INTRODUCTION

One of the main styles of social research used by empirically oriented social
scientists is field research, a style of investigation that is also referred to as field work,
qualitative method, interpretive research, case study method and ethnography. This
approach to social investigation has traditionally been associated with social
anthropologists, whose field consisted of a small-scale society where it was possible to
do research by living and working among the people.

In this respect, field research is a learning situation in which researchers have to

understand their own actions and activities as well as those of the people they are
studying. The main instrument of social language, live among the people and participate
in their activities over relatively long periods of time, in order to require a detailed
understanding of the situation under study.

Field research also conducted in legal research. The main discussion of this
paperwork is about field research with some examples given in the context of legal
research.
1. WHAT IS FIELD RESEARCH

It is difficult to pin down a specific definition of field research because it is more

of an orientation toward research, than a fixed set of techniques to apply. A field
researcher uses various methods to obtain information. As Schatzman and Strauss
(1973:14) said Field method is more like an umbrella of activity beneath which any
technique may be used for gaining the desired knowledge, and for proceses of thinking
about this information.

A field researcher is a methodological pragmatist (Schatzman and Strauss,

1973:7), a resourceful, talented individual who has ingenuity, and an ability to think on
her feet while in the field.

In field research, the individual researcher directly talks with and observes the
people being studied. The researchers direct involvement in field often has an emotional
impact. Field research can be fun and exciting, but it can also disrupt ines personal lif,
physical security, or mental well-being. More than other types of social research, it
reshapes friendships, family life. Self-identity, or personal values.

For example, in legal study, to know the number of cases in defensive medicine in
medical negligence litigation in Malaysia, the researcher going out into the setting to
collect and gather the information, for example by going directly to relevant department
at Ministry of Health to get the data.

2. FLEXIBILITY IN FIELD RESEARCH

Field research involves the study of real-life situations. Field researchers

therefore observe people in the settings in which they live, and participate in their day to
day activities. The methods that can be used in these studies are unstructured flexible and
open ended. This make it essential for a researcher to be well organized prepared for the
field. It also means that the steps of a project are not entirely predetermined but serve as
an approximate guide or rad mape. A field researcher does not begin with a set of
methods to apply or explicit hypotheses to test. Rather, he or she choses techniques on the
basis of their value for providing information.

3. STEPS IN CONDUCTING FIELD RESEARCH

3.1 PREPARATION

The first steps in conducting field research is a preparation. A field researcher

must getting organized in the beginning. Human and personal factors play an important
role in field research. Field research projects often begin with chance occurrences por a
personal interest. Field researchers can begin with their own experiences, such as
working at job, having a hobby, or being a patient or an activist.

Before entering the field, a new researcher practices observing the irdinary details
of situations and writing them down. As with all social research, reading the scholary
literature helps the researcher learn concepts, potential pitfalls, data collection methods,
and techniques for resolving conflicts. In addition, a field researcher finds diaries,
novels, journalistic accounts and autobiographies useful for gaining familiarity and
preparing emotionally for the field.

Field research begins with a general topic, not specific hypotheses. A researcher
does not get locked into any initial misconceotions. He first empties his or her mind of
preconceptions and defocuses.

Another preparation for field research is self-knowledge. A field researcher needs

to know himself and reflect on personal experiences. He can expect anxiety, self-doubt,
frustration, and uncertainty in the field.
 In legal research, analysingthe topic is an essential part of the research process. It
determines the projects scope, gives researcher a focus and starts the researcher thinking
about the project as a whole. The steps to be followed in general terms, for example, first
a researcher must identify the kind of report or presentation or presentation that will be
producing. Is it an academic essay, a journal article or some other report. This will help
the legal researcher focus on the tone, length, depth of research needed and intended
audience.

3.2 CHOOSING SETTING

In social research, early stage of a field research project is choosing a site and
gaining access. This is known as choosing a setting. These include selecting a site,
gaining access to the site, entering the field and developing rapport with members in the
field.

Where to observe

A researcher selects a site, then identifies cases to examine within it, for example,
how football team members relate to authority figures. Three factors are relevant when
choosing a field research site. There are, richness of data, unfamiliarity and suitability.

Some sites are more likely than others in provide rich data, sites that present a
web of social relations, a variety of activities and diverse events over time provide richer,
more interesting data.

Beginning field researchers should choose an unfamiliar setting. It is easier to see

cultural events and social relations in a new site. Bodgan and Taylor (1975:28) noted,
we could recommend that researchers chose settings in which the subjects are strangers
and in whT become available for systematic analysis.

