The sinuous process of this ethnographic report

This is a long piece of writing. 3000 words + a 1000-word reflection on your research and methods and possible next steps and whatnot. I’m talking about the ethnographic report that I’m writing on young people and authority. Working on it has been AN experience.

From the beginning, I disrupted my usual approach to research by starting off with examples and stories from young people instead of reading theories about authority. It went well (I’d say) and I enjoy this reverse thinking - practice, literature, fusion into theory. That being said, the ‘fusion into theory’ step was not smooth at all. I’ll get better at it now that I’ve done it once. My main struggles were with these two things: 1. Suitability with the theme over the number of stories and 2. NOT putting my own interpretation into the stories I used.

For 1. I decided that I will return to the stories that I didn’t get to use and develop them into another project because they’re extremely valuable. A simple fix. I was complicating myself, but a chat with the lecturer helped me gain some clarity. 2, however, is a literary research shard - you read the primary source and theorise about it based on secondary sources. You cannot do that with people’s experiences! Once I became aware, it stopped being an issue.

So far I have written 2760 words (some a few weeks ago, some yesterday, and most of them today). The next step is to write the conclusion and the reflection bit. Plus get feedback and edit if necessary. I’m on track!