Observational essays can be confusing for students to write because they are not commonly assigned. These kinds of assignments are exactly what they sound like—a written account of an observed situation. Observational papers tend to be misunderstood by students sometimes, so here are the main rules to follow when crafting a powerful one.

1. Topic

Topics are a common stumbling block for many students. Your topic can be anything observable. Here are a few good ideas of topics:

• (For high school) how do different grade levels act in between classes? Freshman might be flustered, but seniors might not care as much about being tardy to class.

• How do people behave differently on different modes of public transportation?

If you can’t observe your topic yourself or in your allotted time frame, then it’s likely not going to work. If you are having trouble coming up with a topic, ask your professor or brainstorm with friends. You can also get straight to observation and see if it gets your mind working.

1. Observation.

Remember, this is purely observational. You are not running an experiment. Generally, you should not interact with people or events so that you can get results. If you are trying to observe a topic like child tantrums, but aren’t observing any child tantrums, then you’ll need to change your topic. All you should have to do is sit down in a public area, watch and take notes.

1. Description.

The biggest part of an observational essay is the description. You want to make the reader feel like they were right there with you. If you have experience in creative writing, then this might be easy for you. If you don’t, there are a couple easy tricks writers have lived by for centuries and they can be followed by anyone! The best way to create lifelike description is to engage all five senses. Use some restraint in your paper. Some of the senses won’t be important for your observational assignment for example, if you are observing people on the subway, you probably won’t need to mention how anything tastes, but smell, sight, sound and feel will be extremely important. If you need help writing description, take advantage of this service.

1. Be polite.

You need to be polite and respectful when you are observing people. Try not to disturb or frighten anyone. Don’t make it look like you are watching people and taking notes. You can wear sunglasses and earbuds so it looks like you’re not paying attention. This way, people will act more naturally and will not think that you are watching them and taking notes. Do not employ any recording devices since recording someone without their knowledge is illegal. Instead, you should write down important snippets of their dialogue in a notebook. You don’t need to make a whole transcript, but a few notes will suffice.

Writing an observational essay can be easy and fun. These four rules should spark your creativity and get you on the road to creating a great paper!