With the approach of today, there is officially only a week left until our collaborative research project needs to be completed. It was decided that in celebration of our LAST blog post for this semester, we would collaborate together to creat this post based on our similar worries and opinions. Where are we in this process? Way too far behind, and honestly it is making us a little nervous. Who knew that something as simple as a research project could be so nerve wrecking. Maybe it is the fact that we were so set on who we were going to interview in the beggining, and because of complications, that plan slipped right between our fingers. We managed to get a longer interview from Kaitlyn's sister and cousin, a whopping eighteen minutes total, but we still need more. Our class time today consisted of pulling quotes from our sources to be put in our final documentary video. Meanwhile, Kaitlyn managed to get in touch with a friend of her father's who owns a slaughter house. He stated that he didn't know "how smart" he was going to sound, but he was willing to try his best. We can't say that we feel relief, as we can no longer get our hopes up because of our original interviews that failed, but we are in high hopes that this will turn out differently. On a happier note, our annotated bibliography is in the midst of being completed, HALLELUJAH! Christie has been working hard on that, while all three of us have also been taking apart quotes from our sources to be added to the final video that Christie and I will be working on together. Our plan is to take the interviews from Kaitlyn and incorporate those with facts and effects to make an informational video. Lets just hope everything runs smoothly, because we are officially cutting close to the deadline.
Because of our difficulties getting an interview from an older source who raises their own livestock, Kaitlyn decided to give the interview a new perspective and gets a child's view on the benefits of raising your own livestock. She interviewed both her sister (13) and her cousin (12), both of them raise there own pigs for 4H and sell them for profit. Although it was not what we wanted or expected out of an interview, it added a comedic touch to our overall research collaboration. During class, Kaitlyn and I looked over the video she took, which was on a video camera she purchased solely for research. She admitted it was difficult trying to figure out to work something so new, and we also had trouble with the sound as we watched it. I myself had to hold it up to my ear to listen closely to the interview process, it was a bit annoying, but I had no other choice. We still have yet to transfer the video to a computer, but I have fears that it may be another part of our process that will refuse to run smoothly. My fingers are crossed! As for the interview itself, the process didn't last as long as she expected, it was about eight minutes total. This was a bit nerve wrecking considering we need about 20 minutes of recording, but she hopes to try again. Questions had to be switched up to meet a child's understanding, and even with 18 different questions and improvisation, the interview was short winder. They did not take the questions too seriously, and had the tendency to answer with short responses, something that we feared from the beginning. We hope to add to what they gave to us with interviews from others who are willing to cooperate. This is probably the most stressed out that I have ever been regarding a class project, but I am hoping for the best.
As a group, we came to the conclusion that during our interview process, one person would conduct them, and the other two would work together to complete the editing and publishing part of the project. Our initiative for picking our research topic in the first place was the fact that Kaitlyns father raises his own livestock, along with a few of her fathers friends. Because of this, we knew that we would have the access to a few different interviews that we could peice together in the end. This would give our collaboritive research depth, along with varied persepectives. Because we are trying to figure out the motives for raising your own livestock, it was important to focus on more than one person, making sure that the results would not turn out to be biased. Although it looked like we had everything all together and planned, not everything can run smoothly. Kaitlyn informed us that those who she originally wanted to interview were not cooperating as well as planned. Her fathers friend in particular refused to be video recorded or voice recorded in fear of judgement of his "hillbilly self". She is going to try and continue to push for this interview along with one from her father, as they would play a significant role in our final research. We hope to have these completed by the end of this week so that we can peice them together for our final draft due next Thursday. It is going to be a close call, but hopefully the odds will be in our favor.
I will admit, on both the behalf of myself, Christie Johnson and Kaitlyn Bill, that coming up with the topic of the collaborative research project was not an easy task. We began the process with the intention on doing our project based on the false advertisement of McDonald's and how it relates to their menu layout, but after a week of second guessing, that idea changed. The change was overwhelming, but each of us agreed that our new topic may be more successful than the one that we previously picked. Below were our possible research questions, our final one is highlighted, and a few questions that we will use during our interview process. Five possible Research Questions:-How did corn become one the most used crops? -How do you tell if food is really organic from the label? -Where does Kevin's law stand today? -How accurate is McDonald's advertising healthy foods compared to their menu? -What are the main factors that make individuals decide to raise/slaughter their own livestockTen possible interview questions:-What is your name and how would you describe your occupation? -Why did you decide to start raising your own livestock? -What are the benefits of raising you own meat? -What parts of the animal meat to you eat? -Do you use the bones and feet for healthy stock? -Did your family inspire you to get into this field work? If not what made you get involved? -Do you have any children? Do they plan on growing their own livestock? -Do you think involving your kids will teach them new things? Responsibility? -Why do you continue to slaughter your own livestock? -When did you first begin raising your own livestock? -What kind of livestock do you raise? -How much livestock do you raise at a time? -Do you eat your meat or is it strictly for sale. Why/why not? -What do you see as the benefits to producing your own meat? -Describe your geographic location. Acres? -Do you ever buy meat from the grocery store?
Take time to think about the daily conversations that take place in your life, whether you chose to converse in them or strictly listen. How many topics brought up in these conversations can you place a finger on? Probably more than half, if not all of them. We gain our understanding of the world around us by conversing with others; by listening to their ideas, and by sharing ideas of our own. By sharing our ideas with others, we are collaborating. In Fontaine and Hunters' " Collaborative writing in Composition Studies" many ideas regarding collaboration are expressed, including a few that I was not already familiar with. One that interested me was the fact that as a learner you must be open to new ideas in order to be successful in collaboration. If you are close-minded, there is a great chance that you will not open up to group work and the ideas that are out there other than your own. I find sometimes myself that there are days where I just want to work on my own, and because of this I do not take in a lot of the things that happen around me. One type of collaboration that I am familiar with is the idea of splitting up and then reforming into groups. This way, everyone can come up with their own opinions without being influenced by others, and then share there knowledge and come up with common agreements or disagreements. Although I am often not a fan of "group work", collaboration in the classroom happens often, and it is beneficial when it comes to research projects like the one that I am partaking in right now with my WRT class. If I were to complete the assignment on my own, I now realize that I would have adifficult time, because it took my entire groups ideas to form both a topic and a person that we would choose to interview. Overall, sometimes its better to have others to lean on, rather than just yourself.
To start this post, I would like to point out that I have no interest in reading either or the writing pieces that my professor assigned this week. Half because I am already overwhelmed in work and hate informational readings, and the other half being because of the overwhelming length of each piece. But as much as I dreaded the thought of reading, they both helped me gain a better understanding of what our upcoming research was going to entail.
Qualitative research relates to sociology, which personally, I am fascinated with. It is focused on how humans behave and why they do so. It is often a collaboration of multiple resources, whether they come from personal experiences or already put together things, such as videos or interviews. You're personal opinions and direct contact with others with similar or opposite opinions will help you form your final thoughts or outcome.
In relation to this research is narrative inquiry. Similarly, they both relate to studying human behavior. However, narrative inquiry focuses on how humans create an understanding of something through experiencing things, mostly personal experience.
Using these two types of research will be useful for my upcoming project with my group. We will need to use our personal experiences as buyers of food, on top of the opinions and detailed facts that we receive from the person that we are to interview. The final project will be one big collaboration of everyones' research and thoughts, each person having their own part in the process.
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