FIELD RESEARCH AND FOCUS GROUP RESEARCHexample, people often use phrases such as “you
know” or “of course” or “et cetera.” You want to
learn the meaning behind such phrases. You can try
to hear everything, but listening is difficult when
many conversations occur at once or when you are
eavesdropping. Luckily, significant events and
themes usually recur.
People who interact with each other over a
time period develop shared symbols and terminol-
ogy. They create new words or assign new mean-
ings to ordinary words. New words develop out of
specific events, assumptions, or relations. Know-
ing and using the language can signal membership
in a distinct subculture. You want to learn the spe-
cialized language, or argot.^39
You should start with the premise that words
and symbols used in your world may have different
meanings in the world of the people you study. You
must also be attuned to new words and their use in
contexts other than the ones with which you are
familiar (Bogdan and Taylor, 1975:53).
You want to recognize how the argot fits into
social relations or meanings. The argot gives you
clues to what is important to members and how they
see the world. For example, Douglas (1976:125)
discovered the term “vultching” in a study of nude
beaches. It was a member’s label for the practice of
some males who sat around an attractive nude
woman on the beach.
In their study of sales practices of a vacation
condominium ownership firm, Katovich and Dia-
mond (1986) conducted observations and informal
interviews over 6 months when one researcher was
employed and the other was a trainee. They ana-
lyzed the salesroom as a stage in which a series
of events are presented to prospective buyers and
discussed the argot used. For example, “drops”
occur when the finance manager enters and “drops”
information during a discussion between the sales-
person and potential buyers. The purpose of such
staged events is to stimulate sales. Common reve-
lations were that a major corporation that had
bought twenty units just decided it needed only fif-
teen, so five are suddenly available at a special price;
a previous client was denied financing, so a property
can be offered at a reduced price; or only a few char-
ter members can qualify for a special deal.
A field researcher translates back and forth
between the field argot and the outside world.
Spradley (1970:80) offered an example when quot-
ing an “urban nomad.” He said, “If a man hasn’t
made the bucket, he isn’t a tramp.” This translates:
A man is not considered a true member of the sub-
culture (i.e., a tramp) until he has been arrested for
public drunkenness and spent the night in the city
or county jail (i.e., “made the bucket”). After you
have been in the field for some time, you may feel
comfortable using the argot, but it is unwise to use
it too soon and risk looking foolish.Record the Data.Information overload is common
in field research and stretches an individual’s abil-
ity, not matter how skilled the person is in record-
ing data. Most field research data are in the form of
notes. Full field notes can contain maps, diagrams,
photographs, interviews, tape recordings, video-
tapes, memos, objects from the field, notes jotted
in the field, and detailed notes written away from
the field. You can expect to fill many notebooks or
the equivalent in computer memory. You may
spend more time writing notes than being in the
field. Some researchers produce forty single-
spaced pages of notes for 3 hours of observation.
With practice, you should produce several pages of
notes for each hour in the field.
Writing notes is often boring, tedious work
that requires self-discipline. The notes contain
extensive descriptive detail drawn from memory.
Emerson and colleagues (1995) argued that good
field notes are as much a mind-set as an activity and
remarked (p. 40), “Perhaps more crucial than how
long the ethnographer spends in the field is the tim-
ing of writing up field notes.... Writing field notes
immediatelyafter leaving the setting provides
fresher, more detailed recollections.. .” (emphasis
in original). If possible, always write notes before
the day’s thoughts and excitement begin to fade,
without retelling events to others. Pouring freshArgot The special language or terminology used by
the members of a subculture or group who interact
regularly.