It’s common to find that your notes are completely full after you’ve conducted an interview or observation, but being full of information and full of usable information are not quite the same thing. A page of notes can contain quotes, dates, impressions, thoughts and phrases, source information, and items to follow up on, but when they are all jumbled together, drafting is often more difficult as you have to make both writing and reporting decisions.
One option for organizing field notes is to do so before you even begin working on the draft. Simply read through your notes with the intent of understanding what is each piece of information is telling you. Is it a fact? A quote? A piece of background information? An observation on your own part? Something that needs to be verified? Each does not need a lengthy description, but knowing, for instance, that a piece is a fact, quote, background, observation, or check will make things easier when you begin drafting.
This will prevent a not-so-subtle pitfall of early reporting and writing, putting every item in your notes on an equal footing when they may actually be quite disparate. A quoted phrase is not an independent finding; an unverified piece of information may require another source or document or press release to back it up; an interview statement may not make sense outside of the larger context it came from. Taking a few moments to sort your notes will save you time when you begin drafting because the process will already be done and you’ll be able to see which information makes sense to incorporate into the article, what doesn’t, and what is in need of more work.
Once your notes have been organized, find the material that supports your story angle and make sure it is prioritized. Just because you are reporting something in a larger context doesn’t mean that all your notes on the issue will make it into the story, and, for example, if you’re reporting on how a particular event will shift the afternoon schedule, not all information about the subject school needs to make it into your initial draft. You do not want to lose or delete anything important, but you want to keep it in mind in case you need it later.
In order to keep your notes cleaner and more manageable, a source log can be extremely beneficial. Write down the name of the person that provides a particular piece of information, his or her position/role, and any relevant contact information or source that can be used to find further information, and then, after an important claim is recorded, you can simply identify the source that gave the information you’re reporting. If a particular source gave you a date, mark this with that source’s name; if another source identified a particular problem, do so as well. When you go back to review attribution and sources, it will be much easier when you can simply scan down the list rather than trying to remember or find who gave what information.
Finally, before you begin to draft, you want to make sure that you’ve developed an outline of sorts from the material you’ve organized in your notes. Identify, first, where you think the most likely lead is for the piece, and, immediately following, you want to write the key fact that supports it, followed by the supporting quote and then any relevant background. Then make sure any facts you still have to follow up on are marked in a separate area from the draft, not mixed in with the confirmed information. This can be a very rough outline, but having a structure in place before you start putting words together will save you time down the line.
The last thing to keep in mind as you work through your draft is to identify what’s missing. Is the piece fully supported by a source? Is a source quote doing the heavy lifting for the lead? Are there a number of specific names, dates, titles, or numbers that need more work before being published? Organized field notes won’t necessarily give you the finished piece, but they do provide a clearer idea of what steps you need to take before you can feel good about writing up the story and what can be safely moved into your article without the fear of leaving out crucial information or, more importantly, making false claims.