Module 3: Documentation and Types of Analysis: (8Lectures)

In depth interviews, Focus group Interviews, Content analysis, narrative analysis,

conversation analysis, discourse analysis, Ethnography, Stimulated recall. Visual
interpretation with special emphasis upon the analysis aspects and its implications for
decision making

Documentation and Types of Analysis

Document analysis is the process of reviewing or evaluating documents both printed and
electronic in a methodical manner. The document analysis method, like many other qualitative
research methods, involves examining and interpreting data to uncover meaning, gain
understanding, and come to a conclusion.

What is meant by Document Analysis?

Document analysis pertains to the process of interpreting documents for an assessment topic by
the researcher as a means of giving voice and meaning. In Document Analysis as a Qualitative
Research Method by Glenn A. Bowen, document analysis is described as, “... a systematic
procedure for reviewing or evaluating documents—both printed and electronic (computer-
based and Internet-transmitted) material. Like other analytical methods in qualitative
research, document analysis requires that data be examined and interpreted in order to
elicit meaning, gain understanding, and develop empirical knowledge.”

During the analysis of documents, the content is categorized into distinct themes, similar to the
way transcripts from interviews or focus groups are analyzed. The documents may also be
graded or scored using a rubric.

Document analysis is a social research method of great value, and it plays a crucial role in most
triangulation methods, combining various methods to study a particular phenomenon.

Documents fall into three main categories:

 Personal Documents: A personal account of an individual's beliefs, actions, and

experiences. The following are examples: e-mails, calendars, scrapbooks, Facebook
posts, incident reports, blogs, duty logs, newspapers, and reflections or journals.
 Public Records: Records of an organization's activities that are maintained continuously
over time. These include mission statements, student transcripts, annual reports,
student handbooks, policy manuals, syllabus, and strategic plans.
 Physical Evidence: Artifacts or items found within a study setting, also referred to as
artifacts. Among these are posters, flyers, agendas, training materials, and
handbooks.

The qualitative researcher generally makes use of two or more resources, each using a different
data source and methodology, to achieve convergence and corroboration. An important purpose
of triangulating evidence is to establish credibility through a convergence of evidence.
Corroboration of findings across data sets reduces the possibility of bias, by examining data
gathered in different ways.

It is important to note that document analysis differs from content analysis as content analysis
refers to more than documents. As part of their definition for content analysis, Columbia
Mailman School of Public Health states that, “Sources of data could be from interviews, open-
ended questions, field research notes, conversations, or literally any occurrence of
communicative language (such as books, essays, discussions, newspaper headlines, speeches,
media, historical documents).

How Do You Do Document Analysis?

In order for a researcher to obtain reliable results from document analysis, a detailed planning
process must be undertaken. The following is an outline of an eight-step planning process that
should be employed in all textual analysis including document analysis techniques.

1. Identify the texts you want to analyze such as samples, population, participants, and
respondents.
2. You should consider how texts will be accessed, paying attention to any cultural or
linguistic barriers.
3. Acknowledge and resolve biases.
4. Acquire appropriate research skills.
5. Strategize for ensuring credibility.
6. Identify the data that is being sought.
7. Take into account ethical issues.
8. Keep a backup plan handy.

Researchers can use a wide variety of texts as part of their research,

but the most common source is likely to be written material.
Researchers often ask how many documents they should collect. There
is an opinion that a wide selection of documents is preferable, but the
issue should probably revolve more around the quality of the
document than its quantity.

Why is Document Analysis Useful?

Different types of documents serve different purposes. They provide

background information, indicate potential interview questions, serve
as a mechanism for monitoring progress and tracking changes within a
project, and allow for verification of any claims or progress made.

You can triangulate your claims about the phenomenon being studied
using document analysis by using multiple sources and other research
gathering methods.
Below are the advantages and disadvantages of document
analysis

Advantages

 Document analysis may assist researchers in determining what

questions to ask your interviewees, as well as provide insight into
what to watch out for during your participant observation.
 It is particularly useful to researchers who wish to focus on
specific case studies
 It is inexpensive and quick in cases where data is easily
obtainable.
 Documents provide specific and reliable data, unaffected by
researchers' presence unlike with other research methods like
participant observation.

