Collecting

Once you have chosen a subject for your essay, from your journal of elsewhere, begin collecting information. Depending on your purpose your topic, even your personal learning preferences, some activities will work better than others. However, you should practice all of the activities to determine which is most successful for you and you topic. During these collecting activities, go back and reobserve your subject. The second or third time you go back, you may see additional details or more actively understand what you’re seeing.

Sketching Begin by draxving what you see. A pen or pencil can be “the best of eyes,” as Scudder’s essay demonstrates. Your drawing doesn’t have to be great art to suggest other details, questions, or relationships that may be important. Try to narrow and focus on one limited subject and draw it in detail, instead of trying to cover a wide range of objects, Brad Parks, a student in a writing class, decided to visit an Eskimo art display at a local gallery. As part of his observing notes, he drew the following sketches of Eskimo paintings. As he drew, he made notes in the margins of his sketches and zoomed in for more detail on one pair of walruses.

Taking Double-Entry Notes Taking notes in a double-entry for­mat is a simple but effective system for recording observed details. Draw a vertical line down the middle of a page in your journal. On the left-hand side, record bits of description and sensory details. On the right-hand side, jot down your reactions, thoughts, or ideas. Observed details on the left-hand side should be as objective as possible; comments on the right-hand side will be more subjective, noting your impressions, reactions, comparisons, images, as well as additional questions and ideas.

Sensory Details, Impressions, Reactions,

Facts, Data Ideas, Questions

size, color, shape, impressions, associations, feelings,

sounds, smell, reactions, ideas, images, comparisons,

touch, taste, related thoughts, questions actions, behavior

Answering Questions To help you describe the person, place, object, or event, write a short response in your journal to each of the following questions:

¦ What exactly is it? Can you define this person, place, object, or event? If it’s an object, are its parts related? Who needs it, uses it, or produces it?

¦ How much could it change and still be recognizable?

¦ Compare and contrast it. How is the person, place, thing, or event similar to or different from other comparable people, places, things, or events?

¦ From what points of view is it usually seen? From what point of view is it rarely seen?

Freewriting means exactly what it says. Write about your subject, nonstop, for five to ten minutes. Sometimes you may have to write, “I can’t think of anything” or “This is really stupid,” but keep on writing. Let your words and ideas suggest other thoughts and ideas. For observing, the purpose of freewriting is to let your imagination work on the subject, usually after you have observed and recorded specific details. Freewriting on your subject will develop more associations or comparisons for the right-hand side of your double-entry log, too. It should also help you to identify a dominant idea for your details.