In Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes Robert M Emerson Rachel I Fretz & Linda L Shaw present a series of guidelines suggestions & practical advice for creating useful fieldnotes in a variety of settings demystifying a process that is often assumed to be intuitive & impossible to teach Using actual unfinished notes as examples the authors illustrate options for composing reviewing & working fieldnotes into finished texts They discuss different organizational & descriptive strategies & show how transforming direct observations into vivid descriptions results not simply from good memory but from learning to envision scenes as written A good ethnographer they demonstrate must learn to remember dialogue & movement like an actor to see colors & shapes like a painter & to sense moods & rhythms like a poet This new edition reflects the extensive feedback the authors have received from students & instructors since the first edition was published in 1995 As a result they have updated the race class & gender section created new sections on coding programs & revising first drafts & provided new examples of working notes An essential tool for budding social scientists the second edition of Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes will be invaluable for a new generation of researchers entering the field