Disadvantages

 It is likely that the documents researchers obtain are not complete or written objectively,
requiring researchers to adopt a critical approach and not assume their contents are
reliable or unbiased.
 There may be a risk of information overload due to the number of documents involved.
Researchers often have difficulties determining what parts of each document are relevant
to the topic being studied.
 It may be necessary to anonymize documents and compare them with other documents
 Documenting the System
 In one sense, every information systems development project is unique and will generate
its own unique documentation. In another sense, though, system development projects are
probably more alike than they are different.
 Each project shares a similar systems development life cycle, which dictates that certain
activities be undertaken and that each of those activities be documented. Specific
documentation will vary depending on the life cycle you are following, and the format
and content of the documentation may be mandated by the organization you work for.
Start developing documentation elements early, as the information needed is captured.

Types of documentation in system:

We can simplify the situation by dividing the types of documentation into two basic
types.

System documentation and

User documentation.

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION
 Records detailed information about a system’s design specifications, its internal
workings, and its functionality. System documentation can be further divided
into internal and external documentation.

INTERNAL DOCUMENTATION

 Is part of the program source code or is generated at compile time. External

documentation includes the outcome of all of the structured diagramming techniques,
such as data-flow and entity-relationship diagrams.

USER DOCUMENTATION

 Is written or other visual information about how an application system works and how to
use it. Although not part of the code itself, external documentation can provide useful
information to the primary users of system documentation—maintenance programmers.

For example, data-flow diagrams provide a good overview of a system’s structure. In the
past, external documentation was typically discarded after implementation, primarily
because it was considered too costly to keep up to date but today’s integrated
development environment makes it possible to maintain and update external
documentation as long as desired.

Whereas system documentation is intended primarily for maintenance programmers,

user documentation is intended mainly for users. An organization should have definitive
standards on system documentation.

These standards may include the outline for the project dictionary and specific pieces of
documentation within it. Standards for user documentation are not as explicit

User Documentation

User documentation consists of written or other visual information about an application

system, how it works, and how to use it. An excerpt of online user documentation for
Microsoft Visio appears . The documentation lists the item necessary to perform the task
the user inquired about. The user controls how much of the help is shown.

Represents the content of a reference guide, just one type of user documentation. Other
types of user documentation include a quick reference guide, user’s guide, release
description, system administrator’s guide, and acceptance sign-off. Most online reference
guides allow you to search by topic area or by typing in the first few letters of your
keyword. Reference guides are great for specific information. But are not as good for the
broader picture of how to perform all the steps required for a given task. The quick
reference guide provides essential information about operating a system in a short,
concise format.
  Where computer resources are shared and many users perform similar tasks on the same
machines (as with airline reservation or mail-order-catalog clerks), quick reference
guides are often printed on index cards or as small books and mounted on or near the
computer terminal. The purpose of a reference guide is to provide information on how
users can use computer systems to perform specific tasks.
 The information in a user’s guide is typically ordered by how often tasks are performed
and how complex they are. Increasingly, software vendors are using Web sites to provide
additional user-guide content.
 Web-based documentation allows the vendor to provide more up-to-date reference
material without issuing new software CDs. Because most software is reissued as new
features are added, a release description contains information about a new system release,
including a list of complete documentation for the new release, features and
enhancements, known problems and how they have been dealt with in the new release,
and information about installation.
 A system administrator’s guide is intended primarily for a particular type of user—those
who will install and administer a new system—and contains information about the
network on which the system will run, software interfaces for peripherals such as
printers, troubleshooting, and setting up user accounts. Finally, the acceptance sign-off
allows users to test for proper system installation and then signify their acceptance of the
new system and its documentation with their signatures.

An in-depth interview

An in-depth interview is an open-ended, discovery-oriented method to obtain detailed

information about a topic from a stakeholder. In-depth interviews are a qualitative research
method; their goal is to explore in depth a respondent’s point of view, experiences, feelings, and
perspectives. These types of interviews are often conducted at the beginning of a larger research
project when there are questions about how to narrow the focus of the research, or what
questions need to be explored through the research.

They are therefore an especially good choice for communities who have unique research goals
that do not easily fit into some of the common objectives described in this manual.

Steps Involved in Conducting In-depth Interviews

1. Developing a sampling strategy (Whose attitudes and beliefs matter to your research, and how
will you find these people?)

2. Writing an in-depth interview guide (An in-depth interview guide contains the questions that
will be asked during the interview.)

