Table of Contents
Definition of Field Note
(noun) Data gathered from research in the field.
Example of Field Note
- Responses given to interview questions by people at a public park or recording various types of interactions while observing people’s behavior at a football game.
Field Note Pronunciation
Syllabification: field note
Audio Pronunciation
Phonetic Spelling
- American English – /fEEld nOHt/
- British English – /fEEld nOHt/
International Phonetic Alphabet
- American English – /fild noʊt/
- British English – /fiːld nəʊt/
Usage Notes
- Plural: field notes
- In this instance, “field” refers to the natural settings of people instead of research conducting in a laboratory or library.
- A qualitative research method.
Related Quotations
- “[A field experiment] enables researchers to observe various forms of social behavior under conditions in which they normally occur. In a laboratory study, subjects know they are being observed and thus may display the behavior they believe is desirable” (Kendall 2006:27).
- “Ethnographers seek out the insider’s viewpoint. Because culture is the knowledge people use to generate behavior and interpret experience, the ethnographer seeks to understand group members’ behavior from the inside, or cultural, perspective. Instead of looking for a subject to observe, ethnographers look for an informant to teach them the culture” (Spradley and McCurdy 2008:4).
Additional Information
- Qualitative Research Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
- Quantitative Research Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
- Word origin of “field” and “note” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
- Emerson, Robert M., Rachel I. Fretz, and Linda L. Shaw. 2011. Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Rossman, Gretchen B., and Sharon F. Rallis. 2012. Learning in the Field: An Introduction to Qualitative Research. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
- Sunstein, Bonnie S., and Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater. 2012. Fieldworking: Reading and Writing Research. 4th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s Press.
- Conducting Field Research: writing.colostate.edu
- Institute for Field Research: ifrglobal.org
Related Terms
- anthropology
- data
- ethnography
- field experiment
- field research
- observation
- participant observation
- qualitative research
References
Kendall, Diana. 2006. Sociology in Our Times: The Essentials. 5th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Spradley, James P., and David W. McCurdy. 2008. Conformity and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology. 13th ed. Boston: Pearson Education.
Works Consulted
Ferris, Kerry, and Jill Stein. 2010. The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology. 2nd ed. New York: Norton.
Merriam-Webster. (N.d.) Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/).
Oxford University Press. (N.d.) Oxford Dictionaries. (https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/).
Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wiktionary, The Free Dictionary. Wikimedia Foundation. (http://en.wiktionary.org).
Cite the Definition of Field Note
ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2014. “field note.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved March 29, 2024 (https://sociologydictionary.org/field-note/).
APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)
field note. (2014). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/field-note/
Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2014. “field note.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed March 29, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/field-note/.
MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)
“field note.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2014. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://sociologydictionary.org/field-note/>.