FINAL PORTFOLIO

http://laurensenglishportfolio.weebly.com/

4/23/10

The portfolio website I choose to look over was by Meredith McKee. One thing I really liked about her website was how she separated her midterm portfolio and her final portfolio from one another. This made it very easy to navigate throughout her website. I also liked how she included and about me as well as a home page. The only thing I would have changed with Meredith's website would have been to add links at the bottom of her pages and also maybe have made the blog entries, in class writings and her essays into drop down tabs from the midterm and final portfolio links at the top. I also noticed how she separated her final project into five different sections titled Intro, Space, Interviews, Conclusion, and a Works Cited. This was an interesting way to organize it yet it did the job of incorporating all of the pieces of her final ethnography. Overall Meredith's website was creative, easy to navigate and included everything that is required to be in our portfolios.

4/19/10

The excerpt from the book called Nickel and Dimed really grasped all of the elements that need to be incorporated into my final ethnography. The excerpt was very interesting to read since the author wrote it in first person about how she reflects on the life of struggling lower class American who is working multiple jobs.

The excerpt really incorporated a lot of background information about the jobs she had worked and really gave you an image of how she lived her life. The author incorporated a few interviews throughout the book, but most importantly provided the reader with many observations. She talked about each job individually and also talked about how she was doing this all to help her family who had suffered the worst. She also provided the audience with some very important background research that showed statistics on average wages for people in her town was well as the nation. Her excerpt did not just included the information she had observed but she combined the observations and interviews so that it flowed into one well written ethnography which is what I will need to keep in mind when writing my final ethnography.

4/9/10

One thing I probably need to add more of in my final essay would be more observations of people and their interactions with others at the dining hall. I should also talk a little more about the types of people who work at the seven restaurants at West End. Are they students or adults and are they polite or rude. One pattern I am beginning to see in my essays is how I can now tell the time of day that west end is crowded compared to when it is empty. I have also can tell when certain groups of people come into west end such as the athletes.

Secondary Source

Doing West End for my ethnography enabled me to go in many different directions when choosing secondary sources topics. One of the topics I had touched on in my first essay was, how heathy and nutritious is the food for you at West End. Mypyramid.gov is a great source for looking up nutrition facts for food and also a good reference for helping students maintain a balanced diet. The website provides you with an in depth food pyramid that will easily guide you to a healthier lifestyle. Another secondary source that will be helpful to me when writing my third essay is the West End page of the vt.edu website. It provides a lot of history about the dining hall and also accolades the dining hall has received for the food and services they provide. Overall I think these to websites along with the library will be helpful to me as I begin to research and write my third essay.

Secondary Research Topics

As I looked back at my second essay one of the things I felt I needed to add when I start my third essay was more information about the observations of the people in West End and how they interact with each other. One way that can help me with this will be the interview portion of the third essay. Another key component of the third essay is the secondary research. Some topics I would consider for this would be food and nutrition to possibly determine how healthy the food at West End. I also could do a search of Dining Halls on College Campuses and try and compare other dining halls to West End since it is considered one of the premiere dining halls to eat at. Hopefully between the library, the internet and my observations I will be able to find enough secondary information to help me with my project.

http://laurensenglishportfolio.weebly.com/index.html