A data notebook

A data notebook is the key to solid, useful, cultural research. It will repay you richly to learn how to transform your field notes into a data notebook via an entry system that

• covers the necessary parts of good classification, and
• can be adapted to suit your particular needs.

Also, you can use the OCM system to start and maintain your data notebook in whatever form you are currently working. The important thing is to get in the habit of doing it! Whatever system you use, always remember to keep updated back-up versions of your work both inside and outside your computer.

You can keep a personal log in conjunction with, but separate from, the data notebook. The Personal Log is a record of all that you do, what official activities were worked on, and how you felt while doing them.

It offers the opportunity for you to make a record of the activities you have been involved in, as well as the possibility of keeping track of other factors that may have affected how you participated in those activities. You will be able to indicate, on a regular or semi-regular basis, exactly how you spent your time: in house building, in data collection, in language learning activities, in participant observation, in interviews, in home schooling, etc. You can then record, for any given day or activity, the state of the weather, the level of stress you were experiencing, or any other factors that may have affected how that day went.

Such a record will help you understand why certain periods were less productive than others, show what factors have a patterned effect on your work, and make planning easier and more effective.

Now explore the features of the FRAME Categories, OCM Categories and Index as a means of categorizing your field notes and observations.

Here are some things to do when you use a data notebook:

• Familarize yourself with the OCM categories by doing the following:

  • Display a copy of the FRAME and underlying OCM categories on your screen. Click on each category in turn, noting the range of topics covered in each one.

  • Read Example: How to use the OCM category "Fishing"
  • Practice using the OCM Index to find the topic "Fishing."

• Create and maintain your data notebook by doing the following:

  • Writing up and categorizing entries about events, observations, conversations, and the like. Here is a sample categorized entry.

  • Making a list of further research questions.

Future versions of these tools will have the ability to help you do the following:

• Explore background information by cultural topics. For example, to read about societies which depend on fishing, click here to read in the chapter on cultural ecology in Hiebert's Cultural anthropology about the characteristics of food-gathering societies
• Make hypotheses.
• Review research questions.
• Write up your results.

Exercise

Here is an exercise to help you learn to navigate the OCM index and category system:

• Fact module: A data notebook
• In modular book: The Anthropology Bookshelf, by International Anthropology Department
• In bookshelf: Anthropology

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 3.5, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 3 April 1999

© 1999 SIL International