Fieldnotes

 Learning How To Look: "Deep Observation" and "Thick Description":

• Beginner's Mind (assume you know nothing and look at everything with fresh eyes)
• Take your time (hang out at your block at all different times of the day, weather, etc.)
• Look for the unusual in the usual
• Describe everything in as much detail as possible, you never know what will be important later.
• look everywhere: up, down, sideways.

Click here for a great article on looking by a photographer and writer.

What to Jot about:

                                                                 Notes

• observations
• impressions
• personal feelings
• tentative explanations
• behaviors
• body language

• sketches of places
• words (vocabulary)
• scents, sounds

Students need to make a distinction between what they OBSERVE and how they INTERPRET what they observe (keep them separate---the whats and the whys)

                                                                       Updated Notes

How to do it:

• be flexible, what you planned on taking notes on may be less interesting than what is in front of you
• be sensitive to people 
• include informants in jottings/interact
• frame what you are doing in a positive and non intrusive way 
• be selective about when to take notes
• Ethics
• ensure confidentiality (pseudonym or coding) and omit sensitive information
• be upfront about what you are doing

What to write

• terse, evocative phrases
• short quotes or phrases hat seem important (note time on recording)
• maps and sketches
• gestures, flavors, shouts, whispers, and all first impressions
• distinguish between WHAT you saw and tasted and heard (objective) and HOW you interpreted these things (subjective).
• do not impute MOTIVE (describe what you see and hear instead)
• do not make guesses or judgments
• describe observed behavior in as much detail as possible (don't use vague descriptions of mental states or attitudes).

                                                          More Notes

Writing Up Your Fieldnotes

• write up your notes ASAP so you do not forget things
• headnotes (fill in the jottings)
• keep a separate journal of your emotional responses (optional)

Interviews

• Session 1: get comfortable with each other and establish rapport
• get comfortable
• no right answers
• answer questions and explain project
• demonstrate a non-judgmental attitude and establish trust
• Sessions which follow: subsequent sessions give informant a chance to reflect
• do not read off a list of questions
• avoid directed questions, let informant speak until they are finished
• remember it is your interviewee's story (not the projects)
• ethics:
•  ensure anonymity that is important to informant
• be prepared to leave out information which is damaging
• Neutral Topic
• start interviews with neutral (easy) topics
• avoid ASSUMPTIONS and EXPECTATIONS
• Cultural differences and miscommunication
• Do not take the meaning of words, phrases or gestures for granted-even if you know them!
• Process
• develop rapport
• apprehension (emphasize the importance of THEIR story)
• explanation (restate what the informant says for confirmation)
• cooperation (equal partners)
• participation (interviewee as teacher)
• Breaks in Interview
• avoid leading questions

Once you take your notes you will be able to distinguish between what you OBSERVE and what are your JUDGEMENTS. Your judgements should be kept out of your ethnographic account. Your descriptions will serve to allow the reader to draw conclusions, which is why your descriptions should be "THICK"(dense in description).