Writing a Qualitative Study Chapter 9 Writing a Qualitative Study Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e Key Questions What are the rhetorical issues associated with writing a qualitative study? What are the overall rhetorical structures for writing a study within each of the five approaches to inquiry? What are the embedded rhetorical structures for writing a study within each of the five approaches to inquiry? How do narrative structures for the five approaches differ? Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e Rhetorical Issues Reflexivity and representation Writing for different audiences Encoding Using quotations Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

Reflexivity and Representation All writing is positioned within a cultural, gender, social, class, or personal political stance Qualitative researchers shape their writing and need to be open about how it is shaped Qualitative writing contains subtexts that position the material within a particular historical and local time and place Qualitative writings are co-constructed, which means they are representations of interactive processes between researchers and participants Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

Reflexivity and Representation Qualitative researchers need to be concerned with the impact their writing has on the participants Qualitative writing has an impact on the reader who also makes an interpretation of the account Qualitative researchers need to be concerned with how theories are constructed from their writing The extent to which the participants’ words are used to support theories The extent to which the analysis is an alternative viewpoint or contributes to the common discourse Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e Writing for Audiences Potential audiences are colleagues, policymakers, participants, and the general public If your audience is a graduate committee: Know how knowledgeable your committee members are about qualitative research Look at past qualitative dissertations chaired by your advisor Have qualitative expertise on your committee Have a peer review of your writing Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e Writing for Audiences If your audience are participants at an academic conference or editors of a journal: Determine if the journal publishes or the conference supports qualitative studies Find qualitative articles that have been presented before and study them Note aspects of: length, style manual, tables, figures, approaches used, type of analysis, sophistication of methods, use of theory and the literature Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e Writing for Audiences If your audience consists of policymakers Use a more objective narrative style Include relevant statistics Write research objectives rather than research questions Write an executive summary Use bullets to highlight results Highlight implications for practice Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e Encoding Your Study Use the terminology associated with qualitative research and the qualitative approach you have used in your study This terminology appears throughout a study – the statement of the problem, the purpose, the research questions, the sampling strategies A glossary of terms associated with each of the five approaches is in Appendix A Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e Use of Quotes Use quotes (short, medium, long) to provide voices of participants Use short eye-catching quotes Use embedded quotes Use longer quotations – requires the reader to be guided “into” and “out of” Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

Rhetorical Structures Within the Approaches Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

Narrative: Overall Rhetorical Structure It should read like a good story There should be a passage that tells the story of the individual’s life or personal experiences (typically a chronology) You can include epiphanies (turning points) You can include themes that surfaced during the individual’s story Consider the three-dimensional narrative space: Write about a) personal/social, b) past, present, future, and c) place Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e Narrative: Embedded Rhetorical Structure (Czarniawska, 2004; and Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) The writing need not silence some voices and it ultimately gives more space to certain voices than others The spatial element of writing can be used such as the progressive-regressive method used in biographies Writer begins with a key event and then moves forward or backward Writer can use zoom in or zoom out to write a description that ranges from a narrow context to an entire site Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e Narrative: Embedded Rhetorical Structure (Czarniawska, 2004; and Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) The writing may emphasize a key event or epiphany A major event that touches the fabric of the individual’s life Cumulative or representative events that continue for some time A minor epiphany which is a moment in an individual's life Relived experiences Themes can be reported in narrative writing Rhetorical devices such as transitions and metaphors Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

Phenomenology: Overall Rhetorical Structure (Moustakas, 1994) Write separate sections for significant statements, meaning units, textual and structural descriptions, and for the essence Can use tables to convey findings Include a passage on the philosophical assumptions of phenomenology Be sure and describe the phenomenon and talk about the context in which it occurs As with all qualitative research, be reflexive and position yourself Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

Phenomenology: Embedded Rhetorical Structure The essence of the experience is presented through a short narrative paragraph that is based on the textual and structural descriptions The paragraph containing the essence is enclosed in a figure Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

Phenomenology: Embedded Rhetorical Structure The reader is also educated about phenomenology and its philosophical assumptions At the end of the study the researcher writes a short paragraph about the essence in terms of its value and inspiration to the researcher’s life Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

Grounded theory: Overall Rhetorical Structure Present the theory that develops Often written in a scientific way (e.g., questions, literature review, methodology, findings, discussion Include open, axial, and theoretical coding Discuss how the theory relates to existing knowledge Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

Grounded Theory: Broad Writing Parameters (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) Develop a clear analytic story Write on a conceptual level with limited description Specify the relationship among categories Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

Grounded Theory: Embedded Rhetorical Structure Specify variations and relevant conditions, consequences and intervening conditions that impact the theory Variations in types of data analysis presented: description, categories, linking categories, level of theory Variations in stating the relationships: discursive statements, formal propositions or hypotheses, a model, storyline Variations in the model or logic diagram: linear, circular Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

Ethnography: Overall Rhetorical Structure Types ethnographic tales Realist tale: Conveys a scientific or objective perspective Confessional tale: Researcher focuses in on the experiences of the fieldwork rather than on the culture Impressionistic tale: A personalized account of the fieldwork case in dramatic form Critical tale: Focuses on large social, political, symbolic, or economic issues Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

Ethnography: Overall Rhetorical Structure (Van Maanen, 1998) Types ethnographic tales Formalist tale: Used to build, test, generalize, and exhibit theory Literary tales: Ethnographers write like journalists and borrow fiction-writing techniques from novelists Jointly told tales: The study is jointly authored by fieldworkers and informants that open up shared discursive narratives Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

Ethnography: Embedded Rhetorical Structure Figures of speech (e.g., troupes) Ways of depicting scenes Thick descriptions Dialogue Ways of telling a “good story” Develop “rules” about how the culture-sharing group works Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

Case Study: Overall Rhetorical Structure (Stake, 1995) Writer opens with a vignette so the reader can get a feel for the time and place of the study The issue is identified along with the method and purpose Extensive description of the case Key issues are presented so the reader can understand the complexity of the case Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

Case Study: Overall Rhetorical Structure (Stake, 1995) Several issues are probed further Assertions are presented The writer ends with a closing vignette to remind the reader that this is one person’s encounter with a complex case Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

Case Study: Embedded Rhetorical Structure Vignettes Description – from broad to narrow Relative balance of description, themes, and interpretation Use chronologies in the description End with “lessons that I learned” – assertions or generalizations Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

Writing a Qualitative Study Chapter 9 Writing a Qualitative Study Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e