Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes

In this book, three leading scholars develop a series of guidelines, suggestions, and practical advice about how to write useful fieldnotes in a variety of settings, both cultural and institutional. Using actual unfinished, "working" notes as examples, they illustrate options for composing, reviewing, and working fieldnotes into finished texts. They discuss different organizational and descriptive strategies, and show how transforming direct observations into vivid descriptions results not simply from good memory but more crucially from learning to remember dialogue and movement like an actor, to see colors and shapes like a painter, and to sense moods and rhythms like a poet. A vigorous and persuasive response to those who say that fieldnotes are too idiosyncratic, personal, and dependent on natural talent to allow formal instruction, this book shows that note-taking is a craft that can be taught. It is an essential tool for students and social scientists alike.

Robert M. Emerson is professor of sociology at University of California, Los Angeles.