Spend 15 Minutes Observing Face-To-Face Interaction in a Public Setting

Essay

Spend 15 minutes observing face-to-face interaction in a public setting (e.g., campus cafeteria, church, coffee shop, library) and take detailed notes about what you are observing. Organize your notes and write a paper as follows:
(a) Briefly describe the setting you observed and identify the social roles (e.g. the hungry/disinterested customer, the loyal friend, the dutiful/sullen daughter) of the social actors you observed.
(b) Describe how the performance of each social role observed was executed (e.g., What script did the actors follow? What props were part of the interaction? What non-verbal signs were communicated during the interaction? What miscues did you observe?)
(c) Identify whether the performances you observed could be classified as "front-stage behavior" or "back-stage behavior," and/or showed elements of both. Explain the reasons for your classification.