Research Blog Post 3

After reading the 3 articles on the basics of becoming a good ethnographer, I came away very surprised on the actual amount of notes that are taken but not used. I was also insanely worried that I may not actually be able to come up with that much time to take notes that only 5-20% will actually be used in the final draft. Definitely a shocker. Regardless, the information in each of the articles gave me a great idea on where to start. As someone that hasn’t taken 101, I am literally clueless on what to do and this is basically all I could ask for as far as guidance. The general theme on each of the example pieces was an extreme amount of detail regarding the environments. I wouldn’t have even thought to record some of the information that they did. They also mentioned that the assistance of a colleague that was willing to go over your notes/research daily was a great help in gaining more information in the long run.


The most important information was the mention of several different types of systems to record your work. It was stressed several times that you needed to be able to find specific pieces of information in a timely fashion, even if you have a large pile of research to go through. Personally I thought the method of labeling every person with a letter/number combination would be incredibly hard to decipher in the end as well as extremely outdated. Another important point was the fact that there is no true method that is set in stone to gather your research material. It’s something that has to be tailored to the individual doing the research. I am still yet undecided on which method I will end up choosing, but this definitely pointed me in the right direction.