Field Research Strategies

1.) Observations:

• Ensure you can gain access

• Announce your intentions clearly and honestly

• Accept modifications (or restrictions) to your plan

• Take notetaking materials – a notebook and pens

• Your purposes are to describe and to analyze

• Try to view things objectively

• Look for the unusual, the unique

• One visit may not be enough; follow-up visits may be necessary for clarification

Note-Taking:

• Write only on one side of the page

• Take notes in words, phrases, or sentences

• Draw diagrams or sketches

• Note any ideas or questions that occur to you

• Use quotation marks for any overheard remarks or conversations you have

• Remember to cover (a) setting, (b) people, (c) personal reactions

• Afterward, take time to reflect on, review, and add to your notes

• Note your main impressions of your observations

2.) Interviewing:

• Decide on an initial “target” or interview subject

• Be flexible if the interview subject changes, and make the most out of a change

• If you get turned down, ask for a recommendation for another interview subject

• Don’t be intimidated about arranging an interview just because you are a student

• When introducing yourself to arrange the interview, give a short and simple description of your project – and show enthusiasm

• Be aware that someone is donating time to you – call ahead, arrange a specific time to meet, be on time, bring what you need, and express your thanks at the end

• Plan for the interview – possibly visit the site briefly ahead of time, do some background reading, consider your objectives, and plan your questions

• The key to good interviewing is flexibility

• If a response strays too far from the point of the question, carefully redirect the conversation by asking a focused, follow-up question

• Take notetaking materials – a notebook and pens

Note-Taking:

• Possibly use a two-column method – “details and impressions” and “information”

• Do not take a verbatim transcript of the interview

• Your goals are to gather information and to record a few quotable bits of information, comments, and anecdotes

• Don’t get distracted with notetaking

• Do more listening than notetaking; pay close attention

• Take some notes during the interview – a few quotations, key words and phrases, details of the scene, the person, and the mood of the interview – WATCH and LISTEN

• Afterward, take time to reflect on, review, and add to your notes

• Note your main impressions of the interview

3.) Writing Good Questions:

• “Any question that places unfair limits on respondents is a bad question.”

• Avoid “forced-choice” questions – they impose your terms on your respondent

• Avoid “leading” questions – they assume too much

• The best questions are those that allow the subject to talk freely but to the point

• Prefer “open” questions – give the respondent range and flexibility; they also generate anecdotes, personal revelations, and expressions of attitudes

• “Closed” questions – usually request specific information

Sample “Open” Questions:

• I wonder if you would take a few minutes to tell me something about your early days in the business.  I’d be interested to hear about how it got started, what your hopes and aspirations were, what problems you faced, and how you dealt with them.

• Tell me about a time when you were . . . (name an emotion)?

• What did you think of . . . (name a person or event)?

• What did you do when . . . (name an event) . . . happened?

Sample “Closed” Questions:

• How do you . . . (name a process)?

• What does . . . (name a word) . . . mean?

• What does . . . (name a person, an object, or a place) . . . look like?

• How was it made?

Note: This information was taken from Chapter 20 of The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing, 5^th edition, by Rise B. Axelrod and Charles R. Cooper, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997, pp. 544-550.