3. Conducting the interviews (Contact potential respondents to complete an interview.)

4. Analyzing the data (Making sense of the findings.)

You may want to conduct in-depth interviews instead of focus groups if the topics you wish to
explore are highly sensitive in nature, and people may be uncomfortable sharing their honest
feelings in a group setting, or in situations when it would be logistically difficult to get the
people you want to hear from into one room at one time (e.g., geographic distance, types of
participants with unpredictable or very busy schedules, etc). In-depth interviews have more in
common with a journalist’s interview than with a survey interview. For example, surveys have
fixed questionnaires, whereas an in-depth interview functions much more like a moderator
guide—there are no scales, respondents answer in their own words, and the interviewer can
adjust the order and flow of the questions and ask additional questions as needed. Telephone
surveys typically involve a larger number of respondents (i.e., 100 interviews or more), while for
in-depth interviews; it is much more common to conduct as few as 10 to 15 interviews. You will
typically use a random sampling strategy for a telephone survey in order to interview a cross-
section of the population; for in depth interviews, however, you do not need to be concerned
about ending up with representative results.

What is a focus group?

Focus groups are a type of qualitative research. Observations of the group’s dynamic, their
answers to focus group questions, and even their body language can guide future research on
consumer decisions, products and services, or controversial topics.

Focus groups are often used in marketing, library science, social science, and user research
disciplines. They can provide more nuanced and natural feedback than individual interviews and
are easier to organize than experiments or large-scale surveys.

Step 1: Choose your topic of interest

Focus groups are primarily considered a confirmatory research technique. In other words, their
discussion-heavy setting is most useful for confirming or refuting preexisting beliefs. For this
reason, they are great for conducting explanatory research, where you explore why something
occurs when limited information is available.

A focus group may be a good choice for you if:

 You’re interested in real-time, unfiltered responses on a given topic or in the dynamics

of a discussion between participants
 Your questions are rooted in feelings or perceptions, and cannot easily be answered with
“yes” or “no”
 You’re confident that a relatively small number of responses will answer your question
 You’re seeking directional information that will help you uncover new questions or
future research ideas

Note: There are a few other types of interviews you can consider as well. The three most
common options are:

 Structured interviews: The questions are predetermined in both topic and order.
 Semi-structured interviews: A few questions are predetermined, but other questions
aren’t planned.
 Unstructured interviews: None of the questions are predetermined.

Topics favorable to focus groups

As a rule of thumb, research topics related to thoughts, beliefs, and feelings work well in focus
groups. If you are seeking direction, explanation, or in-depth dialogue, a focus group could be a
good fit.

However, if your questions are dichotomous or if you need to reach a large audience quickly,
a survey may be a better option. If your question hinges upon behavior but you are worried about
influencing responses, consider an observational study.

Example: Research topicYour university dining hall is considering adding vegan meals to its
daily menu. However, the university is hesitant to do so if it will lead to increased food waste. It
needs concrete proof that vegan meals will be successful.

 If you want to determine whether the student body would regularly consume vegan food,
a survey would be a great way to gauge student preferences.

However, food is much more than just consumption and nourishment and can have emotional,
cultural, and other implications on individuals.

 If you’re interested in something less concrete, such as students’ perceptions of vegan

food or the interplay between their choices at the dining hall and their feelings of
homesickness or loneliness, perhaps a focus group would be best.
Step 2: Define your research scope and hypotheses
Once you have determined that a focus group is the right choice for your topic, you can start
thinking about what you expect the group discussion to yield.

Perhaps literature already exists on your subject or a sufficiently similar topic that you can use as
a starting point. If the topic isn’t well studied, use your instincts to determine what you think is
most worthy of study.

Setting your scope will help you formulate intriguing hypotheses, set clear questions, and recruit
the right participants.

Example: Setting your scopeYou want to determine the scope of your research, so you consider
the following questions.

 Are you interested in a particular sector of the population, such as vegans or non-vegans?
 Are you interested in including vegetarians in your analysis?
 Perhaps not all students eat at the dining hall. Will your study exclude those who don’t?
 Are you only interested in students who have strong opinions on the subject?

A benefit of focus groups is that your hypotheses can be open-ended. You can be open to a wide
variety of opinions, which can lead to unexpected conclusions.

Step 3: Determine your focus group questions

The questions that you ask your focus group are crucially important to your analysis. Take your
time formulating them, paying special attention to phrasing. Be careful to avoid leading
questions, which can affect your responses.

