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Qualitative data

Field sketches are a useful form of qualitative data. They help to remember the places that have been visited.

How to draw a field sketch

Field sketches can be drawn by anyone - no artistic skills are required. Drawing a field sketch is a straightforward process.

1. Identify the landscape that needs to be sketched.
2. Write a title that will help to locate the sketch, eg 'Site One'.
3. Draw an outline of the main features of the landscape with a pencil, eg hills and valleys or buildings and roads.
4. Add detail to the sketch to record more information, eg river features, such as meanders, river cliffs and rapids. Only draw people if they are important to the enquiry question.
5. Annotate or label the field sketch to give more information about the landscape and conditions, eg what was the weather like?
6. Consider taking a photograph to support the field sketch, or use an app that will allow you to annotate photos in the field.

Quantitative data

Quantitative data often comes in the form of numbers.

Types of quantitative data

Many different things can be measured in fieldwork, for example the velocity of a river, the number of cars or the amount of litter.

Numbers can also appear in other forms.

• Nominal data - these are numbers that appear as categories, eg 1 = yes and 2 = no.
• Ordinal data - these numbers have an order, eg the rank order of cities by population size. It is known that city 1 is more populated than city 2 and 3, but it is not known how many more people there are, as the spacing between each city is not equal.
• Interval data - these numbers are similar to ordinal, but the difference between each number is equal, eg temperature is measured in degrees centigrade.
• Ratio data - this is when there is a relationship between two sets of numbers, eg number of people per doctor.