My professor said my field notes read like a grocery list, so I started sketching every artifact's position from two angles.

Has anyone else had a mentor completely change how you document a site?

3 comments

3 Comments

That's honestly a huge upgrade, good on your prof. Mine made me start doing these super detailed soil descriptions, like color and texture for every single layer. Went from "brown dirt" to pages of notes, felt like overkill at first. But man, it saved my butt later when writing up. Those little pushes from mentors stick with you. Turns a chore into a real skill.

brooke5331mo ago

Yeah that's exactly how it goes with this stuff, you don't see the point until you're stuck. I had a guy teach me how to read a site just by looking at the ground, like if you see certain weeds or how the water runs after a rain. Felt like a waste of time, but now I can spot trouble spots before I even break ground. The trick is to just trust the process and write down everything, even the stuff that seems dumb. Later on you'll forget the small details and that's when you're glad you wrote it all down. Keep at it, those habits are the ones that separate people who just do the work from people who know their work.

holly_young351mo ago

Actually, it's called a Munsell chart.