Overall, your focus group questions should be:

 Open-ended and flexible

 Impossible to answer with “yes” or “no” (questions that start with “why” or “how” are
often best)
 Unambiguous, getting straight to the point while still stimulating discussion
 Unbiased and neutral

If you are discussing a controversial topic, be careful that your questions do not cause social
desirability bias. Here, your respondents may lie about their true beliefs to mask any socially
unacceptable or unpopular opinions. This and other demand characteristics can hurt your
analysis and lead to several types of reseach bias in your results, particularly if your participants
react in a different way once knowing they’re being observed. These include self-selection bias,
the Hawthorne effect, the Pygmalion effect, and recall bias.

Examples: Focus group questions There are a few types of questions you can use:
  Engagement questions make your participants feel comfortable and at ease:
“What is your favorite food at the dining hall?”
 Exploration questions drill down to the focus of your analysis:
“What pros and cons of offering vegan options do you see?”
 Exit questions pick up on anything you may have previously missed in your discussion:
“Is there anything you’d like to mention about vegan options in the dining hall that we
haven’t discussed?”

Step 4: Select a moderator or co-moderator

It is important to have more than one moderator in the room. If you would like to take the lead
asking questions, select a co-moderator who can coordinate the technology, take notes, and
observe the behavior of the participants.

If your hypotheses have behavioral aspects, consider asking someone else to be lead moderator
so that you are free to take a more observational role.

Depending on your topic, there are a few types of moderator roles that you can choose
from.

 The most common is the dual-moderator, introduced above.

 Another common option is the dueling-moderator style. Here, you and your co-
moderator take opposing sides on an issue to allow participants to see different
perspectives and respond accordingly.

Note: In certain types of focus groups (such as the dueling-moderator style), you will need to
have two moderators actively participating. In this case, it may be wise to have a third person in
the room ensuring everything runs smoothly.

Step 5: Recruit your participants

Depending on your research topic, there are a few sampling methods you can choose from to
help you recruit and select participants.

 Voluntary response sampling, such as posting a flyer on campus and finding

participants based on responses
 Convenience sampling of those who are most readily accessible to you, such as fellow
students at your university
 Stratified sampling of a particular age, race, ethnicity, gender identity, or other
characteristic of interest to you
 Judgment sampling of a specific set of participants that you already know you want to
include

Beware of sampling bias and selection bias, which can occur when some members of the
population are more likely to be included than others.
Number of participants
In most cases, one focus group will not be sufficient to answer your research question. It is likely
that you will need to schedule three to four groups. A good rule of thumb is to stop when you’ve
reached a saturation point (i.e., when you aren’t receiving new responses to your questions).

Most focus groups have 6–10 participants. It’s a good idea to over-recruit just in case someone
doesn’t show up. As a rule of thumb, you shouldn’t have fewer than 6 or more than 12
participants, in order to get the most reliable results.

Lastly, it’s preferable for your participants not to know you or each other, as this can bias your
results.

Step 6: Set up your focus group

A focus group is not just a group of people coming together to discuss their opinions. While
well-run focus groups have an enjoyable and relaxed atmosphere, they are backed up by rigorous
methods to provide robust observations.

Confirm a time and date

Be sure to confirm a time and date with your participants well in advance. Focus groups usually
meet for 45–90 minutes, but some can last longer. However, beware of the possibility of
wandering attention spans. If you really think your session needs to last longer than 90 minutes,
schedule a few breaks.

Confirm whether it will take place in person or online

You will also need to decide whether the group will meet in person or online. If you are hosting
it in person, be sure to pick an appropriate location.

 An uncomfortable or awkward location may affect the mood or level of participation of

your group members.
 Online sessions are convenient, as participants can join from home, but they can also
lessen the connection between participants.

As a general rule, make sure you are in a noise-free environment that minimizes distractions and
interruptions to your participants.

Consent and ethical considerations

It’s important to take into account ethical considerations and informed consent when conducting
your research. Informed consent means that participants possess all the information they need to
decide whether they want to participate in the research before it starts. This includes information
about benefits, risks, funding, and institutional approval.

Participants should also sign a release form that states that they are comfortable with being
audio- or video-recorded. While verbal consent may be sufficient, it is best to ask participants to
sign a form.
A disadvantage of focus groups is that they are too small to provide true anonymity to
participants. Make sure that your participants know this prior to participating.

There are a few things you can do to commit to keeping information private. You can
secure confidentiality by removing all identifying information from your report or offer to
pseudonymize the data later. Data pseudonymization entails replacing any identifying
information about participants with pseudonymous or false identifiers.

Preparation prior to participation

If there is something you would like participants to read, study, or prepare beforehand, be sure to
let them know well in advance. It’s also a good idea to call them the day before to ensure they
will still be participating.

