Now that you’ve completed (or nearly completed) your project for The Gathering Place, I’d like to you reflect on your process researching and writing this piece.
First, explore what it was like for you to interview the women at The Gathering Place. What did you learn about gathering people’s impressions, stories, and/or self-reflections about their experiences at this organization? In your experience, what was challenging, interesting or unique in conducting qualitative research?
Second, describe what it was like to write this piece. How would you describe the differences between producing this text versus writing the first essay? What did you do differently as a writer to accomplish this particular task?
Last, reflect on this assignment as a form of service. What did you learn as an engaged writer or as a member of Denver’s community?
As I mentioned in my piece originally interviewing the women of the Gathering Place was nerve-racking. I did not want to upset some natural order or routine, or even worse make a woman's life more difficult by prying too far. It was surprising however to see to how compelled the women of TGP wanted to share either their story or their experiences at TGP. I was also slight reluctant because I was a guy, and this atmosphere was created to avoid any domineering or threatening men. The last thing I wanted to represent was a intruding and rude man trying to pry into someones life. Yet this never became a factor, and not once did I feel awkward. From tears to laughter I experienced a wide range of emotions. Secondly I felt writing this piece was extremely more difficult than the literature review. Not only did we have to form content from qualitative data, but create a coherent fluid narrative and theme from it. My biggest worry was of course redundancy and while I tried to incorporate more analysis than the other essay, it still seemed rather forced. Service wise I am always reminded we all draw from the 99.9% of the DNA and we should cherish the human condition that we collectively experience.
ReplyDeleteInterviewing the Women at The Gathering Place was a blessing for me. It opened my eyes to their lives and how much I take for granted. I learned that many of these women just want someone to listen to them. When you start to listen to them, many of them tell their stories openly. It was challenging to get over the fear of being shy and just talk to them. I loved feeling comfortable around them and learning about their lives. It was unique in the way that some women didn't talk very much, but others loved to chat and go on for awhile. With numbers, they're very straightforward. With these women it wasn't always like this, but it was rewarding nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteWriting this piece was very different than a normal research paper. I wanted to give justice to these women's stories so badly that I sat there for 15 minutes on end sometimes just trying to think of the right words to use. For the first paper, I knew what kind of academic terms to use and how the paper was supposed to be stylized. With this narrative for The Gathering Place, I was a little stumped as to how to get the message of hope across effectively.
I used my creative writer side that hasn't seen the light for awhile to write this narrative. I tuned in to my more emotional side and found the words. It was hard sometimes to go through the transcriptions, but I was very pleased with the product of my time and work.
I plan on volunteering at The Gathering Place next year. I found a passion again. I realized that there is a difference we can make as citizens of Denver through organizations like The Gathering Place. I learned about an issue that is easily looked over. I felt that we helped the women think about their stories and learned more about ourselves as well. It was beneficial for both parties.
As a writer, I enjoyed this project because it allowed me to use my personal and communication skills as opposed to straight research abilities. The interviewing part of the assignment was my favourite. Listening to these women's stories made a significant impact on me. There is such a range of experiences and people a TGP- it's fascinating to take it all in. That being said, there are some people who are very easy to interview, like Wendy and Linda. All I really had to do is sit down, and they started to talk- telling me their stories. Then there were other women like Dianne (with two n's) with whom it felt like I was pulling teeth. Needless to say, I got some nice material from her, but I would have liked to hear more about her background. Alas, I didn't want to pry. It was difficult at times to stop my self from asking questions which probed too deeply or which made a woman uncomfortable, because I was so interested in these individuals' circumstances.
ReplyDeleteI preferred writing this piece to the research project.....obviously. I hardly ever get to write out of an academic environment so this was refreshing. There were certainly difficulties with this text though. I had to resist the urge to impose too much of my own voice on these women's experiences. It was essential to act as a sort of channelling device for their accounts and not as a student trying to prove some sort of point. Acting as such really opened my eyes to the Denver community. I saw, really for the first time, how big the homeless issues is in our state. Thus, this form of service really did me well. I think if more people where exposed to this sort of thing, there would be more awareness of the poverty in our city.
