaders are sweet and innocent, but its not only just cheerleaders. It can be other people that give the vibe as not being so innocent and it could reflect upon their own subculture giving people these perspectives. I have learned to keep an open mind to people opinions and ask why and then understand it.

My Contribution

After observing my subculture I feel like I can make many contributions to the community, to my class mates, and to my own education. My contribution to the community will be to let them know the truth behind the subculture and to persuade them to keep and open mind and not to judge a subculture before getting to know it. With my classmates I hope to fill them with knowledge about the subculture and also help them keep an open mind to the beliefs and rituals behind it. The contribution that I will be giving to myself is getting to know my very own subculture from a different perspective and trying to understand and outsiders view. With an outsiders view I will have to keep an open mind and try to answer some of the questions outsiders might have about some of the rituals and beliefs behind the subculture. With doing this I am going to have a better understanding about my own subculture.

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Sources

"Cheerleading Injuries." 2008. The Gale Group. 18 Feb 2009 .

This source talks about the toughness that is needed to be a cheerleader. It tells how there a lot more injuries happen in other sports besides cheerleading, but cheerleading definitely has the most severe injuries.  The main point of this source is to let people know just how tough off a sport cheerleading is, and even though cheerleaders were skirts and primp up their hair does not mean they are tough. 

I plan on using this source to help me give people an idea of how cheerleading is a tough sport and requires a lot of skill and dedication to do it. I'm hoping that this source will help me give people a new view on cheerleaders instead of the view of being wimpy and prissy.

Fuzzylogic, Dj. "Why do we hate Cheerleaders?." Golden State of Mind. 16 Aug 2007. 18 Feb 2009 .

This source talks about some of the reasons why cheerleaders are hated or despised. While giving some of the reasons it also give explanation to them. The explanation backs up cheerleaders by giving the facts behind them. When some of the reasonings are given the writer tries to contradict them.

I plan on using this source to help me back myself up on some of the reasoning I believe some people might despise cheerleaders.  When giving some of the reasoning I hope to use some of the facts found in this source to contradict them. I want to use this source to let people know the truth about cheerleaders.

Box #18

I have came to gather a lot of information about the subculture of cheerleaders. Most of my information has come from observation at basketball games. At the games the cheerleaders never sit down and they are always cheering and smiling with tons of enthusiasm. Even when the game is at a halt from a time out or half time they still and try to get the crowd involved in the game and try to keep people from leaving their seats. During most of the time outs the cheerleaders go out onto the floor and put on a little show where they show off their skills and talents. After the show some people stand and clap and some do not. It is vary rare that people stand up and actually cheer for us, but I guess that doesn't matter because they are only there to watch the game anyway. Sometimes I feel like cheerleaders might not always get the respect they deserve because they are always cheering on other people and there is hardly anyone that is there to cheer on us. Since I am a cheerleader my perspective about this situation might be different then that of someone else's because some might think that cheerleaders are there for no reason, they do not help at all, they are just an accessory to the game.

Myrtle Beach

Last summer I went on vacation to Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. The atmosphere there was exciting and fun. The days were really long and fun filled. On my first day down there it was blistering hot and I got a scorching sun burn. We happened to stay in a hotel right on the beach so we could step right outside and be there. Before we got to the beach we had to walk through the pool area. There were three pools and they were all uniquely shaped. One pool was to swim in, another on was similar to a lazy river where you would float on a tube, and the other was a kiddy pool that was about 3 feet deep. In the pool area was also a bar and right next to the bar was a stage. While me and my friends were there that stage got plenty of use. My friends and I would often get up on the stage and dance to the music that the DJ was playing and if we weren't dancing then we were singing. Everyday me and my friends did this and the DJ finally gave our little group a nickname. We were soon to be known as the "hoosier girls." This was the funniest vacation I have ever been on. There was not one second were we did nothing. We did something different everyday besides our traditional dancing and singing.

Finishing Touches

For my assignment I plan on adding in some more details about some of the rituals and beliefs my subculture has. With doing this I hope to observe my subculture more throughly. I want to give people a different perspective on the subculture so they have an open mind to it. Not only do I want to finish with some of my observation, I also want to finish with giving some answers to some of the questions I am going to be asking in my interviews. So far I have no questions about the assignments later. I feel like I have a good idea on what is wanted out of our assignments.

Box #15

My most favorite spot in the world is balcony in Naples, Florida. Everything about this place makes me a happier person. In this condo is a balcony that looks over a waterfront with some boats surrounding other lighted condos. I Especially like this place at night because after a long day out in the sun it is nice to sit out on this cool windy balcony and look over the sparking water and waving palm tress. When your skin is burnt its nice to sit by the screened in windows and let the wind easily brush upon your skin, giving it a cooling sensation. I love sitting out on the balcony and smelling the fresh air in which no other place has. 

This balcony has a wicker chair with a cushion on the seat that is comfy to sit on. When sitting in this chair looking over the balcony I tend to go in my own world of peace and relaxation. At that spot I feel no stress, all I feel is happiness. Looking at everything from this very spot makes everything look and seem more pleasant. This spot takes me to my very own place where I am able to take time and think about my life and everything else that goes with it. It is the only place that can do this for me. 

