Breanna2013's Blog

Research Journal #26

breanna2013 — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 08:46:35 +0000

I’m super stressed at the moment. I think I’ve spent the past 10 hours trying to work on this and I’m having difficulties. My interview script got deleted off of Scribd and is no longer saved on my computer. All of the pictures are taking a long time to load and I’m worried about getting stuff done by the deadline simply because the internet is so slow and I have to link everything in my Table of Contents. I want so bad to get this done but it is extremely time consuming. Also, I’m confused on the MLA format for artifacts. I know how to do the assigned readings and interviews but I’m not sure how to list a pamphlet. I just wrote it in and will ask Dr. Carter tomorrow.

Research Journal #25

breanna2013 — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:34:27 +0000

I’m very pleased with the variety and amount of data in my research portfolio. Everything I have also fits nicely into the main themes I’ve discovered. In my portfolio I have fieldnotes, research journals, writing assignments, recorded interviews, artifcats from my fieldsite, pictures, and survey results. The pictures go to show the location of the BSM, the winow paint on the windows, the sign advertising the free luch, the various posters advertising events and bible studies and students chilling at the BSM, watching tv, and playing ping pong. The pictures will be important visuals in my final paper. The fieldnotes, interviews, and survey results all have the same things that will shape the structure of my paper. They reinforce that the number one method that brings in students to the BSM is word-of-mouth and the second is facebook. They also cover important outreach methods the BSM uses such as the Freen Noon Lunch, Banana Bash, Dollar Steak Night, mission trips, and community service projects. I’ll organize my text around the importance of the outreach methods and reinforce what I’m saying with pictures.

Research Journal #24

breanna2013 — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:18:18 +0000

It was almost sad reading this chapter. This book has walked me through my ethnographic process and has taught me much. It connected all of the dots from the previous chapters. It reminded me to always ask the questions “What surprised me?” “What intrigued me?” “What disturbed me?” Just like I asked these questions after each set of fieldnotes, I will use them to guide me as I write my final paper. To develop my final draft I plan on utilizing everything from my annotated table of contents. I’ll go through and make sure I’m pleased with all of my coding and then sort stuff by topic. This will aid in the order and formation of my paper. See #3 (analysis) for more.

2. Annotated Table of Contents

A small green sheet of paper with all the different weekly events. This will be great to give me insight into other areas to take fieldnotes and give me interviewee ideas
Two Business cards for the main leadership at the BSM: Joe Schmidt and Ashlee Stricklin-I’ve already interviewed both of these people
A packet with a pamphlet and a tract from the Ridgecrest Baptist Church
Business card for the First Baptist Church Sulphur Springs
Bookmark for Authentic Life Fellowship
Business card for Living Stones Church
Advertisement for Commerce Community Church
Pamphlet for Cedar Grove Baptist Church
Flyer for the College Ministry of the First Baptist Church of Commerce (All of these brought to mind that the BSM didn’t want to be the sole spiritual guidance for students. It seeks to plug students into local churches.)
Student Info card to fill out for the BSM (This is how the BSM finds out about the students who attend. Thus they know that most of the students are freshmen or sophomores.)
“Go Now” missionary cards so students can pray for the missionaries
“Go Now” student information card
“Go Now” missions positions list book (These “Go Now” literacy items were my first contact with the BSM’s theme of outreach)
Ministry Outreach Info card for BSM members to fill out-this is a method of literacy the BSM uses to find out more of the interests of its students.
Pamphlet with a business card for Commerce Community Church attached-again this reinforces that the BSM wants to also direct students to local churches. C3 is one of the more actively involved churches and its preacher attends the BSM weekly.
“Women in Need” flyer-one of the many shelters/outreach programs the BSM does
Journeyman information tract
Christian tract over the 4 spiritual laws-shows important doctrine to the BSM
10/8/09 Fieldnotes from “Overflow”-allows me to see how people react to each other at Overflow and what it’s like attending for the first time
10/14/09 Fieldnotes from a typical day at the BSM-this allowed me to see how the BSM functions as a refuge for students
10/22/09 Fieldnotes from “Overflow”-reinforces what I observed from the first week
10/27/09 Fieldnotes from the “Freshman Leadership Class”-this gives me insight into part of the decision making team.
10/29/09 Fieldnotes from “Overflow”-allowed me to come in contact with the many students who go to the BSM. I can also get a feel for the types of students who attend the BSM
WA1, WA2, WA3, and WA4-these are where all my revelations about the impact and importance of literacy took place. These writing assignments caused me to relate to what I read to everyday life and I will do the same with the BSM.
Recorded interview with the director-this is priceless since I can listen to the interview any time to reafirm something I thought I heard or catch something I missed
Expanded fieldnotes from the recording-these allowed me to pay much closer attention to the details said during the interview and note things that I didn’t have time to write during the interview. This interview was where I first developed my theory of cliques within the BSM
Recorded interview with Ashlee Stricklin-she was able to give me more detail about the literacy methods the BSM uses to draw in students
Interview notes with Ashlee-these contain ideas that occurred to me when I talked with her and were able to lead to more questions to ask
Fieldnotes from Free Noon Lunch on 11/17/09-this was my first opportunity to attend due to a cancelled class. I was able to observe how the lunch worked and it gave me more insight on the BSM other than just what I had obtained from Overflow.