1. Watching and listening

 observing

A great deal of what researchers do in the field is to pay attention, watch and
listen carefully. The researcher becomes an instrument that absorbs all sources of
information. A field researcher carefully scrutinizes the physical setting to capture its
atmosphere. Observing in field research is often detailed, tedious work. Good field
researchers are intrigued about details that reveal whats going on here through careful
listening and watching. Field researchers need to learn how to notice.

In addition to physical surroundings, a field researcher observes people and their

actions, noting each persons observable physical characteristics: age, sex, race and
stature.A field researcher notes aspects of physical appearance such as neatness, dress and
hairstyle because they express messages that can affect social interactions. Besides, a
field researcher notice what people do. For example where people sit or stand, the pace at
which they walk and their non-verbal communication.

Lastly, a field researcher notices the context in which events occur, who was
present, who just arrived or left the scene and so on. Such details may help the researcher
assign meaning and understand why an event occurred. If they are not noticed, the details
are lost, as is a full understanding of the event.

Listening

A field researcher listens carefully to phrases, accents and incorrect grammar,

listening both to what is said and how it is said or what was implied. For example, people
often use phrases such as you know or of course, etc. A field researcher knows the
meaning behind such phrases.

This process of observing and collecting data also applied in conducting legal
research. For example, to gather information as to the reason for suing the hospital in the
case of medical negligence, the researcher can interview patients or victims. The
researcher may also observe the statistics as regard to the average number of cases per
year from the Ministry of Health. In terms of patients complaining and the number of
cases reported, the researcher can collect the data by observing and collecting the data
from Malaysian Medical Council and Medical Protection Society (Malaysia).

2. Taking notes

After watching and listening, the next stage in collecting data is note taking. Note
taking is a personal activity that depends upon the research context, the objectives of the
research and relationships with informants. Nevertheless, there are a series of basic
principles of data recording that can be derived from the experiences of researchers who
have engaged in observational work and unstructured interviewing.

Firstly, a regular time and place should be set aside for writing field notes.
Secondly, all field notes should contain date, time, location and details of the main
informants. Thirdly, field notes should be written in duplicate or in triplicate, so that an
account of a single event or material from a particular interview can be used in different
phases of data analysis. Furthermore, additional copies of the field notes and interview
transcripts allow different sets to be stored in different places, as a precaution against
damage and destruction. Fourthly, the researcher needs to consider what is to be recorded
and what is to be omitted from field notes and the theoritical criteria that are used to
reach these decisions. Finally, field notes can be used to begin data analysis alongside
data collection.

One of the best illustrations of how these principles can be embodied in the
process of note-taking comes from Beatrice Webb. (Chapter 26). Here, she indicates that
precision, detail, clarity, creativity and analysis are all part of the process, as it marks the
beginning of preliminary analysis and theoretical discovery for the researcher.
Types of field notes

. Field researcher take notes in many ways. Among the recommendations are
record notes as soon as possible after each period in the field, and do not talk with others
until observations are recorded. Other recommendation are to begin the record of each
field visit with a new page, with the date and time noted.

Full field notes

Most field research data are in the form of field notes .Full field notes can be established
on the basis of the research problem, methodology and the process of theorising.

Full field notes have several types or levels. Five levels will be described:-

1. Jotted notes

Jotted notes are written in the field. They are short, temporary memory triggers
such as words, phrases or drawings taken inconspicuously, often scribbled on any
convenient item. They are incorporated into direct observation notes but are never
substituted for them.

2. Direct observation notes

The basic source of field data are notes a researcher writes immediately after
leaving the field, which he or she can add to later. They serve as a detailed description of
what the researcher heard and saw in concrete, specific terms. A researcher record what
was actually said and does not clean it up. A researcher puts concrete details in this type
of notes.
 For example, the researcher write in his notes:

Sunday, October 4-Kays Kafe 3.00pm. Large white male in mid 40s, overweight, enters.
He is alone, sits at booth #2. Kay comes by asks, whatll it be? Man says, Coffee,
black for now. She leaves and he lights cigarette and reads menu. 3:15 pm. Kay turns
on radio.

3. Researcher inference notes

It involves a three- step process. The researcher listens without applying

analytical categories. Next he compares what is heard to what was heard at other times
and to what others say. Finally he applies his or her own interpretation. A field researcher
learns to look and listen without inferring or imposing an interpretation. For example,
researcher write in his notes, Kay seems friendly today, humming. She become solemn
and watchful. I think she puts on the radio when nervous.

4. Analytic notes

Field researchers keep methodological ideas in analytic notes to record their

plans, tactics, ethical and procedural decisions and selfcritiques of tactics. Theory
emerges in field research during data collection and is clarified when a researcher reviews
field notes. Analytic notes have a running account of a researchers attempts to give
meaning to field events. He or she thinks out loud in the notes by suggesting links
between ideas, creating hypotheses, proposing conjectures and developing new concepts.
For example, when the researcher write in his notes: woman are afraid of man who
come in alone since the robbery.