On the other side of the condo is another balcony where everybody on the floor gathers to watch the sunset. When I go to this balcony, many elderly people are anxiously awaiting the drop of the sun. While sitting out on the balcony they are drinking, smoking, and bickering in different languages. As we watch the sun go down we are so happy to be witnessing it, then when it finally disappears everyone on the balcony claps as if the sun had just put on a fabulous show.

I have a pretty good conclusion of the subculture of cheerleaders so far. In many places in the U.S. cheerleading seems to have the same rituals and beliefs. With other countries and places throughout the world cheerleading might have possible never been heard about before. Many places around the world just stick to the more general sports like; basketball, soccer, lacrosse, etc. The sport of cheerleading just seems to be popular in the United States. Though cheerleading might not have much difference geographically, there are two different types of cheerleading. There is competitive cheering and just the normal cheering for school. In competitive cheer there is a lot more difficulty that is expected with your skill in gymnastics, stunting, and also dancing. With competitive cheer a routine is made up, usually by the team or a choreographer where they combine dancing, cheering, and tumbling with a mix of music in the background. In the competitive world of cheerleading, teams come together to compete against each other to find out which team had the hardest and cleanest routine. To be in competitive cheer it requires a lot more practice and extreme skill. Cheerleading for your school also requires some skill, but with school cheering you are mainly there to show your spirit and to get the crowd involved with in the game. School cheerleading still requires gymnastics, stunting, and occasionally dancing too. The only difference between cheering for school and cheering competitively is the idea of competing. 

Cultural Site Visit

I have not yet interviewed anyone in the subculture of cheerleading. When I come to interview some of the cheerleaders I plan on asking them if they cheer because they like it or just for the name of being a cheerleader. I would also probably ask them if it is hard to keep up with their academics with all the practices and games that they have. Another question that would come to mind would be to ask them about why they do some of the things they do. With being an insider I could answer all these questions, but to get a wider understanding of my subculture I plan on getting different opinions on these questions. When doing my subculture I do not plan to do a lot of interviewing since I am already an insider, but I plan on doing a lot of observing of the practices and games. I have been attending cheer practices and games since the beginning of the school year and never really thought about observing my own subculture. When being an insider to your subculture you do not really get to think about why you do some of the things you do. This is why I plan on observing my own subculture by trying to look at it through a different perspective. Though most my thoughts of the subculture will come from observation, I plan on doing some research on the web about cheerleaders and how they are looked at by others. Some other research that I will do will be from magazine articles. For my subculture I do not think I can do much academic research. Most of the research I will find will be based on opinions, beliefs, and ideas. If I did an academic research on cheerleaders I would have to find some statistics on them.

My subculture study is going to be on cheerleaders. Fortunately, I am currently a ball state cheerleader and can be and insider to some of my study. My field work site will be at the practices, games, and inside the locker room. With already being an insider to this subculture I am going to try and see things through the eyes of others who aren't familiar with this subculture and maybe come up with some questions about some the characteristics we cheerleaders have. Though I am an insider, I hope to learn more about some of the characteristics that are just natural to the subculture of cheerleaders and maybe get an answer to why we do some of the things we do.

In my field study of the subculture athletes, I know that some factors may affect my view of things about the culture. These factors include my gender, my class schedule, and also personal experiences of being an athlete myself. The fact that I am a female could change the experience and influence of a male athlete. Another factor would be my class schedule. With my schedule I will need to dedicate myself to some athletic observation and maybe a little less time on class study so that my field of study comes out accurate. The last factor is that of me being an athlete myself and having my own personal experiences with being one and letting it influence my writing.

When getting ready for a basketball game I would have routines or rituals that I would do. When doing these rituals or routines I felt they would help me play to the best of my ability. Some of the routines I did was eat a good meal of carbohydrates and drink lots of water during the day. Also, before the game I would come in to the gym 30 minutes early to practice shooting and dribbling. Finally, when it was just 10 minutes before warm ups me and my team-mates would go in the locker room and play songs and dance to get us fired up for the big game. Many would think that listening to music and dancing would not get you ready for a game. This ritual is one that I must follow because it really gets your blood flowing and it is like a pre-warm up so that you do not look so bad when you first show your skills on the court.

Past Stories

A past story that I wrote was about a trip that I took on spring break to Florida. It was a narrative essay in which I told the story of my trip. In writing this story, I first began to make an outline. In my outline I had an introduction, a body with important events that happened on the trip, and a conclusion. After making the outline I put all the different pieces together and wrote a rough draft. When I wrote my rough draft I looked over my paper many of times to see if I left any main points out or to see if I could be more specific on my ideas. I also looked to see if my sentences made sense. When I finally thought I had everything that I needed in my paper, I looked over it to see if there was any mistakes in my grammar, spelling, and punctuation. After I was finished, I revised and edited my paper one my time before I turned it in. I think the difference in revising and editing is, revising is looking at the whole story and fixing mistakes in the story and editing also has to do with fixing mistakes in the story, but it is grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes.