A Guide On Crafting an Observation Paper

If you've never heard about writing an observation essay, that precise moment is yet to come because this type of writing is observed everywhere. No matter where you study, what discipline is your major, etc. - you'll need to write an observation essay. It may be difficult enough for you to understand what's what when you get this assignment for the first time. However, it's a one-time problem that can be easily solved if you're truly interested in trying a new type of essay. Of course, it's not obligatory to adore writing, but you must want to try something new; otherwise, you will never succeed in any new endeavor.

Let's not forget that this paper requires a deep immersion in the described person, event, or group, so you must write it the way your readers will feel the atmosphere. Your task is to transfer the emotions and situations correctly and boost your readers' imagination.

The Definition of Personal Observation Essay

It's impossible to start working on a paper without a proper understanding of what it is. Observation writing presupposes describing the things you see every day or observing something particular (person, event, situation, or anything else). However, an observation essay is far from being the descriptive one, so a trite outline of what happens around isn't enough to consider your paper successful. Your goal is to help your readers feel the experience you felt the same way. That's why you must be extremely attentive and take detailed notes when observing the object.

There are many ways to make observations, and the way to do it to write your paper is special. When you're working on research, you just need brief and dry statistics (numbers, percentages, etc.), but working on an observation paper requires you to notice and write down even the information you can consider unnecessary. Everything that can catch your reader and make them interested in your observations must be included, no matter what it is: the time of the day, people's mood, the clothes they are wearing, and so on.

Educators use this type of writing not just to help students boost their imagination and use their writing skills. Don't forget that an observation paper is a perfect way to evaluate your attentiveness to details, your writing, and your editing skills. We hope you realize that this type of writing is special, so there's no need to explain that formatting and writing rules here differ.

7 Effective Tips On Observation Writing

Even though the structure of different essay types is similar, they still have many differences to be discussed. However, the observation paper has enough important aspects to keep in mind, so let's review the key ones. Read this information attentively and try not to forget all these details.

• The essential idea of your writing. Many students adore writing observation essays because it gives them the freedom of reflection. And we mainly talk about choosing a topic. Suppose your professor hasn't set any specific theme to write about. In that case, you can observe your cat sleeping under the morning sun, watching children playing on a playground, or anything else you're interested in. An observation essay is perfect because it doesn't require you to invest any resources into writing, of course, besides your time and efforts. The most important requirements for you are the following: you must be interested in the subject and not too involved in it. These two conditions guarantee you'll write an informative overview. The role of the observer isn't as easy as it may seem. To depict the situation the right way, you must not be related to people you observe and try not to disturb the right order of things. You're the observer, not the participant, don't forget it. Of course, you may think that it's possible to use your imagination, and no one knows about it, but how is it not to be honest with yourself?
• Your part. We've already mentioned that your task is to be a mute spectator, who keeps an eye on everything that is going on, makes notes, and thinks about how to depict the situation in a future paper. And the role of the spectator was chosen not without reason. It's a lot easier to monitor the situation when you don't participate in the process, and it guarantees that you'll be able to concentrate and won't need to try to recall this process when writing the paper. So the role of the observer is perfect; however, be ready to change it for a participator. For example, maybe you'll want to write an observation essay about a situation from your life or another event you participated in.
• Make your remarks as detailed as possible. We admit that you can have an excellent memory, but it doesn't mean you can ignore this rule. No other academic paper requires students to write so many notes as observation writing. We hope you understand why. Your goal is to remember the order of the things, the atmosphere, and other details that'll make your description vivid. The more detailed notes you have, the higher grade you'll get.
• The first-person narrative is a must. This type of writing is special, so you can break the standard rules and use 1st person singular pronoun. An observation essay is impossible without using it. But, keep in mind that your professor may change the rules and requirements the way they want, so read the paper they provide carefully before writing it.
• Past and future tenses are prohibited. No one is interested in when the situation you're depicting in your paper happened, so you must always write in the present tense. Of course, it's perfect if the situation you're observing is happening right now, but it's okay to depict past events as if they're occurring in present.
• Add information to make your essay vivid. Sensory details, emotions, atmosphere, and other aspects mean a lot, so stop thinking that omitting this or that aspect is okay. In observation writing, every single detail matters.
• Avoid being vague. Although this paper isn't supposed to describe exact sciences, measures, and anything like that, you still shouldn't use vague formulations and describe the things they are in reality. For example, if there's any noise, please, tell me what made this noise and what it is. Do everything to help your readers delve into the atmosphere and understand the situation.

