Sociology 105 Syllabus
	Al Black's Course List Page

Guide to writing the participant observation paper:

1. Describe the setting you chose to observe, and the activities and actors involved in that setting,
2. State your central finding (an interesting theme/pattern/hypothesis that you found during your systematic observations.)
3. Describe the process by which you came to focus on the question(s)/theme(s) you're writing about. What hypotheses were you initially interested in observing? Were you able to build on your initial idea, or did your focus change as you began the observations? If so, how? ( If you're using a diary format, this discussion may be worked into the body of the paper.)
4. Provide ample evidence to support your finding. Use quotes, illustrations, and specific examples from your field notes to bolster all of your points/claims. You can do this either 1) in a diary format, where you describe observations relevant to your finding day-by-day (i.e., "On January 18 there was a fight at the IMA between Person A (describe) and Person B (describe) and this is how the conflict began and this is how it was resolved ... On January 22..."); or 2) as an analysis structured by concepts (i.e., if you found that there are four stages in the process of conflict resolution on the basketball court, you could discuss each stage separately, providing illustrations for each.)
5. Conclude with some reflections on the experience and what you might do differently next time.