How do I write an ethnography?
You might want to run it by your teacher before writing and when you have a draft but you could go the Geertzian route and give the information while telling a story of your experience. For help with that, you might try reading Clifford’s Writing Culture, Geertz’s Interpretation of Cultures and Geertz’s Works and Lives. The pros of this method are that it’s fun to write narrative and many people prefer reading it to reading articles. The cons are that it’s easy to get lost in the narrative and forget to include the information you need and that some people are ardently against the strong narrative style of the Geertzians and if you teacher is one of them, you’d need to avoid that.
We did an ethnography in one of the classes I took in religious studies. We spent time attending religious services, conducted interviews with the people involved, and did outside reading on what others had observed in that or similar groups. We recorded what happened at each service by writing a journal listing everything that occurred that we could remember, plus our own reactions. Then we looked for patterns or themes in the services and considered what function they had for those attending. It was an incredibly informative class and I learned a great deal. BTW, unless you yourself are a Mormon, one barrier you will have with your ethnographic study is that you will not be allowed to attend Temple services, which are very important in their religion. They could describe some things for you in an interview, but they probably won’t be able to describe everything. And really, there’s nothing like seeing it for yourself. Anyway, perhaps this will be of some help:
