Ethnography key concepts

Field: The diary method

In the diary or notebook method the researcher takes notes of compliments that he or she encounters in his or her daily life. Very often the researcher enlists the help of other compliment collectors, typically the researcher’s students. In this way a large number of compliment exchanges can be collected easily and quickly. 

Diary fields contain multiple character entries that are automatically stamped with the date, time, and the name of the user who entered the item. Each diary item can contain any characters that you can type or copy and paste. The maximum length for a diary field is determined by your database.

Diary fields contain multiple character entries that are automatically stamped with the date, time, and the name of the user who entered the item. Each diary item can contain any characters that you can type or copy and paste. 

The field diary is an important source of data enabling the researcher to record events as they occur which they annotate with developing interpretations.

As the research process progresses, the field diary can act as a bridge between theory and practice, allowing the researcher to use the data recorded as evidence to prove or disprove a theory, and bringing such theory to life for both the researcher and the reader. My overall research approach was an abductive one. This is a ‘twin track’ approach whereby on one track existing theory is taken as a starting point, which is either verified or falsified by empirical data. 

A field diary is a personal statement of the researcher’s feelings and opinions about the people and situations that he or she is observing.

Jottings are the brief words or phrases written down while at the fieldsite or in a situation about which more complete notes will be written later.  Usually recorded in a small notebook, jottings are intended to help us remember things we want to include when we write the full-fledged notes.  While not all research situations are appropriate for writing jottings all the time, they do help a great deal when sitting down to write afterwards.

When observing a culture, setting, or social sitution, field notes are created by the researcher to remember and record the behaviors, activities, events and other features of the setting being observed.

Field notes are meant to be read by the researcher to produce meaning and an understanding of the culture, social situation or phenomenon being studied.