Katterman 1

Mia Katterman

Dr. Naftzinger

FYS-125-JN

10 September 2019

Auto-Ethnography

Prior to filling out my time use diary, I believed that my writing habits were influenced

by my audience. I was under the impression that I only wrote when it was required and graded,

specifically for schooling purposes. However, after completing my time use diary I’ve

discovered that my writing habits are largely reflective upon my location and the time of day.

My location generally dictates when I text, and/or when I hand-write notes and reminders in my

agenda. Furthermore, my frequency in writing varies upon the time of day due to my busier

schedule in the morning through afternoon between field hockey and classes.

Based on my time use dairy statistics, my main form of writing—texts—revolved around

my location. According to the records, I performed almost 86% of my text from my dorm, while

the other 14% occurred mostly in the car to/from practice. These numbers show that I completed

most of my texts based on the convenience of my location. My downtime mostly occurs in my

dorm following a long day of practice, lifting, running, and classes. With that I’m normally more

busy, or don’t have access to my phone when at practice or in class.. With that I’m normally

more busy, or don’t have access to my phone when at practice or in class. These numbers show

that I completed most of my texts based on the convenience of my location. Therefore, it’s vastly

logical that most of my texting occurs in my dorm, during my downtime and least busy time of

my day. Being in dorms means less busy and more time to write, where as being in class means
more busy and less time to write. This proves that my writing is indeed, largely influenced by my

location as a result of my location correlating with my availability to write.

While location affected my texting habits, my time use diary also indicated that location

largely influenced my choice in style of writing. My time use diary illustrated 57% of my writing

occurring through text form, while the other 43% through hand-written notes/ reminders. My

schedule throughout the week is somewhat 50/50 split between my time relaxing, and my time in

class. This implies that half of my day is spent unwinding in my dorm: the location where the

majority of my texts occurred in my time use diary.

While the other half is spent engaged in the classroom: the location in which I write all of

my hand-written notes and reminders seen in my time use diary. This specifies why location

influences the style of writing I undertake. I text when I am relaxed and have little worries,

which occurs mostly in my dorm. Whereas, in the classroom I compose handwritten notes and

reminders to contain information.

In addition to location, my time use diary also showed me that time has a large influence

on my writing habits. My schedule on weekdays are consistently the same (field hockey in the

morning until 11, followed by classes until 4, study hall until 6, concluded by downtime until I

fall asleep in my dorm). On weekday mornings I perform little to no writing, while this time of

day I’m preoccupied with field hockey and have no access/need for writing to occur. During

weekday afternoons, I only perform class-related writing such hand-written notes/ reminders or

online assignments/ discussion posts, as a result of my classes and study hall taking place during

this time.

Lastly, on weekday evenings I have downtime where most of my texts occur, due to my

writing having lack of purpose at the moment. Altogether, this analysis of my weekly time
 Katterman 3
schedule in correlation to the forms of writing I used, proves how time is a large influence in my

writing habits, seen in my time use diary.

Continuing with time being an extensive connection with my writing habits based on my

weekday schedule, a similar pattern occurs based on my weekend schedule. My time use diary

indicated that I completed the least amount of writing in the week on Friday and Sunday (less

than 7%). This attributes to my game schedule occurring every Friday and Sunday in the middle

of the day. On game days, between 9-7 my day is consumed by film, playing, eating, socializing,

or rehab all the way up until I go to bed. During these times I have no purpose for any forms of

writing. I generally get all of my school work done prior to game days, and my friends and

parents are present throughout the day. Ultimately, this explains why I accomplish such little

writing during the weekends, and proves based on my time use diary that time has a substantial

influence on my writing habits.

Before keeping track of my writing in my time use diary, I had the notion that most of the

writing that I performed was for school and professors on the basis of grades and requirements.

However, after completing my time use diary I’ve discovered that location and time have the

largest influence on my writing. Location effects whether my writing is in the form of text or

hand-written notes, while the time of day/day of the week determines how often I write. All in

all, I went into this assignment, seeing it as very tedious and somewhat a waste of my time.

Though, as the week went by, I’ve found that without my time use diary I wouldn’t understand

or even see circumstances within my writing and writing styles.