Conventions for the writing of field notes by Hervé Varenne

Conventions for the writing of field notes

All ethnographers have found that they have wished and needed to record matters that easily fall into three categories:

events
personal reactions to events
analytic thoughts on the bases of the preceding too that point to other observations that have been made or need to be made.

The distinction between the three categories of notes is not fully theoretical since it is easy to show that the distinction between

today it rained
today I was depressed because it rained
I should figure out whether my informants think of the rain as depressing

is more a matter of common sense and rules of thumb than an epistemological matter.

Many anthropologists have kept distinct physical records of each kind of happenings (thereby distinguishing "field notes" from "diaries" from "notes to myself").

In my own recent work I have kept them in the same physical record using the ability of modern word processors to print in different fonts. Thus in my notes on field work in Ireland I write:

to day it rained (in a regular font)

[today I was depressed because it rained (indented, between square brackets in a different font)]

{I should figure out whether my informants think of the rain as depressing (indented differently, between curly brackets, in a third font)}

Conventions for the writing of field notes

[today I was depressed because it rained (indented, between square brackets in a different font)]

{I should figure out whether my informants think of the rain as depressing (indented differently, between curly brackets, in a third font)}

October 22, 1996