ABSTRACT
In making an assessment of an ethnographic study people must consider each of its major and subordinate knowledge claims. All observations involve inference in a sense, but they can reasonably judge some inferences to be much more open to error than others. This chapter presents the assessment of descriptions, both of small and of larger scale phenomena. A useful form of check on the validity of descriptive claims that ethnographers sometimes employ is triangulation. This can take a variety of forms, but the principle involved is simple. The chapter considers assessment of the validity of evidential claims in their own terms. Equally important, though, is whether, and how strongly, they support the major claims for which they are used as evidence. The chapter explores the assessment of descriptions, both of small and of larger scale phenomena. This requires examining the plausibility and/or credibility of the claims and of any evidence provided in their support.
