field notes
Outdoor research journal
Field notes are written observations made during research, typically recorded on-site rather than from memory later.
Scientists, anthropologists, and journalists keep field notes to document what they witness firsthand: Her field notes from the expedition filled three notebooks.
The term emphasizes raw, unpolished documentation—capturing details before they fade.
- notebooksBound blank pages
- spiral boundJoined by wire loops
- ethnographySystematic study of peoples
- anthropologyStudy of human cultures
- sketchingMaking rough drawings
jottings · interviews · in situ · fieldwork · on the ground · journaling · dog-eared · waterproof · thick description · ecology · reflexivity · first impressions · Malinowski · oral histories · qualitative data · photographing · triangulation · scribbles
- cultural heritagefolklore, traditions, customs, folk music revival, museum collections
- farm referencesfarmer's almanac, almanac, planting guide, seed catalog, planting calendar
- mapping expeditionsLewis and Clark, cartographers, explorers, topographic maps, GPS mapping
- forestry recordsforest certification, forest health
- geologic surveysaerial survey, land survey, fieldwork, geophysics, magnetometry
- schoolworkhomework, assignment, assignments, reading, essays