1. Analysis of Data Qualitative Data Analysis
Babbie & Mouton, The Practice of Social Research. Cape Town: Oxford

2. Qualitative Data Analysis
See diagram of Renate Tesch p.490
NB is Tesch’s book – Qualitative research: Analysis types & software tools (1990)
More than twenty approaches to qualitative data
Following three is most common research interests:
Characteristics of language
Discovery of irregularities
Comprehension of meaning of text/action

3. Characteristics of Language
Two analytical approaches:
Content Analysis
Focuses on content characteristics
Very much like quantitative analysis – useful in market research
Divided into two types
Conceptual/Thematic analysis – Comprises eight steps
Relational analysis (Relationship between elements in data) – Comprises various steps
Discourse Analysis
Focuses on process characteristics
Complex process & difficult to learn
Parker proposes seven criteria for distinguishing discourses:
Realizes in texts
Is about objects
Contains subjects
Is coherent set of meanings
Refers to other discourses
Reflects its own way of speaking
Is historically located

4. Content Analysis Conceptual/Thematic analysis – Comprises eight steps:
Deciding the level of analysis (one word or a phrase)
How many concepts to code for
Whether to code for existence/frequency of a concept
How to distinguish among concepts
Developing rules for the coding of text
What to do with irrelevant information
Coding texts (making sense of the patterns & themes of the text
Analyzing results

5. Content Analysis
Relational analysis (Relationship between elements in data) – Comprises various steps such as:
Id the question
Choose the sample/s for analysis
Determine the type of analysis
Reduce text to categories & code for words or patterns
Explore the strength, sign & direction of relationships
Code the relationships
Possibly perform statistical analysis
Map out the representations

6. Research Interest: Discovery of Regularities
Grounded Theory: Discovery of regularities as the id of categories of elements & establishment of their connections
Inductively derived – discovered, developed & provisionally verified through systematic data collection & analysis of data pertaining to the research
Begins with an area of study & what is relevant to that area is allowed to emerge
An approach that allows us to study relatively unknown social phenomenon around which no theory exist
Two main processes to grounded theory analysis:
Coding procedures – open, axial & selective coding
Adjunctive procedures – e.g. memos

7. Computer-aided Tools for Qualitative Data Analysis (CAQDAS)
Following uses of a combination of various CAQDAS packages:
Making notes in the filed & Writing up/transcribing field notes
Editing: correcting, extending/revising field notes
Coding: attaching key words/tags to segments of text to permit later retrieval
Storage: keeping texts in an organized database
Search & retrieval: locating relevant segments of text & making it available for inspection
Data “linking”: connecting relevant data segments with each other, forming clusters/networks of info
Meaning: writing reflective commentaries on aspects of data for deeper analysis
Content analysis: counting frequencies, sequence/locations of words & phrases
Data display: placing selected/reduced data in condensed, organized format e.g. matrix for inspection
Conclusion drawing & verification: aiding the analyst to interpret displayed data & test/confirm findings
Theory building: developing systematic conceptually coherent explanations of findings, creating diagrams/theories
Preparing interim & final reports