At first, I was hesitant to talk to the women at The Gathering Place. I was concerned that they would be scared to talk to me or think I was dumb stranger. However, they were much more welcoming and happy to talk than when I paid $30 to talk to Dexter Fowler for about 30 seconds shortly after visiting The Gathering Place the first time. What was challenging about conducting the research was just the first step, finding someone to sit down next to for a good story. In some cases, the women were more interested about hearing about me and what I was doing than talking about them. I learned though that if you can find the thing that people enjoy talking about, then they can go on forever. It is finding that specific topic that is special for each person that can be challenging.
ReplyDeleteI think I did a terrible job writing this piece. After starting I didn’t know what was to come next and I already have revisions in my head for what the piece could be. I tended to revert back to my style of writing for the previous essay, which in turn, didn’t do the stories I heard from the women justice. Instead I feel like I sucked the life out of them and made them boring on paper, whereas when I heard them they were filled with animations and spirit and love. So right now I don’t think I accomplished my task. I think that if I was one of the women I would be disappointed I chose me to tell my story to.
As a form of service, I think this assignment can be really helpful. Even if it is not going to a donor to be read, it still offers valuable insight into the lives of a few women. I learned as a member of the Denver community that there are many needs to be met and that everyone has their specific talents and strengths. The goals of the women interviewed were much more encompassing and for the greater good than many goals I have heard from other classmates. I especially thought it was noteworthy how many women had completed college and/or held successful high level positions before coming to The Gathering Place. I think that’s important for everyone to remember. Poor circumstances can happen to anyone.
Conducting interviews at the Gathering Place was a very new experience for me. I learned the most about the positive effects the shelter has had on these women. I found it most challenging to ask questions and direct the interview in the direction I wanted. The women I talked to knew what they wanted to talk about, but sometimes got off topic or started a though and forgot to finish it later. I had a hard time redirecting the interview to find out specific information.
ReplyDeleteI was most surprised by the personalities of the women I met. A couple were so uplifting and they were proud of themselves and how far they’d come. They had goals and great perspective on life.
I found this piece extremely difficult to write. I am used to assignments more similar to out first essay. I like seeing hard facts and opinions and putting them together to form an argument. I had a much harder time telling stories. I think the two biggest challenges was figuring out how to give the women voice and how to incoporate their quotes in a way that flowed and made sense. For this assignment, I tried to write down all the information I new about the women, then formed their stories and the point to those stories did not come until the end. Normally, I would have stated an argument, then brought in facts to support my assertion.
As a form of service, I think writing is vital. Though I do not have the confidence that my writing is strong enough to attract the publics attention or convince them to donate, I do understand the power these pieces can have if written in the right way and directed towards the right audiences.
My experience at The Gathering Place was definitely interesting. I enjoyed talking to the women, although it was somewhat hard for me and I always had trouble thinking of what questions to ask. It’s interesting that the woman’s interview I chose to write about, I initially thought was not a useful interview. She didn’t really answer any of my questions and was not very positive about The Gathering Place. However she just stuck in my thoughts, and later when I was transcribing the interview I was just fascinated by all the things she had said. The second time I went, I did a few shorter interviews, which was a different experience than talking to one woman in depth, but was also useful.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed writing the piece. I wanted to do something different than exactly what the assignment was; that is I didn’t really want to do a promotional piece. I wanted to write something kind of subtle and open-ended and thought provoking. I enjoyed the creativity of the piece, and that we didn’t have to have one specific point. The type of writing I am interested in doing as a career is journalistic, yet expressive writing, so this was a good way to try out something like that. I thought I would have trouble taking myself out of the piece to focus on the woman, because I had so many of my own thoughts about her and about our conversation, but I think I kept those thoughts out of the piece for the most part.
