Example Of Ethnographic Essay

1. Field Notes The scene was a restaurant on a Sunday afternoon. The lighting was bright with sunlight coming through the windows. Italian themed music playing softly over the speakers. Three people at the hostess station, one man and two women. Many families present and coming from church. Servers busily rushing. Varied ethnic groups present. One family with three generations present. Another couple with a young baby in a carrier. Another couple with two boys, one that looked about 8 and the other around 5. Another family with four children, two boys and two girls, who I believe were twins but all were well behaved. A middle aged couple together. Both looking at their individual cell phones and not speaking to one another. Another middle-aged woman looking around the room seemingly waiting on another person to come. Our server, a young college aged man. Not active listening when given requests for certain food items. A large table with three generations had a granddaughter that had Down syndrome. Her medium length straw colored hair was pulled back in a pony-tail. Her shirt was striped and it had a large blue heart with lots of …show more content…
My family and I went to a restaurant on Sunday, November 15, 2015 shortly before noon after church services. In deciding where we wanted to go, we collectively decided on the Olive Garden Italian restaurant in Wake Forest, North Carolina. Cognizant of the ethnographic assignment that I needed to complete, I decided what better place to observe people than in a busy restaurant on a Sunday afternoon. I did not have a notepad so I chose to use the notepad feature on my cell phone to write down simple observations. While we waited for our meal to arrive, I began looking around at all of the people present in the restaurant, where they were seated, how they were interacting with one another, their relationship with one another based on their body language, common physical traits, and the varied backgrounds