5. Personal notes
 Personal feelings and emotional reactions become part of the data and color what
a researcher sees or hears in the field. Personal notes serve three functions:

1. They provide an outlet for a researcher and a way to cope with stress
2. They are a source of data about personal rections
3. They give him a way to evaluate direct observation or inference notes when
the notes are later reread.

For example, the researcher write in his notes: It is raining . I am feeling

comfortable with Kay but am bored today.

Maps and diagrams

Besides, field researchers often make maps and draw diagrams or pictures of the
features of a field site. It helps a researcher organize events in the field and it helps
convey a field site to others. For example, a researcher observing a bar with 15 stools
may draw and number it circles to simplify recording.

Field researchers find three types of maps helpful, that are, spatial, social and
temporal. The first helps orient the data, the latter two are preliminary form of data
analysis.

Machine recordings to supplement memory

Furthermore, tape recorders and videotapes can be helpful supplements in field

research. They can be used only after a researcher develops rapport. Recorders and
videotapes provide a close approximation to what occurred and a permanent record that
others can review. They help a researcher recall events and observe what does not happen
or non responses which are easy to miss.

Interview notes
 If a researcher conducts field interviews, he or she keeps the interview notes
separate. In addition to recording questions and answers, he or she creates a face sheet.
This is a page at the beginning of the notes with information such as the data, place of
interview, characteristics of interviewee, content of interview and so on. It helps the
interviewer when rereading and making sense of the notes.

As regards to legal research, the same process and technique can be applied. Thus,
a legal researcher taking notes in the form of full field notes such as jotted notes, direct
observations notes, researcher inference notes, analytic notes and personal notes. Legal
researcher also can make maps and draw diagrams, use machine recordings to
supplement memory and also to keeps the interview notes.

3.4 FOCUSING AND SAMPLING

The next step in observing and collecting data is focusing and sampling.

Focusing

The field researcher first gets a general picture, than focuses on a few specific
problems or issues. A researcher decides on specific research questions and develops
hypotheses only after being in the field and experiencing it firsthand. At first, everything
seems relevant, later, however, selective attention focuses on specific questions and
themes.

As for legal research, for example in conducting legal research of personal injury
compensation, the researcher focus on nature of the injury and its subsequent effects,
details of the compensation paid, how people used the settlement money and its perceived
adequacy to meet their needs.
 Another example is in legal research to know whether the defensive medicine is
now the norm in medical negligence litigation, it is better for the researcher to focus on
the benefits of defensive medicine first.

Sampling

In sampling, a field researcher samples by taking a smaller, selective set of

observations from all possible observations. Is is called theoretical sampling because it is
guided by the researchers developing theory. Field researchers sample times, situations,
types of events, locations and types of people.

Times

Within a social organization, activities may vary with time. Researchers therefore,
have to consider the time dimension in all field situations. They have to sample the
activities and events that occur over a period of time, as well as the activities that occur at
particular hours in the course of a day.( Robert G. Burgess: 1982)

A researcher samples time by observing a setting at different times. He observes

at all times of the day. On everyday of the week and in all seasons to get a full sense of
how the field site stays the same or changes. For example, to have sampling times from
7.00 a.m to 9.00 a.m.

In a school there are regular routines associated with break times and lunchtimes
and with the division of the day into teaching periods. Here, researchers might utilize the
divisions that the participants use to subdivide time, or they might investigate particular
aspects of the timetabled day by analyzing the activities that take place in a forty-minute.
 In legal research, for example in legal study of recipients of personal injury
compensation, the sample are accident victims who had received damages in respect
of their own injury or illness for the accidental death of a relative.

People

Another major faces of field research is the way which data is collected from
particular informants in some depth. Key informants not only provides detailed data on a
particular research setting, but also provide the researcher with introductions to other
informants and to other situations. In short, Key informants can act as gatekeepers in any
study and facilitate access for the researcher. (Robert G. Burgess: 1982)

Field researchers sample people by focusing their attention or interaction on

different kinds of people (old and young, males and females). As a reseacher identifies
types of people, or people with opposing outlooks, he or she tries to interact with and
learn about all types.

Events

A researcher samples three kinds of field events: routine, special and

unanticipated. Routine events happen everyday and should not be considered unimportant
simply because they are routine. Special events are defined as situations that are
fortuitous, but nevertheless anticipated, while unanticipated events are those that just
happen to occur while a researcher is present. For example, unsupervised workers when
the manager gets sick and cannot oversee workers at a store for a day. In this case, the
researcher sees something unusual, unplanned, or rare by chance.

