Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes

Title: Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes
Author: Robert M Emerson
I9781720167662: 1708638
ISBN: 9780226206813
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
Published: 1995
Binding: Paperback
Language: English
Edition: 1
Number of Pages: 272
Section: Social Science | Anthropology | Cultural & Social
Condition Note: Excellent, unmarked copy with little wear and tight binding. We ship in recyclable American-made mailers. 100% money-back guarantee on all orders.
Publisher Description: 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.