To complete the Final Paper, you will conduct participant-observation on a speech event within a specific speech community. First, you will choose a site or speech community where you will complete your observations on a conversation

Ethnography of Speaking
To complete the Final Paper, you will conduct participant-observation on a speech event within a specific speech community. First, you will choose a site or speech community where you will complete your observations on a conversation. Appropriate sites include (but are not limited to):

A religious community (church, synagogue, mosque, temple or other religious place)
An online community
A coffee house
A friend’s home
An “ethnic” grocery store or restaurant
You should plan to spend about an hour observing speech in this community. Make sure that you use ethical principles of field-work and inform the community that you observe of your intentions. When making observations, attend to all eight aspects of the S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G acronym (pp. 163-179 of your textbook and the guide developed by Dr. Milburn at http://www.cios.org/encyclopedia/ethnography/index.htm). You will need to take notes on all eight aspects of the acronym while you conduct your observations.

Your Final Paper will be divided into eight separate sections one for each letter of the S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G rubric. Your paper should include a thesis statement that supports the major findings of your paper. You will also complete research in the Ashford University Library to support your original ethnographic research. You are required to use at least five professional resources, including a minimum of three from the Ashford University Library. The end result will be an original ethnography of speaking.

Students should use the following format for their paper:

Title: 10 to 12 words maximum
Research Objective (what you were aiming to find): State your research questions in the present and/or the past tense. Present them in relation to the eight components of the S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G model.
Literature Review: This is the section where you will discuss the five sources you used to do research on the culture you chose. It will contain a more in-depth explanation of your research objectives by contextualizing it within a body of scholarly literature. Don’t start explaining the books and articles you read. Take those few points in each source that provided information about your culture. Then, utilize those ideas, combined with a mix of paraphrasing and quoting, to explain the culture. Do not just put quotes around the author’s words and reiterate everything you found out about the culture. Find a few, short sentences to quote. The rest of the information should be paraphrased (i.e., changed into your own words). Avoid plagiarism at all costs. Make sure you provide proper in-text citations when quoting and paraphrasing. Make sure you relate the sources to the S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G model and other concepts in the textbook.
Methodology: This will include a statement of ethical considerations or how AAA Code of Ethics will be followed. Describe how you found what you found about the ethnographic research you conducted.
Results: This must include transcripts of at least two conversations. The results must analyze the findings in relation to each of the eight components of S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G, which may require making eight short paragraphs for clarity.
Personal Rationale: Reflect on your hypothesis on the significance of the project, what you think you will find, what factors you think will affect, limit, and/or expand your observation. This is also the section where you relate your finding back to your literature review. Interpret any events and conversations that you found interesting and include any quotes from your sources that you found critical, challenging, or helpful in doing this research. Lastly, describe your experience by talking about how it felt to be an observer and how it felt to be a participant.
Conclusion: Summarize major findings, point to further directions for research on this type of speech event. The conclusion never introduces new ideas. Your conclusion should summarize your research statement.