Taking notes

I’m terrible at taking notes. But taking good notes is invaluable, throughout any study of animal behaviour. So do as I say, not as I do; hope these tips help.

Tip 1

Tip 1 is, um, take notes. It’s amazing what one forgets, and equally amazing how much one can remember with even just a few written prompts.

Tip2

Write down everything. Of course, you can’t literally write down everything, but write down more than you think you need to.

What’s important to write down? That’s a very individual decision, but some basics are:

• roughly, what were you doing? (watching animals mainly, just hiking?)
• when did these observations happen?
• what was the weather like?
• give a picture, sketched and/or verbal, of the general situation (where the animals were relative to each other and you and the local setting - trees or whatever)

Beyond that, you can take things in all sorts of directions.

Tip 3

Organize your notes in a way that makes them clear. Again, how you do so depends on your own approach, but it can help to have standard headings, subheadings, columns, etc for particular things.

Tip 4

Let your notes evolve. At first, they might be quite disorganzied and scruffy, but gradually they get more organized and standardized. That’s OK - in fact, that’s typical of most note taking, plus it’s how studies progress: from open-ended observation to focussed testing of particular predictions. Your notes will, and should, reflect that progression.