Advantages and Disadvantages of Relying Solely on Field Notes in Comparison with Producing a Transcription of an Audio or Video Recording?

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Question: A) What are the advantages and disadvantages of relying solely on field notes in comparison with producing a transcription of an audio or video recording? B) What would be lost by relying on an audio rather than a video recording? C) What are the advantages and disadvantages of structured interviewing? _____________________________________________________________________ A) Before the advent of audio and video recording equipment, quantitative researchers relied on the writing of detailed field notes in their research. A researcher would locate themselves in the field of research and write copious notes on what they saw and heard in the field, aiming to provide a clear and complete narrative of what went on. In a classroom situation the researcher would aim to write down “in real time” (Media Guide, p.9) what the teacher and pupils said, aiming to capture the exact terms used and adding any other observations that they saw as relevant to the research. These might be recorded before the classroom work begins and could include layout of setting, what happened before the recording began, non-verbal behaviour and events. (Media Guide, p.8). This extra information can be valuable to the investigation being done, and would not be available to the researcher relying on transcriptions of audio or video. Other notes taken after the end of formal class could have very real bearing on the interpretation of data. These observations offer far more scope to a researcher seeking detailed description than would transcripts of audio or video recordings alone. At the end of the session, the researcher would then retire to a quiet place to transcribe the notes in a clear and legible form, as hurried notes, with one’s own forms of abbreviation are seldom comprehensible to anyone else. They would rely on their memory of the session to fill any gaps that

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