Andrew Terry

Ethnography Reflection
During my ethnography research and overall putting together of
a final product, I experience hardships as well as enlightening nuances.
At times, I felt inspired; mostly to learn everything I could about the
discourse community that I studied. My interest peaked at points when
learning something new about the community that I am uncertainly
very involved in. I learned a little about myself in this research too.
That being that when you think you know everything, chances are
there is someone somewhere that knows something you dont. So I
learned not to be afraid to talk to others about things that you may
think you know everything about; you might be surprised.
When planning this paper, I somewhat struggled with finding a
very smooth and clean way of linking everything I wanted to talk about
together. The topics I wanted to bring up were related, but
transitioning between them seemed difficult. I have always had a
problem with that no matter what it is Im writing. To help me along, I
used an outline to guide me to building my paper, step by step. That
seemed to me my only trouble that I had during the process of writing
the paper. I did, however, get inspired. After interview my friend,
Nathan Furr, about the community I realized there are a few things that
I didnt know. This inspired me to continue my research to link
everything together, not just for the paper but for myself as well.

This project did, in fact, open my eyes to a different out look on

how the community in question is viewed. Growing up around this
culture, its hard to see the downsides and different views people have
on it, especially if it is negative. While I was doing research, I noticed
numerous articles about street racing and car meets gone bad. I have
always been aware that outsiders of the community didnt favor its
members too fondly but my interest stopped there, never giving it
much thought. I learned how hated this culture is sometimes, with
some valid reasons. Street racing and car meets disturbing the peace,
sometimes causing accidents (motor vehicle or otherwise). It has
been brought to my attention, this negative view against the car
community, and plan on using that knowledge to help people see the
good qualities that are brought upon by the culture.
My writing process for this piece was altered from my normal
routine. I normally get an idea and just roll with it. This time I used an
outline, which proved to be very helpful in helping me piece together
the puzzle of my thoughts. By using the plan that I put together I was
able to have my ideas flow seamlessly from one another. These ideas
that I had very much relate to the overall idea that we discussed in
class about discourse communities. Before even starting I made sure
that the community I picked checked off all of the boxes of what a
discourse community is. After that was done it was all a matter of
getting it to paper, which was easy once I got going. I made sure to

touch on every aspect of the community I picked and how it can be

considered a discourse community.
In conclusion, I learned more during this process than I thought
was possible in a subject that I am so well versed in. Just goes to show
how no matter how much you know, you can always learn more.