Location: Home :: Books on Research :: General AAS :: Tales of the Field: On Writing Ethnography (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing)

Need a quick gift? Try Amazon gift certificates.

Don't Forget To Visit:

The New Social Worker Online

SocialWorkJobBank

Online Continuing Education for Social Workers

Amazon.com Widgets

Related Categories

•	General AAS

•

•	General AAS

Anthropology

Social Sciences

Nonfiction

Tales of the Field: On Writing Ethnography (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing)

enlarge

Author: John Van Maanen
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$10.00~~
Buy Used: $4.08
You Save: $5.92 (59%)

New (25) Used (31) from $4.08

Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 190
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5

ISBN: 0226849627
Dewey Decimal Number: 306
EAN: 9780226849621
ASIN: 0226849627

Publication Date: May 15, 1988
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Similar Items:

•	Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing)
•	Learning From Strangers: The Art and Method of Qualitative Interview Studies
•	Writing for Social Scientists: How to Start and Finish Your Thesis, Book, or Article: Second Edition (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing)
•	Tricks of the Trade: How to Think about Your Research While You're Doing It (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing)
•	Writing Up Qualitative Research

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
DIVOnce upon a time ethnographers returning from the field simply sat down, shuffled their note cards, and wrote up their descriptions of the exotic and quaint customs they had observed. Today scholars in all disciplines are realizing ihow/i their research is presented is at least as important as iwhat/i is presented. Questions of voice, style, and audience#8212;the classic issues of rhetoric#8212;have come to the forefront in academic circles.BRBRJohn Van Maanen, an experienced ethnographer of modern organizational structures, is one who believes that the real work begins when he returns to his office with cartons of notes and tapes. In iTales of the Field/i he offers readers a survey of the narrative conventions associated with writing about culture and an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of various styles. He introduces first the matter-of-fact, realistic report of classical ethnography, then the self-absorbed confessional tale of the participant-observer, and finally the dramatic vignette of the new impressionistic style. He also considers, more briefly, literary tales, jointly told tales, and the theoretically focused formal and critical tales. Van Maanen illustrates his discussion of each style with excerpts from his own work on the police.BRBRiTales of the Field/i offers an informal, readable, and lighthearted treatment of the rhetorical devices used to present the results of fieldwork. Though Van Maanen argues ultimately for the validity of revealing the self while representing a culture, he is sensitive to the differing methods and aims of sociology and anthropology. His goal is not to establish one true way to write ethnography, but rather to make ethnographers of all varieties examine their assumptions about what constitutes a truthful cultural portrait and select consciously and carefully the voice most appropriate for their tales. Written with grace and humor, iTales of the Field/i will be an invaluable introduction to novices just learning the fieldwork trade and provocative stimulant to veteran ethnographers. BRBR"Engaging and well written."#8212;H. Ottenheimer, iChoice/i/DIV

Customer Reviews:

2 out of 5 stars

Somewhat Dubious November 5, 2004
2 out of 31 found this review helpful

How can someone trust an author who admits to cheating. Van Maanen writes, "In the academy, I helped cover for tardy classmates by concocting what I thought to be reasonable tales to tell superior officers. Several times I cheated on exams by passing my answer sheet around the back of the room (as I looked at others' answers sheets). These mostly mundane matters would hardly be worth mentioning were it not for the fact that they point to the difficulty, if not impossibility, of maintaining a clear cut and recognizable observational or participatory research role." br /br /Having openly admitted to cheating in this instance, how could anything he writes be accepted as authentic? To me this is not a mundane matter, it goes to the heart of ethics. Van Maanen can write and tell a story, but how do we know his cheating isn't part of the plot.

5 out of 5 stars

Perfect Companion To Goodall's The New Ethnography November 12, 2003
9 out of 10 found this review helpful

Van Maanen's Tales is an excellent and succinct primer on the various ways we write ethnographic research. Giving a rich history of the 'armchair ethnographer' of the early 20th century, he procedds to show how our conceptualizations of this great practice has evolved.pThis is a great book to determine not necessarily what kind of ethnography you want to write, but is a great exploration on how ethnography can write you. Are you a modern classisist ethnographer? Are you a interpretive ethnographer? Are you a critical ethnographer? Reading this book opened my eyes to the different techniques and questions we ethnographers can ask. Better yet, by delving into the various questions and ideas posed, I found where my ethnographic 'being' is.pI rate this with the highest rating possible.

5 out of 5 stars

Writing Culture/Writing Ethnography September 9, 2001
22 out of 22 found this review helpful

I utilized Van Maanen's short, but essential text on writing ethnography throughout my dissertation ethnography research (now a book: Native Americans in the Carolina Borderlands: A Critical Ethnography, Carolinas Press, 2000). Unlike most how to texts on Ethnography, Tales of the Field focuses on writing as methodology. Van Maanen's writing is clear and concise. The reader is given several writing styles in ethnography, with ample examples from the author's, and other's, ethnographic writings. A great little book for fieldworkers, novice and veteran, as well as undergraduate and graduate students in research methods courses.

Copyright 2007 White Hat Communications.
Disclaimer: The products referenced on this site are manufactured and sold by parties other than The New Social Worker/White Hat Communications. We make no representations regarding either the products or any information vendors offer about their products.

Visit our poster store for unique social issues posters.

Amazon.com Widgets