In sampling events, the field researcher also utilizes the sampling strategies that
have been employed elsewhere, as the events that are observed may depend on the
research site that has been selected, the key informants that have been used and the times
when observations have been made. Sampling is a research strategy that needs to be
carefully considered by the field researcher as it can help in the systematic collection of
data. However, it is not always possible to use statistical sampling procedures. Researcher
need to adopt sampling strategies
 that has been verified by structural questions. Questions focus on similarities or
differences between elements in categories or between categories as the researcher asks
members to verify similarities and differences.

The same types of question applied in legal research. For example in legal
research of personal injury compensation, a researcher first ask, what the injury did you
suffered?, how much compensation being paid to you? and how do you spends that
money?

Later, after analyzing the data, the researcher gradually adds structural questions,
for example by asking, Did the compensation adequate in meeting your needs? In
addition, a researcher asks for confirmation, other than that that money, did you work in
order to increase your income?

Lastly, contrast question appear for example by asking, Why you spend money
received from compensation for such purpose and money from other income for some
other purpose?

4. INFORMANTS

In informant or key actor in field research is a member with whom a field

researcher develops a relationship and who tells about, or informs on the field. The best
informants has four characteristics:

1. Totally femiliar with the culture and is in position to witness significant events.

2. Currently involved in the field.

3. Can spend time with the researcher, because interviewing may take many hours.
 4. Informant is a non-analytical members. It is because a non analytic informant is
familiar with and uses native folk theory or pragmatic common sense.

For example, in legal research of defensive medicine in medical negligence litigation, the
best informant is relevant officer at Ministry of Health.

The best informants are those who quite perceptive and reflective about them.
Some such key individuals may be identified early ij the study, since they hold a formal
position of importance to the study. Others, who hold key informal positions, are not so
evident initially. To locate such people, the interviewer can make a practice of asking
each informant for name several people who would be especially helpful to his study. The
chances are that the several lists will converge on a few names. (William Foote Whyte:
1982)

As the study proceeds, the researcher should be thinking of getting some key
individuals to become collaborators. It can be of inestimable value to have one or two
individuals who know what the researcher is looking for and can give him the expert
guidance that can be based only upon such full information. It is a mistake to think of
informants as passive instruments.

In legal research, for example in the study of medical negligence litigation, the
researcher can interview relevant officer in relevant department to get data, for example
relevant officer at Ministry of Health.

5. DATA ANALYSIS

Traditionally, social science research has been subdivided into stages. However,
these stages occur simultaneously and are complementary in field research. The
research process involved constant analysis as field notes were read and re read to
discover relevant problems of study were developed in relation to the problems posed and
the researchers looked for valid indications of variables contained in the hypotheses.
Analysis continued throughout the study and provided an outline of many of the
conclusions contained in the final research report. (ROBERT G. BURGESS: 1982:
pg.235)

Some of the basic issues involved in the analysis of field data are outlined by
Becker and Geer who examine the way in which sequential analysis is done in field
research. According to them we can distinguish the analytic operations carried on while
the fieldwork is in progress into three stages:-

1. The selection and definition of problems, concepts and indices.

2. The check on the frequency and distribution of phenomena.
3. The incorporation of individual findings into a model of the organization under
study.

These three stages are differentiated, first, by their logical sequence: each
succeeding stage depends on analysis in the preceeding stage. They are further
differentiated by the fact that varying kinds of conclusions are arrived at in each stage and
that these conclusions are put to different uses in the continuing research. Finally they are
differentiated by the criteria used to acess evidence and to reach conclusions in each
stage.

Similar, in data analysis of legal research, the fact collection and data analysis
occur simultaneously.
 CONCLUSION

From the discussion, we notice that a field research process includes choosing a
site and gaining access, relations in the field, observing and collecting data and the field
interview. It will be clear by now that field researchers begin data analysis and theorizing
during the data collection phase.

Similar, in legal research, fact collection and analysis is inextricably bound up

with identification and analysis of the relevant law.

To conclude, in field research, the researcher is directly involved with those being
studied and is immersed in a natural setting. Doing field research usually has a greater
impact on the researchers emotions, personal life and sense of self than doing other types
of research. From the example given, we can conclude that the process of field research
also applicable in conducting legal research.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

John C. Dernbach. 1981. A practical; guide to legal writing and legal method, Littleton,
Colorado: Fred B. Rothman & Co.

Keith F Punch. 1998. Introduction to Social Research: Quantitative and Qualitative

Approaches. London: Sage Publications.

Robert G. Burgess. 1982. Field Research: A sourcebook and field manual. London:
George Allen & Unwin.

W. Lawrence Neuman. 1994. Social Research Methods: Qualitative and quantitative

approaches. 3rd edition.