Thick Description

A description of human action and the meanings people associate with their experiences is considered to be thick if it is written in concrete detail so readers may vicariously experience something similar to what the people being described are experiencing. The purpose is to help readers have a sense of being involved in the situation themselves, with a window into the meanings of the experience from the perspective of one or more of the participants. In evaluation, thick description provides the basis for interpretation of participants' involvement with an evaluand, what that involvement means to them, and why particular value judgments are justified.