A Better Look at Observation

Observing is a way to describe the atmosphere to your audience. It provides in-depth details that will paint a picture for the reader and will help them imagine the place the person is describing. In Chantelle's Lay of the Land essay, she separated her observations in chronological order from when she first arrived to when she was leaving. She first described the outside view of the daycare along with her path throughout. She mentioned how big it was from the outside and the beautiful the winding staircase was, adding some of her own opinions for example she stated, it must be for wealthy children because it looks even better than in the movies. Next she moved on to describe in unbelievable detail the people in the daycare. She expressed the appearance of the strawberry blonde teacher with a raspberry long sleeved turtleneck. I can see her picture in my head while reading this description. She describes the daycare room she is observing from the small, plastic blue chairs to the bright yellow walls, again adding in her assumptions and opinions when necessary. Finally she observes and describes the behavior of the children attending the preschool, how they learn, act and get along with one another, again illustrating with many different features. In observing, she got a second outlook and broke her stereotype of young children. She ended up learning new things from the reactions and responses of the children.