Qualitative Methods
Design Your Study
Step Five: Plan for Your Analysis
Qualitative data is text--lots and lots of text. Unlike quantitative research that can be numerically entered into statistical programs and saved on a cd, the qualitative researcher will have pages and pages of interview transcripts or fieldnotes. Organizational skills are key to planning your analysis. From the beginning of the study, design an system to maintain your data whether in hard copy in notebooks or on computer disks. The better organized you are in the process of data collection, the sooner you will be ready for analysis.
Make sure you have a backup system for all your data as well. Keep everything in two different electronic places (ie, a copy on your hard drive and on a backup cd). You don't want to loose all your work if your computer crashes or your disk gets corrupted.
Additionally, there are a handful of software programs designed for qualitative research. Most of them are elaborate organizational tools and do take some time to learn to use them efficently. For the beginning researcher, we don't recommend attempting the software--indeed many venerate sociologists do not use qualitative software.
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