Guidelines for Observations & Field Notes

Your purpose in taking field notes is to create an accurate and detailed descriptive record of what you observed, those involved, and the situation in which it occurred. The distinction between observation and interpretation is that you can OBSERVE what people DO but NOT what it means to them; you can observe BEHAVIOR but NOT ATTITUDE. This means that your field notes SHOULD NOT contain any information about motivation, reason, or beliefs — instead, you should have a complete and accurate record of what people said and did during the period you observed. Anonymity must be preserved and this is a descriptive exercise -- it is about what actually happened, who was involved and where -- interpretation and explanation is saved for the writing assignment. 

  • Your field notes must be attached to your paper IN THEIR ORIGINAL FORM.
    • attach a photocopy or scan of handwritten field notes
    • Computer generated field notes may be printed with the paper but EDITED field notes are NOT acceptable.
    • Refer to course materials on 'social facts' for clarification about the level of detail and specificity your field notes should reflect.

See 'On Site Selection' on my website for help deciding where to observe. 

If you decide to observe in a business or anyplace where what you are doing could be disruptive, you need to get permission to be there.

  • Politely let a manager know what you would like to do
  • let them know you are doing it for a class and reassure them that the information will remain anonymous and not published
  • ask permission to hang out and observe unobtrusively
  • tell them that you will be observing behavior and social interaction; you do not have to give them details about your focus.

OBSERVATION does NOT include interaction or communication with YOU; if you want to TALK with your subjects, you need to go through an approval process so you'll have to get started much earlier.

Field notes must preserve Anonymity of the people and the places:

  • NO PROPER NAMES OR UNIQUELY IDENTIFYING INFORMATION.
  • Use social roles and relevant social factors
    • Name the job, or the social position, that is relevant to the situation.
      • In a hospital, doctors, nurses, administrators (including patient advocates, intake personnel, desk clerks, etc.), orderlies, and, of course, patients and their family members and friends would all be relevant social roles.
      • if more detail is needed provide it without unique identifiers
        • e.g.,  hospital personnel who are assigned to particular patients are different from those not so assigned.
    • other social characteristics include race, gender, and approximate age usually can be directly observed
    • for social characteristics such as social class, ethnicity,  and others less directly observable, describe the evidence that you are using to classify people
  • accurately describe the type of setting — e.g., business, retail, hospital, university dining hall.
    • Be specific and detailed without providing unique identifying information.
      • For example, PRMC could be described as a full-service hospital in a small metropolitan area serving both the urban and rural surrounding community.
      • Giant could be described as a chain grocery store in a small urban area.

Describe events; your goal here is to produce a RECORD OF EVENTS; in other words, you want to paint a word picture that is as accurate and complete as a video recording:

  • Here you want to stick with what actually happened, what was actually said.
  • Record body language, facial expressions, physical proximity,  gestures, body language, style of dress, the way they moved
  • interaction should allow you to identify social relationships such as parent/child, sibling, partners, friends, other relatives.   Record the behaviors that make those identifications possible.
  • identify your 'subjects' with letters or numbers systematically
    • Social position and a letter or number might be an easy way to do it; Nurse A, Nurse B or customer 1, customer 2, for example.

Record anything else you can directly observe -- tone of voice, in addition to what they said, of course, but NOT what you think it means.  That is part of analysis and you will be demonstrating that in your papers.

since you need your field notes to write your paper, keep them organized and legible; an observation sheet and map like we've used for class is a good start. You can verify that your field notes are detailed, specific, and complete by allowing a friend to read them; that person should be able to tell someone else what happened — with considerable detail. Field notes must be taken ON SITE AT THE TIME OF OBSERVATION — not written up later.