It seemed like many of the women enjoyed having us there to talk to and felt that they were sharing something useful in doing the interviews. At times though I did feel out of place there and felt that it was hard to explain to the women why we were there. I guess I felt intrusive, but that is something I will have to get over if I want to do work in journalism, because you just have to do research and talk to people. As for my written piece, I don’t know how it will directly serve TGP. At first I thought it was not really directed toward them at all, but after finishing it, I think TGP staff would be interested in reading about this woman, just to get a glimpse into one of the women there, even though she didn’t say much about TGP.
In gathering other peoples stories I have definitely gained a new appreciation for the kinds of information that can be gained through interviews. There is something in the way people speak and the looks in their eyes that doesn't come across when you're just reading the stories they have to tell.
ReplyDeleteAs a writer I look at this assignment more as painting a picture for my audience to express a mood rather than trying to build an argument. I felt this was much easier for me to write because I felt like I had more investment in the message I was trying to tell my audience.
From a service point of view I feel like I gained some important new insights, but I don't feel like I really gave much back. I know The Gathering Place finds the work we did helpful, but I would have like to have done something with a more immediate impact than gathering stories to help with the collection of donations.
The interviewing processes itself was intimidating at first, but most of the women were open to answering questions after I introduced myself and explained what it was I was actually doing. I was fortunate to find women who really opened up to me, one was willing from the beginning and one woman eventually opened up to me to the point of not wanting me to leave. I can say that I was made comfortable immediately. From staff to clients, I was never viewed as out of place.
ReplyDeleteThe facility itself was clean, welcoming, and obviously well kept. There was no evidence that The Gathering Place was aiding people with such dismal backgrounds. The atmosphere was positive and overall I gained a lot from being there.
It was challenging to get some of the women to talk. It was not that they lacked interest in what I was doing, rather they preferred to spend their lunches chatting with friends or enjoying their food. This presented difficulty, however the stories I gathered were of great interest and the conversations that transpired are unable to be replicated. Even with the recordings and the assignment which features the most powerful stories, I still feel like the experience is beyond description. As much as I hope my final piece is a powerful one, I feel like it will fall short of expressing what I would like it to. This is the side effect of qualitative research. Without a presentation of numbers, the information falls in the ahnds of the researcher and presenting it takes the voice of whomever collected the date. There is wiggle room here which allows for failure because the presentation is as important as the information that is gathered.
Writing this piece was very different from the academic papers I have written previously. It felt more like a creative writing piece that included interviews. I liked this type of writing much more since it is closer to the type of writing where I feel I have my strengths. I also feel like I learned more by doing the research based on interviews of people rather gathering information from a book or online articles.
Interviewing the women at The Gathering Place was far different from what I expected. Like many other people, I had little previous experience working with people who were homeless or living in poverty and I had a stereotypical idea of what they would be like. I was quite wrong. One of the biggest things I learned about was how people become homeless. I found that there were many women who led what seemed to be very grounded lives with jobs or families. Then, in a series of unfortunate events, it seemed that everything changed. Many of the women I spoke with had college degrees and at one point had supporting jobs. I found that my expectations for what the interviews would be like were highly judgmental.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that was personally challenging for me was trying to find a way to connect with the women I spoke to. As an introvert, I find it difficult to find a connection with people in a short amount of time, but in this situation that was exactly what was expected of me. The women surprised me because they made me feel comfortable talking to them, even though I felt it was going to be my job so make them at ease. I was shocked at how willing and open many of them were to jump right into their life stories.
Writing this piece was definitely a challenge. Research papers I find are much easier because there are numbers and facts to follow. In the case of this piece, I felt that I had an obligation to tell each woman’s story honestly. It seemed almost like a responsibility to be able to tell the story that they were trying to tell me and not to cover it up with my own influences. Another thing that I found different than most papers I am asked to write is that there was limited information to go off of. Whatever we got in the fifteen or twenty minute interview was what we had to work with, and when we were writing at home a couple days later, we couldn’t just ask more questions to get information that would be specific to the paper we were writing.
