Paper details Step 1: Conducting the Research Choose a location for your study. Now just stand there and do nothing for 10 minutes (you can set a timer and don’t look again until it goes off). You’re supposed to be unoccupied. Don’t appear to be waiting for someone, taking a break, sightseeing, people watching, or otherwise engaged in some kind of normal activity. Also don’t daydream or think about the past or the future; don’t entertain yourself with plans or internal dialogues. Don’t whistle, hum, fidget, look in your bag, play with your phone, take notes, or do anything else that might distract you from just being there and doing nothing. Do, however, observe the reactions of others to you, and pay attention to your own thoughts and feelings during these 10 minutes.
Some important additional notes about the research process. You must conduct this research on your own; don’t bring anyone else with you, or your results will be compromised. Please don’t get yourself or anyone else in trouble. If you’re approached by someone, it’s okay to tell them you’re doing an exercise for class. If you are disrupted and need to end early, that’s fine. Just discuss it in your field notes. Conversely, don’t worry if not much happens. Often the results are very subtle; trust that you’ll have plenty to say from just 10 minutes in the field.
Step 2: Writing Field Notes Immediately after conducting the exercise, write field notes about what happened or did not happen. Include descriptions of the setting, other people, and your own thoughts and feelings before, during, and after the exercise. Use all your senses. Good field notes should have “thick description” with many details about the scene, actions, interactions, and your own self-reflections. Be specific. Don’t summarize or generalize or analyze, just describe by focusing on the small details about what happened. Your field notes will become the source of your data. Field notes can be loosely structured; it’s fine if they are casual in tone and written in the first person. Use whatever format works best for you, and write A LOT of notes.
Step 3: Discussion and Analysis Describe your experience and the results of your research. How did the exercise help you learn to think more like a sociologist? Were you able to see things in a new way? Discuss your experience in the field and it’s meaning to you. What was it like to go “do” sociology? What was the most interesting (or challenging) part about conducting the research? Discuss what you learned about how social norms govern behavior in public places. How did it feel to violate a widely agreed upon folkway? What kinds of reactions did you notice? What does this tell you about social interaction and social order?
