week 3...post 3

I have not started any of my research yet, but at the same time I have. I am somewhat of an insider, so I know a lot of the insider phrases and most of the ins and outs of smoking. When I do start to do my interviews, I am going to ask questions like: How old are you?, When did you start to smoke?, How much do you smoke a day?, Why do you think you smoke?, etc. I have already visited two of my cultural sites, I have smoked cigarettes at the one quite often, and have a pretty good feel for the environment there. The most interesting thing I have witnessed, is when it was warmer outside, there would be 5 groups or so sitting around hookahs, just hanging out and smoking tobacco. I have not done any academic research yet. I think the main difference between academic and non academic, would be that academic research is written by a person with a masters or some sort of graduate degree in the field. I also believe to be academic it should be a published work. Non-academic would be me going and doing field research, non formal interviews, and other things like that.