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Analysis, interpretations and writing

Learn about descriptive accounts, data analysis, coding, narratives, and writing in qualitative research. Explore Amanda Coffey and Paul Atkinson's strategies for making sense of qualitative data.

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Analysis, interpretations and writing

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  1. Analysis, interpretations and writing INF5220 13. October 2005 INF5220 13. oktober 2005

  2. Plan for today • Description, analysis and interpretation • Concepts and coding • Analysing narratives and stories • Writing Today’s lecture is mainly based on: Amanda Coffey and Paul Atkinson: ”Making Sense of Qualitative Data. Complementary Research Strategies”. Sage, 1996. INF5220 13. oktober 2005

  3. Some terms.. • Description: ”What’s going on?” The account should be descriptive and stay as closely as possible to data as they were recorded. • Analysis: Extend/expand data beyond a descriptive account. Identify key factors and key relationships. Analysis is cautious and controlled, structured, systematic, grounded and carefully documented. The emphasis is on searching for themes, patterns, features and relationships from the data. • Interpretation: The researcher’s own interpreatation of what’s going on. Understanding and explanations are sought. You should transcend factual data and cautious analysis and begin to probe into what is made of them. INF5220 13. oktober 2005

  4. Coding of data Coding: creating categories and generating concepts The data Your ideas about the data CODING: Practically: Group together fragments (instances) of data (e.g. words, phrases, sentences, sections) that has some common property or element (relating to a topic, theme, idea or concept) (commonalities, differences, patterns, structures) Using software Using differently coloured marker pens Using keywords or symbols Organise data in matrix or diagram INF5220 13. oktober 2005

  5. Coding.. • Display the ’bits’ within one coding category together (use e.g. diagrams, matrices, maps). Play with and explore codes and categories (change, rename, re-sort, abandon them, split them into sub-categories, splice them, or link them together) • Don’t eliminate exceptions, misfits, negative findings, constrasts, paradoxes and irregularities (important analytical resource). • This work should be cyclic and iterative (ref. PT’s presentation) • Grounded theory: Open coding versus axial coding (e.g. consequences, prerequisites, conditions, antedecents etc.) INF5220 13. oktober 2005

  6. Coding.. • Concepts are related to each other, and thinking about the concepts and their linkages are more difficult and important than the coding (labelling) itself. • Using codes as heuristic devices of discovery, not simple and deterministic labels • ..”coding is much more than simply giving categories to data; it is also about conceptualizing the data, raising questions, providing provisional answers about the relationships among and within the data, and discovering the data.” (Coffey and Atkinson, 1996, p. 31) INF5220 13. oktober 2005

  7. Analysing narratives and stories • How to do research with first person accounts of experience • A story: • Is a sequence of events that has significance for the narrator and her audience. • Has a beginning, a middle and an end. • Has a logic that (at least) makes sense to the narrator • You can look for: • Recurrent structures (see next slide) • Characteristic uses or functions of the story (what purpose does it serve?) • Success stories and moral tales • Narratives as chronicles (how are key events and social actors represented) INF5220 13. oktober 2005

  8. Structures of narratives • Elementary units of narrative structures (based on Labov, 1982): What was this about? Abstract Who, what, where, when? Orientation Then what happened? Complication So what? Evaluation What finally happened? Result (Finish narrative) Coda The implicit questions from the audience: The corresponding elements of the narrative INF5220 13. oktober 2005

  9. Writing and representations • Most fundamentally, analysis is about the representationa or reconstruction of phenomena. • We create account and construct versions – analysis implies representations • Relation between analysis and theory: a recurrent movement • Forms of representations, genres etc. link to their content – writing is also an analytic activity! • Generalisation: develop concepts, generate theory, draw specific implications or contribute with rich insights? INF5220 13. oktober 2005

  10. + on writing papers: • A helpful piece: • Carsten Sørensen: ”This is not an article. Just some food for thought on how to write one”. • Available at: • http://is.lse.ac.uk/staff/sorensen/downloads/not/notart.html INF5220 13. oktober 2005

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