Step 7: Host your focus group

Consider conducting a tech check prior to the arrival of your participants, and note any
environmental or external factors that could affect the mood of the group that day. Be sure that
you are organized and ready, as a stressful atmosphere can be distracting and counterproductive.

Starting the focus group

Welcome individuals to the focus group by introducing the topic, yourself, and your co-
moderator, and go over any ground rules or suggestions for a successful discussion. It’s
important to make your participants feel at ease and forthcoming with their responses.

Consider starting out with an icebreaker, which will allow participants to relax and settle into the
space a bit. Your icebreaker can be related to your study topic or not; it’s just an exercise to get
participants talking.

Leading the discussion

Once you start asking your questions, try to keep response times equal between participants.
Take note of the most and least talkative members of the group, as well as any participants with
particularly strong or dominant personalities.

You can ask less talkative member’s questions directly to encourage them to participate or ask
participants questions by name to even the playing field. Feel free to ask participants to elaborate
on their answers or to give an example.

As a moderator, strive to remain neutral. Refrain from reacting to responses, and be aware of
your body language (e.g., nodding, raising eyebrows) and the possibility for observer bias.
Active listening skills, such as parroting back answers or asking for clarification, are good
methods to encourage participation and signal that you’re listening.

Many focus groups offer a monetary incentive for participants. Depending on your research
budget, this is a nice way to show appreciation for their time and commitment. To keep everyone
feeling fresh, consider offering snacks or drinks as well.
Step 8: Analyze your data and report your results
After concluding your focus group, you and your co-moderator should debrief, recording initial
impressions of the discussion as well as any highlights, issues, or immediate conclusions you’ve
drawn.

The next step is to transcribe and clean your data. Assign each participant a number or
pseudonym for organizational purposes. Transcribe the recordings and conduct content
analysis to look for themes or categories of responses. The categories you choose can then form
the basis for reporting your results.

Advantages and disadvantages of focus groups

Just like other research methods, focus groups come with advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages

 They are fairly straightforward to organize and results have strong face validity.
 They are usually inexpensive, even if you compensate participant.
 A focus group is much less time-consuming than a survey or experiment, and you get
immediate results.
 Focus group results are often more comprehensible and intuitive than raw data.

Disadvantages

 It can be difficult to assemble a truly representative sample. Focus groups are generally
not considered externally valid due to their small sample sizes.
 Due to the small sample size, you cannot ensure the anonymity of respondents, which
may influence their desire to speak freely.
 Depth of analysis can be a concern, as it can be challenging to get honest opinions on
controversial topics.
 There is a lot of room for error in the data analysis and high potential for observer
dependency in drawing conclusions. You have to be careful not to cherry-pick responses
to fit a prior conclusion.

Content analysis

Content analysis is a research tool used to determine the presence of certain words, themes, or
concepts within some given qualitative data (i.e. text). Using content analysis, researchers can
quantify and analyze the presence, meanings, and relationships of such certain words, themes, or
concepts.

Content analysis is a research method used to identify patterns in recorded communication. To

conduct content analysis, you systematically collect data from a set of texts, which can be
written, oral, or visual:

 Books, newspapers and magazines

  Speeches and interviews
 Web content and social media posts
 Photographs and films

Content analysis can be both quantitative (focused on counting and measuring)

and qualitative (focused on interpreting and understanding). In both types, you categorize or
“code” words, themes, and concepts within the texts and then analyze the results.

What is content analysis used for?

Researchers use content analysis to find out about the purposes, messages, and effects of
communication content. They can also make inferences about the producers and audience of the
texts they analyze.

Content analysis can be used to quantify the occurrence of certain words, phrases, subjects or
concepts in a set of historical or contemporary texts.

Advantages of content analysis

 Unobtrusive data collection

You can analyze communication and social interaction without the direct involvement of
participants, so your presence as a researcher doesn’t influence the results.

 Transparent and replicable

When done well, content analysis follows a systematic procedure that can easily be replicated by
other researchers, yielding results with high reliability.

 Highly flexible

You can conduct content analysis at any time, in any location, and at low cost – all you need is
access to the appropriate sources.

Disadvantages of content analysis

 Reductive

Focusing on words or phrases in isolation can sometimes be overly reductive, disregarding

context, nuance, and ambiguous meanings.

