What is it like to be...? A Hermeneutical Exercise

Part One: Write a paragraph or two on what it is like to be or engaged in one of the following. Don't just give a "factual" account; just describe what your experience is like:

  • A woman or man
  • A member of a particular subculture
  • A student
  • An American
  • A blond(e)
  • A baseball player
  • A member of a particular racial, ethnic, or religious group
  • One for whom English is not the first language, but who now has to operate in English.
  • An enthusiast of X (cars, dogs, music, etc.)
  • A shopper















Part Two: Exchange what you have written with someone else, preferably someone you don't know. Read what you have received, and come up with some or all the following (write them on the back of the paper that the original writing was on):

  1. Things you didn't know.
  2. Questions you'd like to ask (Is this really true? Can you expand on...? Is this how it really is, or how you've been led to believe it is? How would you push the writer to think about things that he/she might not even be aware of?)
  3. Things that you think might not be generally true of the group in question, but rather just true of the person whose work you are reading.
  4. Thinks you think might be more generally true, if others also wrote about this specific topic.
  5. What is "common sense", that is, what does the writer just assume is true? Imagine you have no knowledge about the activity or role. How would you get the "common sense" stuff in the open?
  6. What kind of language does the writer use to describe the activity or role? Describe the language. Are there idioms (phrases known to insiders)? Are there words used in unique or special ways?
  7. What do you think is meaningful (to the one experiencing the phenomenon, to an observer) in the account you've read?
  8. Are there things you think might have been left out?

Part Three: Get the questions/issues raised back about your writing. Address the questions/issues that the other person raised. Do these questions & observations make you think in new ways about what it is like to be ... ? How would you re-write, given how the person has just responded?