Step-by-Step Guide On Starting Your Paper

Starting a paper you've never written before is probably the hardest thing. Still, we can reassure you that the observation essay is different, so you may not face any difficulties at all. First of all, you should remember that no strict rules can be applied to this type of writing, so breathe out. However, you must comply with all requirements stated by your professor. The structure of your paper remains almost the same: you start with an introduction and describe the setting the way everything becomes interesting for your readers and catches their attention.

As you remember, making your readers interested is the main purpose of your introduction, so the first 5-6 sentences must be written perfectly. Maybe you'll need to give the maximum effort to finish them, but be sure that they are worth it. If you aren't very experienced in paper writing, you may need some expert advice on introduction writing, so the tips are already here:

• Add a short summary of your paper. Don't be afraid to make a spoiler. Your readers will still be interested in reading your paper. A brief overview just tells them what the paper will be about and nothing more. Help them be sure their expectations will meet the reality.
• What about jokes? Many writers like inserting anecdotes and jokes in their introductions; however, you must be confident that your joke is easy to understand and it won't make your readers feel confused.
• Ask a question. If you want to arouse curiosity, you can make readers think about something by asking a question, but it must be relevant to the topic of your observation paper.
• Include some interesting information. Try to recall what exactly made you interested in writing an observation paper about a certain situation. State this information in your introduction to catch readers.
• "To be continued." How often did you face this kind of clickbait in movies and other types of content? It's annoying, but it makes you want to continue reading or watching something, right? You're free to implement this technique in your paper.

And the last thing you shouldn't forget is your thesis statement. These 1-2 sentences should be placed at the very end of your introductory paragraph, and their purpose is to reflect the central idea of your essay.

How Should The Main Paragraphs of the Observation Essay Look?

There are no clear requirements as to the number of paragraphs for this type of writing. Here your task is to depict the situation you're observing as detailed as possible, and you can do it by all means. The key requirements for your text are:

• consistency;
• logic;
• present tense;
• absence of mistakes.

Make sure that the body lets your readers feel the atmosphere, smells, and sounds the way you felt them.

What About The Conclusion?

The ending paragraph of the observation essay is also very important, so you'd better pay enough attention to writing it. You described your observations in the main body, and now your task is to make conclusions. Describe why this situation and these observations are important, how your readers can benefit from your paper, and state the main idea once again. If you use any special technique to start your paper (like the ones we mentioned in a few sections above), please, use this technique here to wrap up your paper.

The Secrets of Writing a Successful Outline

As you already know, a good outline is a half of success. So don't even start writing about the event you've never observed yourself: this experience should happen to you at least once; otherwise, you won't craft a good essay.

The next important choice you should make is the order. You can start describing your observation in a few ways:

1. First, tell the story the way it happened.
2. Describe the things you consider the most important first, and only after they proceed with other details.
3. Lay out the information in the form of a narrative.

To choose the right way, you must analyze your target audience and the subject of your paper. Then, consider what fits the most and make the right choice.

If you choose to write a paper on the influence of a certain product on your health, experiment and observe your health and emotional state on a diet instead of searching for the research made by someone else. Make notes every day and write down each change, even if you don't consider it important. Use the introduction to write general info on the impact of the chosen product on human health, describe your feelings in the body paragraphs, and then summarize everything in conclusion. Do your best to help readers understand the value of your research.

A Set of Top Observation Topics

It's difficult enough to choose what to observe, so we are here to help you choose an interesting subject. Check the list of available topics, modify them, and you'll never get bored when writing. Here are our top 20:

1. What makes people get addicted to shopping?
2. The effect of video games on the human brain.
3. Music as a therapy.
4. What makes students skip classes?
5. The reasons for jealousy.
6. Sports and leadership: can you develop it with training?
7. Driving instruction: is it difficult?
8. People's commitment to earning more money: what is causing it?
9. Your observations of climate change.
10. The importance of communication.
11. Do people get sick more often now than in the last century?
12. Explain your feelings after getting a tattoo.
13. Rope jumping: your experience.
14. From enemy to best friend: transformation.
15. Jumping with a parachute for the first time.
16. Parents' influence on children's behavior.
17. Traveling alone: your observations.
18. Have you ever seen a wild animal? Describe how it was.
19. The difference between the two generations.
20. The safest way to travel (car, plane, train, etc.)

Order Professional Help To Get A Grade For Your Observation Essay

Essay writing is the boring and exhausting process by its nature, but you can easily transform it into something you really like if you choose an interesting subject to observe. So find something you really like, start observing, make notes and then start working on your paper. However, we are sure that some of you will never want to write an essay alone, so we are here to offer professional help to you. A few clicks can save your time, health, and efforts to focus them on something more important.