Summary of Project

I have recently decided to change the subculture I will be exploring.  I had previously thought about writing about my high  school marching band but thought that I was too much of an insider to properly write about it.  I have since decided to write about the people that work at the front desk of my dorm tower.  I have no interviewed anyone yet for this project but I have informally observed some of them.  I plan to ask them what they do at the desk, why they wanted to work there, what kind of activities they do on the weekends or during times they aren't working, and just find out some general background information like what they're interested in, their majors, what year they are, etc.  There isn't really any research I can do on this topic.  The only research I could do would be to find out who the previous workers were and possibly talk to them to widen my study.

Yes, I do think that there is a difference between academic and nonacademic research.  I would consider academic research when you are looking in books or print sources.  This would also include anything done by a "famous" person or expert on the topic.  Nonacademic research would be observing and informal experiments.  It would be like something I would be able to do.