 Subjective

Content analysis almost always involves some level of subjective interpretation, which can affect
the reliability and validity of the results and conclusions, leading to various types of research
bias and cognitive bias.
  Time intensive

Manually coding large volumes of text is extremely time-consuming, and it can be difficult to
automate effectively.

How to conduct content analysis

If you want to use content analysis in your research, you need to start with a clear, direct research
question.

Example research question for content analysis

Is there a difference in how the US media represents younger politicians compared to older ones
in terms of trustworthiness?

Next, you follow these five steps.

1. Select the content you will analyze

Based on your research question, choose the texts that you will analyze. You need to decide:

 The medium (e.g. newspapers, speeches or websites) and genre (e.g. opinion pieces,
political campaign speeches, or marketing copy)
 The inclusion and exclusion criteria (e.g. newspaper articles that mention a particular
event, speeches by a certain politician, or websites selling a specific type of product)
 The parameters in terms of date range, location, etc.

If there are only a small amount of texts that meet your criteria, you might analyze all of them. If
there is a large volume of texts, you can select a sample.

To research media representations of younger and older politicians, you decide to analyze news
articles and opinion pieces in print newspapers between 2017–2019. Because this is a very large
volume of content, you choose three major national newspapers and sample only Monday and
Friday editions.

2. Define the units and categories of analysis

Next, you need to determine the level at which you will analyze your chosen texts. This means
defining:

 The unit(s) of meaning that will be coded. For example, are you going to record the
frequency of individual words and phrases, the characteristics of people who produced or
appear in the texts, the presence and positioning of images, or the treatment of themes
and concepts?
 The set of categories that you will use for coding. Categories can be objective
characteristics (e.g. aged 30-40, lawyer, parent) or more conceptual
(e.g. trustworthy, corrupt, conservative, family oriented).
Your units of analysis are the politicians who appear in each article and the words and phrases
that are used to describe them. Based on your research question, you have to categorize based on
age and the concept of trustworthiness. To get more detailed data, you also code for other
categories such as their political party and the marital status of each politician mentioned.

3. Develop a set of rules for coding

Coding involves organizing the units of meaning into the previously defined categories.
Especially with more conceptual categories, it’s important to clearly define the rules for what
will and won’t be included to ensure that all texts are coded consistently.

Coding rules are especially important if multiple researchers are involved, but even if you’re
coding all of the text by yourself, recording the rules makes your method more transparent and
reliable.

In considering the category “younger politician,” you decide which titles will be coded with this
category (senator, governor, counselor, mayor). With “trustworthy”, you decide which specific
words or phrases related to trustworthiness (e.g. honest and reliable) will be coded in this
category.

4. Code the text according to the rules

You go through each text and record all relevant data in the appropriate categories. This can be
done manually or aided with computer programs, such as QSR NVivo, [Link] and Diction,
which can help speed up the process of counting and categorizing words and phrases.

Following your coding rules, you examine each newspaper article in your sample. You record
the characteristics of each politician mentioned, along with all words and phrases related to
trustworthiness that are used to describe them.

5. Analyze the results and draw conclusions

Once coding is complete, the collected data is examined to find patterns and draw conclusions in
response to your research question. You might use statistical analysis to find correlations or
trends, discuss your interpretations of what the results mean, and make inferences about the
creators, context and audience of the texts.

Let’s say the results reveal that words and phrases related to trustworthiness appeared in the
same sentence as an older politician more frequently than they did in the same sentence as a
younger politician. From these results, you conclude that national newspapers present older
politicians as more trustworthy than younger politicians, and infer that this might have an effect
on readers’ perceptions of younger people in politics.
Narrative Analysis
What is narrative analysis in qualitative research?

Researchers use narrative analysis to understand how research participants construct story and
narrative from their own personal experience. That means there is a dual layer of interpretation
in narrative analysis. First the research participants interpret their own lives through narrative.
Then the researcher interprets the construction of that narrative.

Narratives can be derived from journals, letters, conversations, autobiographies,

transcripts of in-depth interviews, focus groups, or other types of narrative qualitative
research and then used in narrative research.

Examples of personal narratives

Personal narratives come in a variety of forms and can all be used in narrative research.

 Topical stories
o A restricted story about one specific moment in time with a plot, characters, and
setting, but doesn’t encompass the entirety of a person’s life. Example: a
research participant’s answer to a single interview question
 Personal narrative
o Personal narratives come from a long interview or a series of long narrative
interviews that give an extended account of someone’s life. Example: a
researcher conducting an in-depth interview, or a series of in-depth interviews
with an individual over an extended period of time.
 Entire life story
o Constructed from a collection of interviews, observations, and documents about
a person’s life. Example: a historian putting together the biography of
someone’s life from past artifacts.

