Notice and Focus + Ranking

SLOW DOWN O What do you notice? O What do you find most INTERESTING? O What do you find most STRANGE? O What do you find most REVEALING?

DWELL WITH THE DATA O Dwell longer with the data before feeling compelled to decide what the data mean. O Notice as much as you can. O Narrow your scope to a representative portion of your evidence. O Dwell with the data. O Record what you see. O DON’T move to generalization or judgment.

STEP 1 O Cast a wide net by continuing to list details you notice. O Go longer than you normally would before stopping. O Often the tenth or eleventh detail is the one that will eventually lead to your best idea.

STEP 2 O Focus inside what you’ve noticed. O Rank the various features of your subject you have noticed. O Answer the question “What details are most interesting (or significant or revealing or strange)?”

STEP 3 O Say why three things you selected struck you as the most interesting (or revealing or significant or strange). O Saying why will trigger your interpretive leaps to the possible meaning of whatever you find most interesting in your observations.

TROUBLESHOOTING O In the Noticing phase of Notice and Focus, you will be tempted to begin having ideas and making claims about your subject. O Resist this temptation. O Many of those first stabs at ideas will be overly general, fairly obvious, and they will block further noticing.

Source Rosenwasser, David, and Jill Stephen. Writing Analytically. Sixth Edition. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Print.