Instructions for an observation write-up

English 103 / Fall 2003 / Bill Stobb

An observation is a way of examining closely something that’s already captured your interest.  By examining it closely, your interest might become more specific, defined, and you might begin to develop something like an essay topic.  Here’s a list of things I can imagine myself observing, because I’m interested in them:

• Radiohead songs: why is it that I find them so spooky and compelling?  I’d probably look at their lyrics, but I’d also need to sit and listen and try to describe the sounds of those songs, because the sound is what really grabs me.
• TV commercials: I find these much more interesting than the actual shows.  What are some strategies I notice advertisers using?  How are those strategies trying to sell me?  What do these strategies say about who we are, as consumers?
• Tiger Woods’s golf game.  There’s lots of talk on sports radio about Tiger, who was once considered the greatest golfer ever, being in a slump.  Where are the problems in Tiger’s game?  If he’s going to get back to the top, where does he need to improve?
• The Food Co-op, downtown.  Why do I like to shop there so much?  What is it about the atmosphere of the place that makes me so much happier than I am when I’m shopping at Quillin’s?

Your observation write-up should be made up of three parts.

1.  A paragraph describing the following: a) what you’ve decided to observe, as specifically as possible.  In the second example above, I'd need to narrow my focus to observe commercials by a certain company, or commercials that use a certain kind of person, like the "cute baby" commercials, the "housewife" commercials, or the "husband-on-the-couch-watching-football" commercials; b) your substantial reasons for deciding to observe it.  "I just couldn't think of anything else" doesn't convince me that you're doing this work thoughtfully; and, c) where and when and how you observed it. 

2.  A section of notes from your observation, organized in a bulleted list, an outline, or some other form that shows you prioritizing or organizing the many things you noticed during your observation session(s).  Your observations should show specific instances of what you observe, not generalizations about a subject area.  In the fourth example, a generalization might be, "the people at the food co-op seem very healthy."  A specific observation might be, "when I was there on Tuesday, the manager of the food co-op was wearing outdoorsy clothing--a fleece, a pair of Columbia cargo pants, and some hiking-style sneakers.  He looked like he'd just sprinted down from Granddad's Bluff."

3.  A section of writing about the experience, trying to make sense of what you’ve observed.  How did the observation relate to your expectations?  What did you see that was interesting?  Were you surprised in any ways?  What more could you learn about this subject, and how could you pursue it further?  In particular, try to write about the ways this observation could lead to an essay topic.  Even if your original observation concept doesn't seem likely to produce a successful essay, there may be another angle you could explore, based on what you did or didn't learn in this assignment.