Description

Your audience has not witnessed the situation, people or event you are discussing; thus, their only knowledge of it will come from your description. Give them enough information to place the analysis that will follow into a context. Remember, do not make the mistake of only including description.

We all observe people, interactions and events in everyday life; however, your job when writing a field report is to systematically record in detail the varying aspects of a situation (Glesne & Peshkin, 1992).

In many respects the description component of a field report is like a well written piece of journalism. In nearly every situation, the journalist looks to address the five Ws.

Unlike a newspaper or magazine article, however, you are required to take your report one step further and place what you have seen into a theoretical framework and provide an in-depth analysis of the significance of your observations.