Working with Words: Starting Points

These suggestions do not apply to research which is about collecting people’s stories. This is sometimes known as ‘life story work’ or ‘biographical research’. If you are doing that sort of research see Life Story Work.

Data analysis is about trying to make sense of what you have seen and heard. It is about trying to say things about what you have seen and heard that might be useful to other people. It is often about trying to make connections between the different things you have seen and heard and then using those connections to help other people think about things. Data analysis is about telling other people the story of your research and what you found out.

When doing qualitative data analysis it is a good idea try to analyse your data as you do your project rather than waiting until the end. Usually there is a period of more focussed analysis that does come towards the end of a project, but it can be a mistake to wait until the end. You may miss lots of things if you do that.

Here are some starting points for qualitative data analysis. You will not necessarily want to do them in this order! You might like to try doing these things with your research ‘partners’, you might each like to try doing different things and then talking about what you found. If you are doing this you will have to think carefully about who has the most control over what is said and how you can make it possible for everyone to have their say. Some people might find some bits of data analysis easier than others. What you do and how you do it will depend on the project you are doing and who you are doing it for. This means it is not possible to give you a list of instructions to follow.

1.Keep asking yourself: What new ideas and feelings are you having about the research as you do it?
What ‘jumps out’ from the research so far? What new questions are coming to your mind? In the early stages of your work, try turning every idea you have into a question. This way you are more likely to keep an open mind on what you find, while also using your own experiences and the thinking you have done. You will be drawing on personal experience right from the start of any research project which is fine. But you need to try to do this in ways which are not just about proving yourself right!

2. Look for themes, categories, patterns. You could try coding the data - labelling it - and then you will see if the same ideas keep coming up.
At this stage the danger is you will only look for what you expected to see. To help overcome this problem also try to identify surprises, look for inconsistencies, be sensitive to repetitions of words or incidents, irregularities, unusual occurrences and how people say things. You could also think about gaps, silences and what does not get talked about. You should also keep thinking about how the themes relate to each other, fit together, don't fit together and contradict one another. Also keep thinking about how you might explore these ideas in more detail, preferably in ways that don't just confirm your initial thoughts!

3. Read about what others have said about what you are interested in.
Again, you need to be careful not to let this reading dominate the ways in which you work, or what you look for. The hope is that it will inform your thinking at all stages of the process, not tell you what to think. You might like to look at books and papers that describe how people have done research (methodology) as well as books about what they found out. You could try asking yourself questions like "Does what other people say 'fit' my research, and if not, why not?" "Did the methods other people have used affect the outcomes of their research, and if so, how?" "What effects are the methods we are using having on the outcome of our research and how?"

4. Keep writing as you go along.
Write both about the practical aspects of the work (e.g. who you talked with, where you met them) and any thoughts or feelings you have along the way. These ideas may help with the identification of patterns, as above. Keep a record of what you have done while you are doing the analysis as well. This will help you write a report if this is what you want to do. You could also try writing sections of this report as you go along. Sometimes you will get good ideas by trying to write down what you think. You might be surprised by the new thinking you do as you are trying to write.

5. Work with lots of different people to help you make sense of the data
As you are doing your research you can ask other people how they are making sense of things. Who you talk to about this will depend on the sort of 'partnership' you are working in. If you are collecting people's stories you will need to ask people if you have got their story 'right' (see Life Story Work). You may be writing in partnership and if you are, you will be checking things out as you go along. Alternatively, you may want to produce draft accounts about the work and ask others to look at them. Sometimes it can be useful to get a group of people together to read something you have written and then ask them what they think. Their thoughts could provide more data for your project or they could suggest you need to change your report. This is a complex part of the process because not everyone may agree.