Analysis Basics: Analysts' Favorite Activities
(While Looking at or Reflecting on Raw Information)
- Noticing what happened
- Noting those views or behaviors that stand out
- Comparing information, meanings, groups or subgroups, themes
- Developing and tracing ideas and views back to a source or system
of thought
- Describing in a narrative stream what people said and did - telling
the "story" of what participants said
- Theorizing about connections behind views, themes, or patterns of
thought (always clearly noting the difference between the findings themselves,
for which you can provide evidence, and the theory that links the findings
and explains them in a richer, deeper way)
[Note: Some of the activities on this page come from Jennifer Mason, Qualitative
Researching. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1996.]