I’ve received all the survey’s I should get from students. This has greatly contributed to my knowledge of recurring themes. The two main methods that the BSM uses to draw students in are word-of-mouth and Facebook. In all but one of the surveys, word-of-mouth was the number one answer with Facebook second. The most recurring theme about the mission of the BSM is outreach. The BSM does outreach in so many different ways and levels (mission trips on its own and with Go Now Missions, Overflow, Free Noon Lunch, and Community Service). One thing I have discovered and what will help me develop a thesis is how the word-of-mouth method limits the BSM on the type of students who attend. I’ve formed that all of the methods that draw students in are methods of outreach. I’ve got rich information about the BSM that will provide great insight for my final paper but it is this discovery about the word-of-mouth method that surprised me the most. Being cliquish was something I first recognized but had trouble placing my finger on and this theme emerged with my interview with Joe. The thought occurred to me that people often hang out with those with similar interests as themselves and if current students’ friends are the ones who have the greatest chances of coming, then the BSM isn’t reaching out to specific student groups. The theme of needing insiders in the BSM came in to play because of this. However, I learned about methods the BSM is doing to counteract the forming of cliques and talk about this in WA4. As far as what I have left to do, I have an interview lined up with a junior member of the leadership team. Although I already have most of my data, this interview will give me greater insight into the Free Noon Lunch since this girl organizes it and will let me see a different perspective on the BSM. I’m also working on an interview with a new student at the BSM to get a newcomer’s point of view. After I get these I will spend a great deal of time examining all of my data together and looking for themes I have missed. This is where I see the importance of coding. After taking expanded fieldnotes over this process I will be ready to begin writing.
1. Code book
  1. IS=internal studies within the BSM
  2. SG-small group
  3. L2=leadership at the BSM
  4. FLT-freshman leadership team
  5. C4=referred churches by the BSM
  6. I4=international students
  7. CL=cliques
  8. B3=BSM papers/advertisements
  9. GN=anything “Go Now” missions related
  10. W2=general pamphlet for something other than a church supported by the BSM
  11. L8-letter to the students at the BSM
  12. O2=outreach theme
  13. WP=window paint
  14. M12=free Monday lunch
  15. LT=leadership team
  16. WM=word of mouth
  17. FB=Facebook
  18. CO=community outreach
  19. CAO=campus outreach
  20. MT=mission trips
  21. IF=Info fairs
  22. EM-email

