3: What to record in a research journal?
As outlined in Chapter 1, the contents of journal entries depend on the overall purpose of the research journal, as the journal may be linked to professional development, qualifications and assessments. Within research handbooks, the outline of what to record is often limited to vague guidance relating to making fieldnotes and recording observations, for example. In reality, the choice of what must be recorded, should be noted or is written down is much more complex. We have all been in situations where we have had to ask ourselves if our thoughts or observations were actually relevant enough, or where we had had a conversation that was not strictly a fieldwork conversation, but that seemed important nonetheless. So should we then write an entry about that non-fieldwork conversation? And what happens if we do not make a note of that potentially irrelevant observation? Worse still, what happens if we do not make a note and later find out that the observation would have been crucial and not irrelevant at all?
Once I started asking myself these questions, I quickly spiralled into a phase of worry, anxiety and self-doubt. I worried that my journal entries were not right, I was anxious about missing important work, and I seriously doubted my own judgement of knowing the important from the irrelevant, which obviously resulted in more worry and anxiety. With this chapter, I hope to alleviate some of these worries by specifically focusing on the developing a specific attitude towards journalling: the research journal should not be a chore or a cause for concern or worry.
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