Field notes

I like this advice on field notes a lot and wanted to share it with you:

There is a balance to be struck with writing up field notes. For some observers, note taking is one (and perhaps the only) activity in which they feel they are really doing research. They may be tempted to over-write because of the satisfaction note-making brings. I worry about them less than I worry about those who resent the time they must devote to writing and who procrastinate, thus making the task increasingly formidable. If you are one of the latter, I suggest you try to discover how short you can make entries that nonetheless satisfy you for their adequacy, and then find a way to maintain that level of note-making as part of your daily routine (e.g., finishing up yesterday's notes while having your second cup of morning coffee).

However you approach it, you must make note-making sufficiently doable that you will always do it, rather than ever put it off. It may prove to be a chore, but it need not become a dreaded one if you follow the simple rule of keeping your entries up to date. There isn't much sense to going out and getting more information if you haven't digested what you took in last time.

Recognize that regardless of how much you write, most of what you observe will remain what Simon Ottenberg calls "head-notes". But some observations will make it into written jottings, whether simple or elaborate, and those jottings will prove invaluable. Your elaborated note-making also provides a critical bridge between what you are experiencing and how you are translating that you observe into a form you can communicate to others. Make a practice of including in your notes not only standard entries about day, date, and time, accompanied by a simple coding system for keeping track of entries, but also reflections on and about yourself - your mood, personal reactions, even random thoughts. These may later help you recapture detail not committed to paper but not lost, either.

Note taking is not the only kind of writing for you to consider at this stage. There is something temporary about any kind of notes that effectively says the real writing will come later. What is to prevent you from doing some of that real writing as fieldwork proceeds? Instead of putting everything in an abbreviated note form, take time to draft expanded pieces written in rich detail in such a way that they might later be incorporated into your final account. Disabuse yourself of the idea that as long as you are doing fieldwork, note taking is the only kind of writing you should do. (pp. 92-93)

Reference:
Wolcott, H. F. (2005). The art of fieldwork (2 ed.). Plymouth, UK: AltaMira Press.