Writing Like a Camera
One of my favorite activities to teach observational skills to students also happens to be a really wonderful activity for anyone who wants to get better at seeing the world around them.
I call the exercise “Writing Like a Camera” and I’ve used it in introductory courses all the way up to graduate courses in qualitative data analysis. I’ve had designers and technologists use it and it’s a game changer if they are willing. They learn a ton and teach why social science matters without doing a whole lot.
But even outside of a consulting or teaching framework, I actually love doing it myself. Sometimes when I’m traveling or waiting for a prescription or whatever, instead of looking at my phone, I’ll jot down a few notes and write like a camera. It’s a really nice way to be more aware and thoughtful about the settings I’m in.
Writing Like a Camera Exercise
Your task is to sit in a public place for one full hour, observe the situation you are in and write about what you observe. Begin this assignment alone and without plans to be with someone. Stay in the same place for the full hour and turn off your phone (don’t just silence it). You may choose any place that you would like, but I strongly encourage you to go someplace that you have never been. Ideally you’d choose a place that is not on campus.
Here are some suggestions of places that you can go for an hour:
- Courtroom/City Council Meeting/School Board Meeting
- Hospital Waiting Room
- Hotel Lobby
- Doctor’s office
- Park
- Pharmacy waiting area
- Beauty Salon/Barber Shop
- Car Wash
- Bookstore
- Airport/Train/Bus Station
- Community Center
- Mechanic’s Lobby
- Library
- Post Office
- Department of Motor Vehicles
- Bingo Parlor
- Police waiting area
- Mall
- Putt Putt/Batting Cages/Arcade
- Theater lobby
- Convention Center
- Art Gallery
Observing
- Think of yourself as a camera, recording the scene before you. You can focus in on details or you pan out wider to see the bigger picture. You can change camera angles, or intentionally blur or sharpen the vision. You are in control of the camera.
- Behave normally within the setting you are in. If someone asks you to leave, talk to them or do something, do what you would normally do.
Writing
- You should write a lot. For one hour of observation, it is possible to write between 8 and 10 pages.
- You may write while a few notes while doing the observation –these are short notes called jottings to remind you of what you saw. However, you should write the bulk of the assignment after you have finished observing.
- Do not edit what you write. Don’t worry about spelling, grammar or readability.
- What you bring to class should have your name on it and the place and time where you did your observations. It should have the pages stapled together and be readable. It can be either typed or hand written.
- You will be evaluated on your engagement with the task.
If you do end up using this in a classroom (feel free, just cite me) there are a few things to know. Students will double and triple check to be sure that you are serious about the fact that 1) they can go anywhere they want and 2) that you won’t take off points for misspellings/grammar 3) they just have to write a lot.
I’ve never once taught this and not had to answer those questions.
It doesn’t really matter where they go though it helps to go somewhere they’ve never been. The more interested they are in the place, the better. It also doesn’t matter if it’s badly written, grammatically horrifying or every other word is misspelled. You’ll still be easily able to see if they got the gist of the assignment. Some folks who speak another language will take notes in their native tongue and write up the notes later. That is totally fine.
I find it easy to grade these in part because I’m only looking to see if they’ve gotten into the scene. You can tell when they have because they start to have questions, to be curious and to talk about certain people they’re seeing. Some folks will draw diagrams or pictures. Some will talk to folks, or find themselves engaged in the scene.
What’s great about this assignment is that while I never say it ahead of time, I’m essentially asking them to start doing ethnographic research. From there it’s really easy to talk about bias, reflexivity, research questions, field research challenges, the limits of observational data and the influence that the researcher has on the direction of the study. They much more intuitively get those concepts if they’ve already gone out and experienced the discomfort of being somewhere and observing for themselves.
The other benefit is that it really opens up their eyes. Sometimes students will be bored, but that’s ok. It’s more likely that they’ll come to class with stories about what happened and mysteriously they’ll find themselves much more interested in a “normal” setting than they would have expected.
THAT is the goal. To get folks paying attention to the world around them.
Enjoy! And I’d love to know if you use this exercise!
Beth M. Duckles, Ph.D. is a researcher, writer and ethnographer based in Portland, Oregon. You can find her online at www.bethduckles.com
