The following are some key excerpts from Chapter 1 of Robert Emerson’s Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes. Their text often defines ethnography by way of pointing out what it’s not. The following chart is an attempt to distill some of their key points. Quotes are taken directly from the text, whereas the text that’s not quoted is my paraphrasing.

 

The fieldnote writer is not… Because the fieldnote writer is….
“A fly on the wall” Developing close relations in order to see the way research participants make sense of the world and attribute meaning to everyday life and social relations.
A detached, passive observer Immersively interacting with research participants, so as to “resocialize” and learn to interpret the world from a point of view closer to theirs’.
…”Simply putting happenings into words” (in fieldnotes) Undertaking writing as “an interpretive process: It is the very first act of textualizing. Indeed, this often “invisible” work – writing ethnographic fieldnotes – is the primordial textualization that creates a world on the page and, ultimately, shapes the final ethnographic, published text.”

“The ethnographer’s fieldnote writing practices – jottings on what others are doing in their presence, observing in order to write, writing extended fieldnotes outside of the field setting – specifically create and sustain separation, marginality, and distance in the midst of personal and social proximity.”
“Contaminating” Harnessing his/her presence/body/experience as a resource for the research project – as well as the responses of research participants to his/her presence, becoming the very source of the learning and observation.

Quoting Van Maanen, ethnography is “the peculiar practice of representing the social reality of others through the analysis of one’s own experience in the world of these others.”
Taking in everything “in conjunction with those in the setting, develop certain perspectives by engaging in some activities and relationships rather than others”
Revealing “the truth” about “what happened” “Revealing the multiple truths apparent in others’ lives.”

“…these descriptive accounts select and emphasize different features and actions while ignoring and marginalizing others.”
Neatly separating what she finds out (findings) from how she finds it out (method). Sees how “what the ethnographer finds out (findings) is inherently connected with how she finds it out (method)… As a result, these methods should not be ignored; rather they should comprise an important part of written fieldnotes…”
Entering the world to develop new relationships Entering the world to develop new relationships and position herself to write about them.