Personal Research Essay Autoethnography

10+ pages (of prose; the separate Works Cited page is not included in this total) 4+ scholarly sources minimum
Worth up to 250 pts!

Autoethnography is…

–“research, writing, and method that connect the autobiographical and personal to the cultural and the social. This form usually features concrete action, emotion, embodiment, self- consciousness, and introspection … [and] claims the conventions of literary writing” (Ellis xix).

Personal Research Essay Autoethnography

–“a self-narrative that critiques the situatedness of self with others in social contexts” (Spry 710).

–“texts [that] democratize the representational sphere of culture by locating the particular experiences of individuals in a tension with dominant expressions of discursive
power” (Neumann 189)

The personal research essay (aka autoethnography) is a sub-genre of creative nonfiction and social science writing. It blends memoir (writing from experience and memory), reflection, and scholarly research into a concise, coherent exploration of an important aspect of/experience from your own life. Essentially, the goal is to learn in-depth, expert-level information about a personal struggle, relationship, medical condition, etc.. Then, you’ll write a true-life short story, weaving facts, ideas, and arguments into your memory and experience. This act of narrative writing, enhanced with scholarly materials, should enable you to draw conclusions, support arguments, and assess the significance of this life experience (as it relates to society and culture), and participate in wisdom-inquiry!

Personal Research Essay Autoethnography

I strongly encourage each of you to bring a multi-media approach to this final essay. You can enhance these research narratives with photographs, music files, digital videos, drawings, hyperlinks, et cetera. Ultimately, you’ll be sharing these compositions with the class (via Blackboard) or with the public at large (on your blog, facebook, etc.). In doing so, you will participate in the construction of meaning and media.

All writing is “creative” in the sense that it is born in the human mind, which creates the words to express ideas, facts, etc. for others to read. “Creative” is in no way synonymous with fabrication. Creative Nonfiction is the retelling of a truthful account (albeit subjective) from one’s life through the use of the elements of fiction (characters, plot, theme, symbolism, dialogue, etc.). Therefore, your personal essays will provide the story and details of your real life account and blend them with research and a thesis idea that demonstrates the significance of your insights and discoveries.

Personal Research Essay Autoethnography

It is imperative to strike a delicate balance between the personal (≈60% of the final essay) and the research (≈40% of the final essay). Your topic and focus must be narrow. You must be personally invested in this topic; you stand to gain a tremendous amount of insight and expertise into this aspect of your life.

The best way to discover a strong topic to propose for this assignment is to brainstorm a list of events, passions, struggles, relationships, conditions, etc. that you’ve lived through or with. Think of events and relationships that incite or confuse you, then ask yourself which one of these items do I wish to understand better or know more about.

Personal Research Essay Autoethnography

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