The notes in step 5 provide the basis of an evaluation of how the observing is going. When you write up your notes, look over the fifth component in the notes of the previous day to determine whether you have missed anything. Following a procedure such as this makes your observations a genuine holding and keeping of the object before you so that you can track its progress and note all its properties. Doing observation in this way is a lot of work. You can dictate into a tape recorder, but interestingly, if you write up what you observe, you get to think about it much more, and to notice things you would not have noticed if you were dictating.
Good observers are highly disci plined.
They write up their field notes religiously, out of habit. There will be a great temptation to avoid keeping a system atic record of what you observe. But without extensive notes, your memory will fail you and you will often report what you imagined and perhaps wished had happened. To be scientific you must report exactly and only what you observed. Interpretation proceeds as you write up your observations.