Full Idea
Phenomenology, in Husserl, is an attempt to describe our experience directly, as it is, separately from its origins and development, independently of the causal explanations that historians, sociologists or psychologists might give.
Gist of Idea
Phenomenology aims to describe experience directly, rather than by its origins or causes
Source
report of Edmund Husserl (Logical Investigations [1900]) by Thomas Mautner - Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy p.421
Book Reference
Mautner,Thomas: 'Dictionary of Philosophy' [Penguin 1997], p.421
A Reaction
In this simple definition the concept sounds very like the modern popular use of the word 'deconstruction', though that is applied more commonly to cultural artifacts than to actual sense experience.