How to analyze data in a narrative interview

Narrative analysis, like many qual methods, takes a set of data like interviews and
reduces it to abstract findings. The difference is that while many popular
qualitative methods aim to reduce interviews to a set of core themes or findings,
narrative analysis aims to reduce interviews to a set of core narratives.

A core narrative is a generalized narrative grounded in your research participants’

stories. This is not implying that all stories in your narrative study will be perfectly
encapsulated by one core narrative. There will be outliers and nuance. And as in
all qualitative analysis, embracing and communicating this is an important part of
the process.

A step by step approach to narrative

analysis and finding the core narratives
There is no one agreed-upon method of narrative analysis or narrative research
method. There are many types of narrative research designs. That being said, we
thought it would be helpful to provide a step-by-step narrative approach to at least
one method of narrative analysis that will help you find core narratives in
research.

Step 1: Code Narrative Blocks

Inductively code the narrative blocks you find in your interviews. You should code
narrative blocks about similar “life events” with the same code.

For example, stories about how someone decided to have children could be coded
as “Narratives about deciding to have children”.

Step 2: Group and Read By Live-Event

Read over all the narratives that you coded with the same “life event” code. As
you do so, note their similarities and differences. This is the beginning of your
analysis!

Step 3: Create Nested Story Structure Codes

For every “life event” code, create and nest codes based on your story structure
framework of choice. For example:

 Narratives about deciding to have children (this is your inductively created

life-event code)
o Abstract (these codes are based on story structure)
o Orientation
o Complicating action
o Evaluation
o Resolution
o Coda

More generally put:

  Life Event Code
o Story Structure Code 1
o Story Structure Code 2
o ...

Now break up your narrative blocks, by applying these story structure codes.

Step 4: Delve into the Story Structure

Now you can collate each life event by its story structure code. For example within
“narratives about deciding to have children'', you can focus on “Orientation”. In all
the stories about deciding to have children, you can compare and contrast how
different research participants oriented their stories. The similarities and
differences can be written down as you observe them. Differences can be further
coded to help with later analysis. For example, if it was common for your
participants to talk about their parent’s marital status, you may end up with the
following code structure.

 Deciding to have children

o Abstract
o Orientation
 Parent divorce
 Parents still together
o etc...

Step 5: Compare Across Story Structure

As you break up your narrative blocks by story structure, do not lose sight of the
overarching narrative. Switch between reading your narrative blocks as a whole,
and diving into each individual story structure code. Pay attention to how story
structure codes relate across a life event.

For example, participants who talked about their parents’ divorce, may construct
meaning differently than those whose parents remained together. You may
discover this finding by comparing “Orientation” with “Evaluation”.

Step 6: Tell the Core Narrative

At the end of these steps, you will have fully explored each narrative block. You
will have a deep understanding of how your research participants self-narrate their
lives. You will have observed how your participants' stories relate, but also how
they diverge. And through the process, you may have a theory why these stories
diverge.

For each life-event take the structure you used (in our example Patterson’s Abstract,
Orientation, etc…) and write a core narrative that encapsulates the commonalities between
your participants. If you have found fundamental differences within your research base, you
can capture that nuance in a single core narrative. Alternatively, you can break a life event into
two core narratives and compare them. In our example above we may write one core narrative
from the perspective of participants whose parents divorced and another perspective of
participants whose parents stayed together.

Conversation Analysis: An Overview

Conversation Analysis is an essential aspect of understanding human communication by

examining spoken interaction in depth. It is an interdisciplinary study that combines
linguistics, sociology, and psychology. As a student of the English Language, learning
about Conversation Analysis will help you improve your communication skills and
develop a better understanding of social interaction in various contexts.

Conversation Analysis Definition and Linguistics

Conversation Analysis, also known as CA, is the study of the structure and organization of
conversation, as well as the social rules that govern how people interact in a conversational
setting. It involves observing and understanding the patterns of communication, the roles of
participants, and the way language is used to create meaning. By analysing these elements,
researchers can uncover the hidden mechanics that drive everyday talk and explore how
interaction is structured and organized to achieve particular outcomes.

Conversation Analysis is a research method that examines the structure and organization of
talk during social interactions, with the aim of understanding how communication works and
the social rules that underpin it.