I think one of the biggest things I learned from this project was about Denver’s community. It has been my first year in Denver and I am generally unfamiliar with the programs that run in the area. Also, the University is a small community in itself; since I both live and go to classes here, there was not much opportunity to find out more about Denver. I think it was a good way to start understanding the community I now live in.
My experience at The Gathering Place was one of a kind. At first, I was overwhelmed with apprehension as I thought about coming in, intruding on their lives, to interview them about their life essentially. However, it certainly was not like that. I realized the women wanted to share their stories or at least for someone to take interest in what they had to say, whether it is for fifteen minutes or an hour. Each women had a unique story, some more intense than others. I found that the approach which worked best for me was when I sat back, looked them in the eyes, and acted as if it was a casual conversation and not an interview. This made them more comfortable to talk to me and as well, it made me much more relaxed about doing , what most of the time, ended up much more personal. Nonetheless, I did find it challenging to take it everything each woman had to say. Some of the stories were intense and disheartening. I’m the type of person who can put themselves in someone else’s shoes and a lot of the time it was really hard to keep it together.
ReplyDeleteI found writing the piece easier to write because I realized the essence of the paper were the interviews. Reading through the transcriptions and getting an idea of the theme of it made the paper easier. The interviews really helped outline the format of the paper. In comparison to the first essay, this essay was much more personal. On the other hand, the first essay was research based, which took much more time, and not as rewarding. Rewarding in the sense you understood the information but you didn’t have firsthand experience with homelessness. Not everyone, but a lot of us did not.
As a form of service, this was absolutely rewarding. I would have never imagined being a freshman that I would get an experience like this. I volunteer at a few places throughout Denver, but mostly with young adults. I have not had deep conversations about these issues like I have with these women. I believe I’ve learned a lot from these women and I certainly will take this back to any other volunteer work I do in the future, at The Gathering or other places in Denver.
Interviewing the women at the Gathering Place was informational and emotional. From the women’s personal accounts, I learned about their daily lives and what it takes for them to survive day to day. Many live from one meal to the next, from one shelter to the next. The Gathering Place guarantees meals and shelter during the day. However, the Gathering Place is not only a shelter, but a community. I was surprised at how loud the lunch room was and how animated the women were. To me, the Gathering Place was almost like a school with classes and friends and even a playground on the roof. All the women were in different situations, but they learn from each other’s experiences. It was hard for me to formulate questions to ask the women because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to write about in my piece. But, in the end, I just had interesting conversations with the women about their lives.
ReplyDeleteIt was hard for me to choose an angle on what aspect of the Gathering Place I wanted to write on. The Gathering Place paper has a lot more room for creativity than the first paper. The first paper was more clinical, but this paper was more personal. It was hard to write about the women’s emotions because I wanted to explain them fully. As a member of Denver’s community, I learned about a program that I didn’t even know existed. The service learning gave me a whole new perspective, an interactive perspective instead of just reading clinical articles.
The process of conducting interviews at The Gathering Place was rather nerve-wracking for me. I was nervous about having to ask people that I barely knew questions that could be rather personal. However, despite my initial discomfort, the interview process was an enlightening experience. I learned through the stories of the women about homelessness and extreme poverty in many different forms. I also learned a bit about social interaction and how to talk with people!
ReplyDeleteThis piece has been one of the more difficult that I have had to write this year. I usually write solely academic papers, so trying to write creatively was rather hard for me. It was also hard to let Michelle’s voice overpower my own in my own writing, particularly since I seem to favor the paraphrase over the direct quotation.
I think that I most connected to the assignment as a form of service. I was truthfully not very excited to have to write a piece that encouraged me to write creatively, but I got some motivation out of the fact that it would be used to help the Gathering Place. From the first time I visited, I knew that The Gathering Place was a place full of positivity and hope, and I am glad that my writing, even if I initially didn’t want to write it, is going to a place that does so much good for so many people.
