Both “The Coffee Shop” by Andrea Casassa and “The Dope on Head Shops” by Mathew Dudley portray the techniques used to describe ethnographic essays as described by Bruce Ballenger in The Curious Writer. Ballenger assesses that the essays “must focus on groups of people who identify themselves as group members” (Ballenger, 373). In “The Coffee Shop” the author takes a look at a subculture of people who frequent a local coffee house she works at. Referred to as regulars, Casassa feels they make a community because “they create a sense of family” (Casassa, B35). I think the idea of a family is a very strong bond, and nothing marks an ethnographic group more than if they describe themselves as family. The ethnographic group in “The Dope on Head Shops” is a more “diverse range of consumers” leaning toward “high-school or college aged kids” (Dudley, B41). The community described in the essay is the pot smoking community. Both writers clearly employed a necessity that Ballenger describes a good essay, “depends on close observation over time” (Ballenger, 373). Clearly, Casassa has spent a considerable amount of time working at her local coffee shop. Her research has not always been research in the beginning it was simply things like learning Martha’s drink order or talking to Dennis every Sunday morning (B33-35) As these things took place over time, she gradually became part of the culture and in doing so learning the intricate details that can only be seized by living it. Dudley’s research is a little different. Dudley shows the time he had worked on his essay through quoted other works of literature on the subject and also thorough interviewing the owner of a hemp shop (B39-B43). While Dudley does not appear to be as physically apart of the culture as Casassa, his extensive research has granted him knowledge in the field. One interesting aspect of the ethnographic essay is that they typically “look closely at the few to get hints to the big picture” (Ballenger, 374). Obviously Casassa doesn’t have time to interview all of the regulars at her coffee shop, so she lets the reader “meet” a few of the diverse group. Dennis seems to almost speak for the group when he is asked why he comes to the coffee house all the time and he responds “Well the Camaraderie, of course” (Casassa, B35). The few blurbs the author provides give the reader an overview of the collective whole. Dudley does something similar in that his article is on head shops in general; however, the only one the readers ever see is The Hempest.  The reader is to believe that all head shops are similar to this particular one.

Casassa does an effective way of describing the culture she is studying by using lots of examples. Being that the first half of the essay is a “journal” and the second is merely an anecdotal story, the entire essay is just one example followed by another. Dudley is effective in that he uses other pieces of published literature to back up his claims.

Casassa appears to have affection for the little coffee shop. Her interpretations, although never does she truly express it, of the culture of the local coffee shop is a good one. The author gives away subtle hints of her feelings when she says things like “I almost laugh as Dennis swings open the door” or when she describes her daily routine as “Hectic, exhausting, comfortable, familiar… just right” (Ballenger, B35-36). The tone of Dudley’s paper is harder to pick up. The author does a pretty objective job of relaying the facts on Head Shops. That being said, I think the author must be someone who is in favor of them. He sometimes seems oddly proud of them like when he describes the head shops as “already skilled in the art of camouflage and metamorphosis” (Dudley, B43).

I plan to write my essay on the Southlake Carroll football team. We won the state championship three of the four years I attended high school, I did nothing but live and dream about the team. I can use plenty of examples because the team ran my life for so many years and I can get personal quotes from my high school friends that were either also on or around the team as much as I was. I have already spent the time Ballenger thinks one needs to create and effective ethnographic essay.