Research Journal #23

breanna2013 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:15:16 +0000

I’m beginning to see all of my data fall into place and this is extremely exciting for me! I’ve taken numerous sets of fieldnotes and have made it a point to become involved in my fieldsite, the BSM. I’ve done two interviews….but one of those interviews was with three people. We had a great roundtable discussion and I was able to get multiple points of view from the intern, secretary, and a student at the BSM. Joe Schmidt was my first interviewee for WA4 and his interview was extremely helpful as well. It felt like working on WA4 was rough draft for my final project. I’ve collected alot of information and I feel I will have no trouble coming up with what to write for my final paper. An exciting discovery was even made that will help to provide me with a thesis. I’ve uncovered that the most effective method used to bring students to the BSM is word-of-mouth. The student to student relationships are extremly important. However, a by-product of this is that the BSM has tended to become cliquish and certain student groups are excluded. (There are no members of the football team who attend the BSM.) To have other student groups attend you need an insider in the BSM. Joe and I talked alot about this and how it is human nature to go where your friends are and you are comfortable. This was as interesting relevaton and what is even more interesting is that steps are being taken to not make the BSM cliquish. Members of the Leadership Team are encouraged to meet and greet new students every Thursday at Overflow and sit with people they don’t know at the free noon lunch on Mondays. I’m super excited to have discovered all of this because it was something I did not expect/think about when I began my study. In addition to this, I have all other types of ways the BSM reaches out to students through info fairs, campus outreach, mission trips, ECT. to provide even more fodder for my paper. My survey went out today and I have recieved my first response. Already it provided me with material that is relevant that I didn’t know about and reaffirmed other things I thought about. (Ex: I didn’t know the BSM is looking for someone to lead a media ministry and confirmed that word-of-mouth and facebook are the two most important methods that the BSM connects with students. It feels like everything is falling into place which makes me very happy!

Research Journal #22

breanna2013 — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:44:39 +0000

So far, I feel pretty comfortable with my research process. I’ve been attending the BSM’s overflow service every week to take field notes and have interviewed the director of the BSM. I’m working on a survey on surveymonkey.com to send out to the students and have made contact with the intern at the BSM to interview her as well. I feel I’ve been able to get a pretty good direction of where to focus my study thanks to my interview with the director. I would like to find out more about the format for my final paper from Dr. Carter. I’m still a bit unsure on the whole process, such as the the page length that it needs to be.

Annotated Table of Contents

A small green sheet of paper with all the different weekly events. This will be great to give me insight into other areas to take fieldnotes and give me interviewee ideas
Two Business cards for the main leadership at the BSM: Joe Schmidt and Ashlee Stricklin-I’ve already interviewed Joe and should interview Ashlee soon
A packet with a pamphlet and a tract from the Ridgecrest Baptist Church
Business card for the First Baptist Church Sulphur Springs
Bookmark for Authentic Life Fellowship
Business card for Living Stones Church
Advertisement for Commerce Community Church
Pamphlet for Cedar Grove Baptist Church
Flyer for the College Ministry of the First Baptist Church of Commerce

10. Student Info card to fill out for the BSM

11. “Go Now” missionary cards so students can pray for the missionaries

12. “Go Now” student information card

13. “Go Now” missions positions list book

14. Ministry Outreach Info card for BSM members to fill out-this is a method of literacy the BSM uses to find out more of the interests of its students.

15. Pamphlet with a business card for Commerce Community Church attached-these pamphlets show how the BSM wants to direct students to other churchs. It shows how the BSM never intends to replace church.

16. “Women in Need” flyer-one of the many shelters/outreach programs the BSM does

17. Journeyman information tract

18. Christian tract over the 4 spiritual laws-shows important doctrine to the BSM

19. 10/8/09 Fieldnotes from “Overflow”

20. 10/14/09 Fieldnotes from a typical day at the BSM-this allowed me to see how the BSM functions as a refuge for students

21. 10/22/09 Fieldnotes from “Overflow”

22. 10/27/09 Fieldnotes from the “Freshman Leadership Class”-this gives me insight into part of the decision making team.

