RESEARCH DIARIESDifferent types

‘Tools’‘Records’

“The ideal of truth contained in the form of an entirely unpretentious report proves to be the irreducible foundation of all literary effort. It crystallises resistance to the human faculty of suppressing any memory that might in some way be an obstacle to the continuance of life.”

W.G. Sebald (Campo Santo)

DIARIES AS RESEARCH ‘TOOLS’

Research tools – participants complete diaries recording actions, feelings, motivations, etc.

Data sources – Mass Observation style, or other form of collection. Analysed using a range of routines: thematic analysis, content analysis, hermeneutic?

Ethnographic diaries recording observations of participants’ actions

WRITING AND RESEARCH (WHY DO WE NEED TO WRITE?)Communication as a key criteria in academic definitions of research (‘writing-up’, contributing to the discipline)

BUT writing is also important for:Keeping a clear record of the decisions and actions of the researcher for later reference (inc. future researchers)Recording ideas, observations, etc. amidst the doing of researchFacilitating the research – as part of the research process itself – developing ideas and arguments to see where they go

DIARIES AS RESEARCH ‘RECORDS’

A descriptive record of research activities

A melting pot of ideas, experience, readings, observations

A stimulus for reflective thinking

A “vehicle for ordered creativity” (Schatzman & Strauss)

A reflective research tool/method - the concept of the reflective practitioner (Schön)

A source of ideas and information for more formal research reports

A research diary can easily become (and I think should be treated as) a data source in its own right.

THE PRACTICAL RESEARCH DIARY

Written up every day after research activitiesRecord events, meetings, observationsRecord specific details of research activities (interviews, focus groups)Record impressions and feelingsWrite notes on texts you are readingWrite notes on seminars (&c.) you have attendedIncludes regular outline and discussion of research plans and structures. Examples …

NECESSITY, HABIT, COMPULSION

“I was only a couple of years out of college, Boston University School of Journalism, when I came to work in New York, where I worked as a writer for a newspaper, and then I went, I was hired by the New Deal organisation the Farm Security Administration to make pictures to show the citizens of the country and the congress how desperate the conditions were for many people in the areas of the country. And each week I had to produce an expense account for the US government and I also had to have captions for all the pictures I made, and so I began to scribble down little things to myself when I was working in the field, and at night while my film was being developed in the bathroom of my hotel I would then write notes to myself from the notes I’d written during the day as I was making pictures. In time I expanded these notes and over the years I expanded them even fuller, even more fully, and you know the keeping of notes begins as a necessity and expanding them often becomes a habit, and then somewhere along the line for notebook takers it becomes a compulsion. And somewhere in my years of making pictures and scribbling notes, scribbling notes to myself became a compulsion, and its been so ever since, and at the very moment when I am now doing a book, a memoir of my years, the notes I made across the country and around the world for many years, on many stories, and many experiences, are invaluable to me now.”

RESEARCH DIARY FORMS

The subjective diary - emphasis on the subjective experience of doing research

The research log - an objective account of actions and their outcomes e.g. experimentation (can be used to verify claims)Fieldnotes - recording observations, interviews, participation

Blurring of boundaries - very few examples in qualitative research adhere strictly to one type –“fieldwork is situated between autobiography and anthropology” (Hastrup 1992)

RESEARCH DIARY PURPOSES

The use of researcher diaries in relation to professional and creative practices has a long history (artist/practitioner journals and sketchbooks, reflective practice diaries)More common in relation to qualitative researchForms of participant observation in cultural research (ethnography/autoethnography)The negotiation between subjectivity and objectivityDiary/journal writing shares some characteristics with some forms of creative and professional practice? (e.g. objectification of the self)

YOUR RESEARCH DIARY AS A CRITICAL, REFLECTIVE TOOL

Amongst other things:Over time the diary becomes an object that provides a narrative of the research process and your journey as a researcherAllows you to critically reflect on decisions made, opportunities taken, problems encounteredAllows you to express feelings that are suppressed in the field Provides an aid to memoryHelps to locate you and your voice inside the research and, particularly, in the research report.

RESEARCH DIARIES AND JOURNALS

How is a research diary/journal different from a research report?

No attempt to reconstruct the research (linear vs non-linear)

Records “the real inner drama” of research

Subjective vs objective

Communication vs facilitation

There are no rules as to what a research diary should look like or what it should contain

CREATIVE RESEARCH DIARIES

“My objective was to discover what it meant to experience the process of being immersed in the discipline of visual art making”

“As the ‘drama’ of the five months progressed, the act of writing took on a more important role. I found that it clarified many of my ideas in the creation of art objects. I began to think of writing as part of the creative process of making art. It became a significant aspect in understanding how I construct visual knowledge”

(Herivel 1997)

Ekua McMorris, PhD student, University of Brighton

Gavin Fry, PhD student, University of Brighton

RESEARCH FIELDNOTES

WHEN ARE RESEARCH DIARIES AND FIELDNOTE JOURNALS USED?In qualitative research where the researcher him/herself is the main tool for recording research information (i.e. through observation)

In action research where the researcher is engaged in practice as well as research

In reflective practice research, where the practitioner is seeking to become more aware of the use of tacit knowledge

In any other research where the researcher wants to record the actions, decisions and ideas of the research as they occur

Can be supplemented by (or responding to) visual/photographic documentation

APPROACHES TO NOTE TAKING

“[the] researcher requires recording tactics that will provide him with an ongoing, developmental dialogue” (Schatzman & Strauss 1973)

Observational notes who, what, when where, how?

Theoretical notes making sense of observations, ideas. linking reading and theory with doing and practice.

Methodological notes reflections, notes, reminders on the how of the research process itself.

In practice these are unlikely to be clearly separated

ADVANTAGES/DISADVANTAGES

Advantages Provides a coherent central focus for the research projectCentral record of information (written/electronic) Stimulus for reflective thinking

Disadvantages Time commitment Sustainability Retrieval of information

OTHER ISSUESFormat (notebooks, loose sheets)

Electronic versions (back-ups)

Can you distinguish between your own observations, speculative ideas, and things you have heard or read?

Can you understand what you have written, even several months after having written it?

Ethical issues – who sees the diary?

QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, OBSERVATIONS…...

Mark Erickson

Reader in Sociology

Watson Building 132, Falmer

SASS, University of Brighton

m.erickson@brighton.ac.uk

Twitter: @drmarkerickson

Darren Newbury

Professor of Photographic History

Grand Parade

University of Brighton

d.m.newbury@brighton.ac.uk