What should field notes include

Methods Map Research Methods. Explore the Methods Map. Related Content. Back to Top. Find content related to this author. More often, field researchers must find creative ways to note their observations while engaged in the field.

With the advent of smartphones, taking notes in the field has become less arduous than it once was, as it is common to see someone texting or surfing the web from their phone in almost any setting.

Your strategy for recording your observations while in the field will be determined mostly by the site you choose and the role you play in that site. Will you be in a setting where having a notebook or smartphone in your hands will look out of place? If no, by all means, take notes! Writing notes while in the field requires a fine balance between jotting down your observations and actually engaging in the setting.

If you are strictly an observer, these will be easy to balance. I know several field researchers who developed their own version of shorthand to take notes, using some combination of abbreviations and symbols, without taking too much time away from their participation in the field.

As with other proficiencies one develops, writing field notes is a skill that can be improved with practice. Recall the discussion in Chapter 1 "Introduction" about the dangers of informal observation. Conducting field research and taking field notes are decidedly not informal activities. In field research, observation is deliberate, not haphazard. That said, for a first-time field researcher, taking field notes can feel like a pretty haphazard activity. Understanding when to write, what to write, where to write, and how to write are all skills that field researchers develop with experience.

I demonstrate this point to students early in our discussion of field methods by sending them out of the classroom in groups of two or three each and having them take notes about what they observe over a minute period of time. No problem, they say. How hard can it be? Pretty tough, as it turns out. Students typically return from their 15 minutes of observation frustrated, confused, and annoyed with me for putting them through the experience. So why torture my students in this way?

When students return to the classroom, I ask them to compare notes with their group members and discuss what strategies they used in making and recording observations. Typically, students have some overlap in the kinds of things noted, but inevitably one person will have paid more attention to conversations overheard, another to actions and unspoken physical expressions such how people walked or dressed, and yet another to nonhuman surroundings such as the landscape, sounds, and scents.

Students conducting this exercise also often use different note-taking strategies, some drawing more pictures, others writing in complete sentences, others using abbreviations. This is intentional. Having a research question or topic in mind helps a researcher focus her or his observations.

At the same time, it is important that field researchers not allow their original question or topic blind them to occurrences in the field that may not seem particularly important at the time. As I share with my students, you never know whether or how some observation might be important down the line. No matter how difficult it can be to write notes while in the field, it is worth the effort. Field researchers rely on the notes they take in the field to develop more complete notes later and, eventually, to develop analysis.

Have you heard the popular philosophical question about trees falling? It goes something like this: If a tree falls in the woods but nobody hears it, did it actually make a sound? Identifying emergent themes while observing allows you to shift your attention in ways that can foster a more developed investigation. First and foremost, your field notes should be useful for you. Organize them as you will best be useful to you, which might include searchable keywords, or a very regular format.

Below is one possible template for your field notes which includes a very complete and regular format. Feel free to adapt it to your needs. Write a detailed narrative of what you observed. Document specific words, phrases, summaries of conversations, and insider language. This is the interpretive part of your notes. Please make sure you relate the field observations to larger issues discussed in the field school or in the required readings.

List additional questions about people, places, or behaviors at the site for future investigation. This is how you will make links between the details … and the larger things you are learning about how culture works in this context. What themes can you begin to identify regarding your guiding question? What questions do you have to help focus your observation on subsequent visits? Can you begin to draw preliminary connections or potential conclusions based on what you learned?

This includes your personal responses to fieldwork. What was it like for you to be doing this research? What felt comfortable for you about being in this site and what felt uncomfortable?

While this is extremely important information, be especially careful to separate it from analysis. What are Field Notes? Field notes serve the following functions: First, they work as descriptions : you write them as notes and details of time, date, activities, settings, observations, behavior and conversations in the field. Always paginate your field notes. From Schwandt, Thomas A.

Characteristics of Field Notes Be accurate. You only get one chance to observe a particular moment in time, so before you conduct your observations, practice taking notes in a setting that is similar to your observation site in regards to number of people, the environment, and social dynamics.

This will help you develop your own style of transcribing observations quickly and accurately.