23. 10/29/09 Fieldnotes from “Overflow”-these allow me to come in contact with the many students who go to the BSM. I can also get a feel for the types of students who attend the BSM

24. Interview (recorded and notes) with Joe Schmidt

25. Research Journals with valuable insight from the assigned reading-these keep me focused and on track.

26. WA1, WA2, WA3, and WA4-these are where all my revelations about the impact and importance of literacy took place. These writing assignments caused me to relate to what I read to everyday life and I will do the same with the BSM.

27. Recorded interview with the director-this is priceless since I can listen to the interview any time to reafirm something I thought I heard or catch something I missed

28. Expanded fieldnotes from the recording-these allowed me to pay much closer attention to the details said during the interview and note things that I didn’t have time to write during the interview.

All of my findings from my time at the BSM are helping to give me a more complete picture of the BSM. My fieldnotes at Overflow have explored literacy forms that the BSM hands out to students to reinforce the message Joe Schmidt preaches. These literacy forms don’t really have much to do with my study about literacy methods the BSM uses to attract new students but they give me a more complete picture so collecting them and taking fieldnotes can’t hurt. Understanding the BSM is critical to understanding why students attend.

I’ve contacted Ashlee and will interview her soon. She will be important because she does much of the work on Facebook, which is one of the key ways the BSM contacts students. Ashlee also knows the literacy methods that the BSM uses and can expound and reafirm what I already know. I will be working with her to send out my survey this week.

Based on my conversation with Joe, the main way students hear about the BSM is based on word-of-mouth. This has great potential to be the main focus of the rest of my study. The interesting part is that this means students attend with their friends. Thus it means the BSM is cliquish and doesn’t have any students of certain groups such as the Ag students or the basketball and football players.

I want to interview students on the leadership team and attend one of the small groups. I need to explore the literacy methods of Facebook, email, and window paint to see the importance of their impacts.

Code book-I’ve expounded on the codes I already have so that they are not so broad.

A1=internal studies within the BSM

SG-small group

L2=leadership at the BSM

FLT-freshman leadership team

C4=referred churches by the BSM

I5=international students

CL=cliques

B3=BSM papers/advertisements

G7=anything “Go Now” missions related

W2=general pamphlet for something other than a church supported by the BSM

L8-letter to the students at the BSM

O2=outreach theme

W8=window paint

M12=free Monday lunch

LT=leadership team

WM=word of mouth

FB=Facebook

CO=community outreach

CAO=campus outreach

MI=mission trips

IF=Info fairs

EM-email

Research Journal #21

breanna2013 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:49:16 +0000

My plans for WA4 are to use an interview with the director of the BSM, Joe Schmidt, to get an insider’s point of view into my fieldsite. I’ve made contact with him several times and have talked to him about my study. Last week, he even let me sit in on one of their Junior Leadership Team meetings where I was able to collect another set of fieldnotes and observe an important part of the decision making team in the BSM. I’ll review the examples in Fieldworking to get a good sense of a text based model for WA4. I recorded my interview with Joe and will listen to it over and over to get a better sense of recurring themes and to take another set of fieldnotes. My interview with Joe dealt with both his personal life and the details of the BSM. Because he has been involved with the BSM for 9 years he knows the inner workings of the BSM very thoroughly and will be a tremendous help with my larger research project.

My coding system is one that uses the first letter of the alphabet to remind me of what I am referring to. I follow it with a simple number that can be added to so the code can be expand on if need be. These codes refer to pretty much anything that caught my eye in the many things I analyzed (my fieldnotes, interview with Joe, and literary materials collected from the site).