The Importance of Conversation Analysis in Linguistics

Conversation Analysis plays a vital role in linguistics as it provides insights into how language
works in real-life situations. By understanding the dynamics of conversations and the linguistic
techniques that speakers use to convey meaning, we can gain a deeper appreciation of the
complexities of human communication. Some specific ways Conversation Analysis contributes
to linguistics include:
Examining turn-taking, repair, and other practices within conversations that shed light on the
structure and function of language.

Studying how conversation shapes and is shaped by social context, revealing the impact of
culture, power dynamics, and other factors on language use.

Analyzing the interactions between moods, emotions, and language, which can offer valuable
insights into the expressive potential of words and grammar.

What is discourse analysis?

Let’s start with the word “discourse”.
In its simplest form, discourse is verbal or written communication between people that goes
beyond a single sentence. Importantly, discourse is more than just language. The term
“language” can include all forms of linguistic and symbolic units (even things such as road
signs), and language studies can focus on the individual meanings of words. Discourse goes
beyond this and looks at the overall meanings conveyed by language in context. “Context”
here refers to the social, cultural, political, and historical background of the discourse, and
it is important to take this into account to understand underlying meanings expressed through
language.

A popular way of viewing discourse is as language used in specific social contexts, and as such
language serves as a means of prompting some form of social change or meeting some form
of goal.

When should you use discourse analysis?

There are many ways to analyze qualitative data (such as content analysis, narrative analysis,
and thematic analysis), so why should you choose discourse analysis? Well, as with all analysis
methods, the nature of your research aims, objectives and research questions (i.e. the purpose
of your research) will heavily influence the right choice of analysis method.
The purpose of discourse analysis is to investigate the functions of language (i.e., what
language is used for) and how meaning is constructed in different contexts, which, to recap,
include the social, cultural, political, and historical backgrounds of the discourse.
For example, if you were to study a politician’s speeches, you would need to situate these
speeches in their context, which would involve looking at the politician’s background and
views, the reasons for presenting the speech, the history or context of the audience, and the
country’s social and political history (just to name a few – there are always multiple contextual
factors).
Ethnography

Ethnography, descriptive study of a particular human society or the process of making such
a study. Contemporary ethnography is based almost entirely on fieldwork and requires the
complete immersion of the anthropologist in the culture and everyday life of the people
who are the subject of his study.

There has been some confusion regarding the terms ethnography and ethnology. The latter, a
term more widely used in Europe, encompasses the analytical and comparative study
of cultures in general, which in American usage is the academic field known as cultural
anthropology (in British usage, social anthropology). Increasingly, however, the distinction
between the two is coming to be seen as existing more in theory than in fact. Ethnography, by
virtue of its inter subjective nature, is necessarily comparative. Given that the anthropologist in
the field necessarily retains certain cultural biases, his observations and descriptions must, to a
certain degree, be comparative. Thus the formulating of generalizations about culture and the
drawing of comparisons inevitably become components of ethnography.

Ethnography is a qualitative method for collecting data often used in the social and behavioral
sciences. Data are collected through observations and interviews, which are then used to draw
conclusions about how societies and individuals function. Ethnographers observe life as it
happens instead of trying to manipulate it in a lab. Because of the unpredictability of life,
ethnographers often find is challenging to nail down their projects in a protocol for the Board to
review. Nevertheless, the Board needs a good explanation of a study in order to approve it.
Helping the Board to understand the parameters of the study, the situations in which the
participants will be contacted and will participate, and the risks involved will allow them to
approve studies where some flexibility is needed.

STIMULATED RECALL

WHAT IS STIMULATED RECALL?

The term ' stimulated recall ' has been used to denote a variety of techniques. Typically, it
involves the use of audiotapes or videotapes of skilled behavior, which are used to aid a
participant's recall of his thought processes at the time of that behavior.
Visual interpretation with special emphasis upon the analysis aspects and its implications
for decision making

Visual perception is the ability to interpret information and surroundings from the effects of
visible light reaching the eye.

Interpretation is the process of extraction of qualitative and quantitative information of objects

from aerial photographs or satellite images.

Visual image interpretation is very useful in various fields such as geography, geology,
agriculture, forestry, environment, ocean studies, wetlands,
Conservation of natural resources, urban and regional planning, defense and many other
purposes.

Interpretation technique requires extensive training and it is labour intensive. To translate

images into information, one should be well versed with both the subject knowledge and also the
image interpretation basics. For example, interpretation of geological features requires expertise
in geology along with image interpretation skill.