Written Communication Jul 1993

Wearing a Pith Helmet at a Sly Angle:or, Can Writing Researchers Do Ethnography in a Postmodern Era?

RALPH CINTRON

Abstract

The entry of ethnography and ethnographic methods into writing research, particularly during the 1980s, has been highly productive. However, this research continues to ignore many of the doubts concerning ethnography that anthropologists themselves have been raising for a number of years. This article (a) outlines more than a decade of civil war among anthropologists, (b) considers the relevance of that debate to writing researchers working ethnographically, (c) argues for more experimental ethnographic texts in contrast to the entrenched models that currently rule the field and despite the institutional resistance that experimental texts are bound to generate, and (d) suggests in cursory fashion the fate of “postmodernist” discourse in the context of the more normative discourse of institutional life. Along the way, the article analyzes some of the rhetoric of the ethnographic work of writing researchers, including Heath's Ways With Words.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
1993-07-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088393010003003
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
rhetorical criticism discourse analysis argument qualitative research
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (5)

  1. Russell (2022)
    From Methodology to Method in Genre-Based Ethnographies
    Written Communication
  2. Molloy (2015)
    Recuperative Ethos and Agile Epistemologies: Toward a Vernacular Engagement wit…
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  3. Lillis (2008)
    Ethnography as Method, Methodology, and “Deep Theorizing”: Closing the Gap Betw…
    Written Communication
  4. HERNDL et al. (2000)
    Research as Social Practice: A Case Study of Research on Technical and Professi…
    Written Communication
  5. Blyler (1995)
    Research as ideology in professional communication
    Technical Communication Quarterly

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CrossRef global citation count: 11 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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