A1=internal studies within the BSM

L2=leadership at the BSM

C4=referred churches by the BSM

I5=international students

B3=BSM papers/advertisements

G7=anything “Go Now” missions related

W2=general pamphlet for something other than a church supported by the BSM

L8-letter to the students at the BSM

O2=outreach theme

W8=window paint M12=free Monday lunch

LT=leadership team

WM=word of mouth

FB=Facebook

It was hard to take a good set of fieldnotes from the East Caney study in class because I had a hard time hearing and understanding the video due to the computer speakers. I was able to get a better understanding of what was going on by discussing it with my classmates since some people heard parts of the conversation that others didn’t. The experience of trying to take good notes while the men were talking was much like it was in my actual interview. I learned you have to pay close attention to what is going while you are trying to write. Inevitably, you will miss something which is why it is important to record the interview and go over it later to catch what you missed.

Research Journal #20

breanna2013 — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:25:04 +0000

Annotated Table of Contents

A small green sheet of paper with all the different weekly events. This will be great to give me insight into other areas to take fieldnotes and give me interviewee ideas.
Two Business cards for the main leadership at the BSM: Joe Schmidt and Ashlee Stricklin
A packet with a pamphlet and a tract from the Ridgecrest Baptist Church
Business card for the First Baptist Church Sulphur Springs
Bookmark for Authentic Life Fellowship
Business card for Living Stones Church
Advertisement for Commerce Community Church
Pamphlet for Cedar Grove Baptist Church
Flyer for the College Ministry of the First Baptist Church of Commerce
Student Info card to fill out for the BSM
“Go Now” missionary cards so students can pray for the missionaries
“Go Now” student information card
“Go Now” missions positions list book
Ministry Outreach Info card for BSM members to fill out
Pamphlet with a business card for Commerce Community Church attached
“Women in Need” flyer
Journeyman information tract
Christian tract over the 4 spiritual laws
10/8/09 Fieldnotes from “Overflow”
10/14/09 Fieldnotes from a typical day at the BSM
10/22/09 Fieldnotes from “Overflow”
10/27/09 Fieldnotes from the “Freshman Leadership Class”
10/29/09 Fieldnotes from “Overflow”
Interview (recorded and notes) with Joe Schmidt
Research Journals with valuable insight from the assigned reading
WA1, WA2, and WA3

Overall, I am very pleased with my progress so far. I have made firm contact with the BSM and they know what I am doing. This Thursday I will get to introduce myself formally to all the students and ask them to take part in my survey. I have numerous sources of “literacy” collected and detailed fieldnotes that will provide valuable insight for my final project. I’m starting to recognize recurring themes at the BSM. A major theme would be outreach. They have numerous small groups designed to outreach to their own students but they also expand on a larger scale by hosting campus wide events, taking mission trips, and supporting Go Now Ministries. I talked about this with Joe, the director of the BSM; he said they consider outreach very important so they can show the love of God to others.

Another common theme is leadership. They have a leadership team that consists of nine students. It takes much dedication on the students’ part to be a part of this team because they have to meet with Joe and Ashlee (an intern) every week to discuss their plans for their small group and they probably put in an additional 8 to 10 hours a week. There is also a Freshman Leadership Team that consists of four people. They want these youth to become mature spiritual leaders and guide them through their walk with Christ during this transition year. These two themes are very interconnected. The leaders are the ones responsible for coming up with the outreach programs. The BSM can’t effectively minister to other students if they don’t have the student leadership able to do so because this is a student run organization. These themes are very important to the larger part of my study because it is the outreach programs that get the BSM’s name out there and “advertise” it to the community.

I have several additional steps that I plan to take in my study. Next on my list is getting my survey sent out to all of the students. I also would like to interview Ashlee Stricklin and the students on the Leadership Team. These are all very influential people who would be able to provide me with much information. There is also a lot that goes on with the BSM that I am unable to attend due to my class schedule. However, I do plan on continuing taking fieldnotes at Overflow. I feel that I can’t take too many fieldnotes and taking these will get me in my research sight and in interaction with other students. For additional artifacts, I plan on using anything the BSM passes out to students as well as taking photos to document all of the bulletin boards displayed in the building.