Here's Daniel's comment:
ReplyDeleteWhen I signed up for this class I was really thinking—for whatever reason—that working with The Gathering Place would stick out. Not to say it didn’t, but rather that going there would be a very distinct thing rather than going anywhere. I thought that the interactions there would too be different, yet I found they were instead rather pedestrian. It was very comparable to going somewhere with my parents and talking to their friends or coworkers or put differently interactions in the Adult world. Holding conversations with people you don’t know about things you too are not an expert on, just gathering information. Essentially super situated and deliberate small talk. Not to say I didn’t very much enjoy it, but I was entirely comfortable with what was being done. That being said I had a good time writing the piece. I could play with words and emotion and style. The fact that fragments and consciousness could collide with long meaningful sentences was, for me, enjoyment. This is very much at juxtaposition with the research style piece, which I saw as rather bland ‘scientific’ and dreary. I find it had to understand why people desire to read such filth without even a dash of flair. But that is aside the point as time is running out. I found that I like writing once more. That I want to do it more in the future. And that people are there to talk to—and I must get out of this 5 block bubble a bit more often.
Here's Maddie's comment:
ReplyDeleteInterviewing the women at TGP was a very powerful experience for me because it was not something that occurs every day for the clients I interviewed, nor me. I felt that it was such an honor that these women trusted me even just for a little while to tell me their opinions and for some, their stories. Marlene particularly struck me when she talked about the age and how as women grow older, their confidence sometimes lowers. I ultimately did not end up writing about Marlene in particular but her words have forever struck me. She told me that sometimes there is inconsideration to how a woman feels, that often times, they are struggling to find their self esteem. She gave an example that if a woman like herself is working at a fast food restaurant (which she says is degrading and extremely difficult in itself) and a younger women drives by in her brand new car and flashes her credit card, there is an amount of inconsideration of how the women working behind the counter feels. I do not think it is to be said that those of us who are more fortunate should feel guilty for having more, but rather to be more conscience of those surrounding us and perhaps more gentle.
Something that was challenging for me was, to put it simply, not to be awkward. In truth, I felt a great deal more awkward than I actually was. I discovered this listening to the tapes that I should not have been so worried and I pride myself in that I truly gave all of my attention to the women I was interviewing, but at times I did not know how to respond. When Linda, another client I talked to kept repeating that “you have no idea what it is like being homeless and out on the streets until you are” I of course, understood what she was saying but did not know how to reply. No, I have no idea what it is like to be homeless and no, I have never been. There was a barrier of dissimilarity in that sense but it vanished with other topics. I am a woman, just as they are women and there was a bond of womanhood within all of the conversations.
This essay was vastly different from our first essay because I was able to have a voice as well as the women I interviewed voices were portrayed. The first essay was strictly facts and evidence to support a thesis, and this one was much more personal and engaging for me. In this way, it interested me that much more.
Interviewing the women at The Gathering Place was an enriching experience. I remember being so taken aback by how hopeful, thankful, and inspiring everyone I spoke with was that now I want to volunteer there again. I also really enjoyed the aspect of conducting qualitative research, as I personally am an emotional being that reacts more to human-to-human interaction than raw data or statistics. It was challenging when people did not want to talk and I felt at times I was slightly intruding, however, I noticed most of the people responded positively to our class’s presence.
ReplyDeleteWriting this narrative piece was a lot easier for me than was writing the literary review essay. I am drawn to creative writing by nature, so although this essay was still fact-based, I appreciated the freedom to be stylistic and imaginative with the narratives. With this assignment I also did not spend hours combing through articles and books to find the information I needed, which allowed my writing to more easily flow.
As I said, visiting The Gathering Place was beneficial and made me feel like I was using my time productively toward the good of the Denver community. This assignment also showed me that I can use the talents I may not normally think of using, i.e. my writing, as a form of service to others. Now I am looking forward to going back again during our “Voices of The Gathering Place” night and again in the future.