Qualitative Methods
Writing Qualitative
Research Papers
Writing Qualitative Research Papers
Findings and Results
This is the main section of your paper where you develop your main analytic themes and subthemes. One third to one half of your paper will fall into this section--it is the most important and the lengthest portion of the paper. Thus, this is also the section of your paper that may take the most time and care to write.
When you analyzed your data, you came up with your themes and subthemes. Now, as you write this section of your paper, you must decide how to present a compelling interpretation of the data that provides a faithful representation of the lives of those studied. You will have to make choices about what to include; and what to exclude. The guide in making these decisions is doing what will present the clearest understanding and the most authentic representation of the data.
This is the section of the paper where you, the author, will tell the story of the data and you will include illustrative quotes from your data to support your telling. Some scholars state that every assertion in the analysis should be backed up by a minimum of three examples while others researchers debate the notion of clear rules about examples. The main goal of the writer should be to include enough of excerpts of the data so that the analysis will be believable. So, the number and length of your examples becomes somewhat of a balancing act in that you want to be believable but you don't want to be boring.
Crafting a faithful representation is an ongoing challenge for qualitative researchers. There are many choices, and new and innovative formats (like autoethnography) being explored. You may need to experiment and write and rewrite this section a number of times until you believe you have developed the best representation possible.
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