Research Journal #19

breanna2013 — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:15:18 +0000

I actually already covered what was supposed to be in this research journal. Please reference RJ #17 for the Chapter 7 box activity.

Research Journal #18

breanna2013 — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:59:19 +0000

Chapter 6 of Fieldworking was a very interesting chapter for me. I was excited that it dealt nonverbal communication. This is something that I have a passion for since I was a sign lanquage interpreter for a little deaf girl when I was fourteen. Much of sign language deals with being able to read people’s body language and to get the deeper meaning of what they are attenpting to say.

Box 25

In the Christain Church in general there are quite a few words that may be unfamiliar to an outsider.

Born again (aka “saved”): what a person is when he has accepted Jesus Christ as Lord of his life.

Communion (aka Lord’s Supper): symbolic ritual done to remind us what Jesus Christ did on the cross to pay for our sins. The grape juice you drink reminds us of Christ’s blood and the bread of his body.

Sin: anything outside of God’s will for you life. As a Christian you should strive to sin as little as possible.

Grace: This is the forgiveness of our sins. Jesus extends grace to us when we accept him. It is a gift-something you can’t earn.

Fellowship: getting together with other Christians

Worship: the act of praising God-often done through music

Ministry-reaching out to others and telling them about the “good news” of Christ

Gospel-the “good news”-Christ’s salvation plan for our lives

Repent-to confess your sin and make an effort to restrain from doing it anymore

Testimony: your personal story of how you came to salvation

Salvation: accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of you life. You get to spend an eternity in Heaven with Him when you die.

Witness: telling other people about Jesus Christ and what He can do for them

Research Journal #17

breanna2013 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:57:26 +0000

The Commerce Week on Writing was an exciting week for me and my favorite in English so far. I loved attending the different lectures. It gave me such great insight on how everyone is affected by literacy and has their own sponors. It took what we learned in the classroom and made it apply to real life for me. I won’t forget when Brandt was referenced so many times by the graduate students at Thursday’s lecture for our class. I love when things can take meaning beyond the classroom.

What surprised me? It was the excitment in the atmosphere that was everywhere. I couldn’t believe how many people knew about the Commerce Week on Writing. I’m lucky enough to have several friends who work for the East Texas so they had to write stories over the happenings at the different lecures. It was cool because I was able to offer my insight on the Writing Local Histories panal when one of them was writing an article about it.

What intrigued me? I was intrigued by the variety of writing and literacy styles found throughout Commerce. I went to the Open Mic event at Cowhill and was facinated by it. I’m intrigued by Cowhill in and of itself and really look forward to hearing more about Caroline’s research project. I saw real talent and I saw raw talent that hadn’t been refined, but it was still enjoyable for me. Going to Cowhill was not just because it was part of my English class, I went because I wanted to and I’m so glad I did.

What disturbed me? There wasn’t any real part of the week I found disturbing. What was sad to me was kinda what Caroline touched on in her blog. I saw talent at Cowhill that will never be felt beyond the Community. The music industry is so much harder to get into. At the Writing Local Histories session, all but one of the speakers had published books.

Box 31

I started off by typing “Baptist Student Ministries.” I hoped by typing “ministries” it would take me to something with general information about BSMs and not limit me to a particular campus. The first website was www.student.org. This place was amazing. I didn’t know there was a national BSM site. I clicked on the campus minister’s office tab to try to find more about the position since I will need to talk to the one here. I didn’t see what I was looking for so I hit the back button and then clicked on the leadership tab. This lead to an interesting discovery for me because the first thing i saw were the words “leadership culture.” I then explored a linked page that was titles “Not Loving College Students.” Reading all of the texts on these pages I visited gave me deeper insight into what the BSM stands for and how it attemps to reach students. The national website could also play into my ethnographic study because this could be where some of the students on campus first heard about the BSM.