Final Portfolio

I'm finally finished. All of my work is now up on my website.


http://aaronpayne.weebly.com

Final Portfolio Example

Time is winding down and I need to start working on my final portfolio. Our teacher gave us examples of some portfolios of previous years to show us what she expects. One example was from a student named Meredith who observed a music venue in Muncie, Indiana called "The Living Room." Based on her portfolio, I now better understand what to do for my final paper. What I plan on doing is dividing it into maybe 10 or so segments, talking about different things involving Rita's, frozen custard, etc. in a way that's easy to read and organized. I believe that this is the best way to complete my project, and this can be seen in Meredith's portfolio. She used Scribd to display her documents, but I don't think I need that, because it's simply a lot easier to write it on my website itself, As long as I divide the sections, each page shouldn't be too long.

A Mind at Work

"A Mind at Work" by Mike Rose should aid me in my ethnographic project. I like the beginning section where Rose talked about his background in an immigrant blue-collar family. He mentioned how his uncle was a railroad worker and his mother a waitress; this shows me that I should try to use some form of allusion in my paper, because of the personal feel to it. The imagery in it should keep the readers attentive. Rose also mentioned some of the details of the work his family did, talking about the information his uncle studied and the trip he took to a museum to learn more about his profession. So I too should include information about how Rita's operates and some of the products they offer.
Another thing I've found is that around halfway, as he starts talking about his book, he defines and describes terms like intelligence and work, among others that are relevant to his study. I've already done this a little bit in my interview essay by explaining the difference between ice cream and frozen custard, but it should also help in my analysis paper. Also, Rose seems to have some sort of theme about intelligence and the relationship between it and skill. I too need to find an overall theme or thesis for my analysis. I have bits and pieces for what I want to talk about, but I don't have an overall theme yet.

Extra Research

My ethnography project is going pretty well so far, and I have some decent sources to back up what I'm discovering in Rita's. I like "The Franchise Mall" because of the press releases from Rita's, which should give me a good history about when Rita's started, when they've opened in other states, etc. One thing I might want to find out is how ice cream shops are decorated and designed, since I'm trying to get into Virginia Tech's architecture program. I want to see what in the interior design makes them stand out, compared to places like McDonald's and 7-Eleven.

I consider Rita's to be a pretty laid-back place because they really only receive customers on the weekend, and then only when the weather is right. The majority of the customers are college students, while there are still adults that come in, usually with their children. Just about all of the employees are college students, excluding Jim, an elderly man whom I assume to be the manager. Rita's is a relaxing environment that has a desire to serve quality Italian ice and frozen custard, and lives up to its motto, "Ice. Custard. Happiness."

One of My Sources

In order to continue my ethnographic study, I will need to both conduct an interview with two employees at Rita's, as well as create an annotated bibliography in order to list my sources and describe their importance. One of the sources that I intent to use is a website known as "The Franchise Mall." Apparently its intent is to show people how to buy a popular franchise, but it also has numerous articles from the past six years or so talking about numerous things, from business information and statistics to articles talking about the newest store opening, or the first Rita's opened in a particular state. The first article posted on this website was posted on March 17, 2004, and gave a brief history about the store from the first shop which was opened in 1984. These articles will aid me, because I believe it will be important to give some history and/or background information about the franchise before the interview. I might be able to ask the manager some questions about either the history of the entire establishment or the history about the Rita's on College Avenue.
It says that the founder was a fireman who felt like starting a small business for fun. So he bought a used Italian ice maker from someone who advertised it in the newspaper and set up shop in Bensalem, PA. He didn't expect to make a whole lot of money, but his business was popular enough to make 3.5 times more than what he expected for his first year. I wondered how well the sugar-free Italian ice sold for, and apparently it only accounts for 1 to two percent of Rita's sales.
This article will give me great information about the humble beginnings of Rita's, and should help me compare the success Rita's knew in the beginning to the success it experiences now.

http://www.thefranchisemall.com

more specifically:
http://www.thefranchisemall.com/news/articles/10593-0.htm

Possible Subjects for Secondary Research

In order to obtain more information for my ethnographic study on Rita's, a frozen custard and Italian ice shop on College Avenue in Blacksburg, VA, I need to do some secondary research. For those of you who don't know what the difference between primary and secondary research is, primary research in this case would be gathering information either directly from Rita's or from Rita's own website. Secondary research would include gathering information about more general topics related to Rita's, such as dairy treats in general, and what specific attributes makes each brand successful in the eyes (and stomachs) of the consumers. That's one topic I'm considering looking into; I'm also thinking about conducting research about the competition that Rita's has in Blacksburg like Ben and Jerry's and Cold Stone Creamery, among others. Perhaps I can talk about the relationship between ice cream shops and the small locations they choose to sell their goods. After all, almost every ice cream joint I know of conducts business in a small location. Not many other topics have come to mind yet, but as architect Edmund Bacon has put it, "It's in the doing that the idea comes."

Helpful (hopefully) websites:

http://www.ritas.com

http://www.benjerry.com

http://www.coldstonecreamery.com

http://www.serving-ice-cream.com/ice_cream_facts.html

http://www.brighthub.com/health/diet-nutrition/articles/64189.aspx

My new website

I also posted a website which will further display my progress as a writer in this class.

Here's the URL:

http://aaronpayne.weebly.com