Have a look at the following question. This is an example of
misunderstanding of qualitative research.
At 01:21 PM 8/12/02 +0100, you wrote:
> > Dear Qualitative List,
> > If one wanted to assess the "richness" of narrative reports using a
> > qualitative data analysis program, which program would you recommend? To
> > provide some context, I am conducting a study where participants will be
> > randomly assigned to one of two conditions and asked to provide a
>narrative
> > report of an event that they have experienced. My research question
>concerns
> > whether there are differences in the "richness" of reports depending on
>the
> > condition to which the participants were assigned. Thank you in advance.
> >
>
>Jason - I agree with much that Harriet Meek said earlier in response to
>this. Her questions and comments about definition and criteria of richness
>being central to a helpful answer about software. It would also be helpful
>to know in what context you 'imagined' a software program could help you
>assess 'richness'. A couple of extra questions I'd want to ask - how big the
>dataset ? what is your disciplinary background? what is the epistemological
>background to your study? I only ask because I think its useful to be clear
>about what you don't need as well as what you might need. I was once
>involved very peripherally with someone who had a fairly small data set - 12
>or so interviews based on interviewees' responses to vignettes concerning
>moral dilemmas. She began (this was 5 years ago) using a software to 'code'
>ideas, themes, issues observed in the data. Then midway thro her analysis
>and after extensive use of Nud.ist, after advice from supervisors, she
>started to rethink her approach. She realised that she actually wanted to
>start all over again - looking at the language and style of expression from
>a much more discourse analysis perspective. She stopped using any software
>package at all except for 'Word', and simply broke down each sentence or
>phrase with long, in depth written analysis of what 'work' was going on in
>each statement. There was always going to be limit to how much a software
>program like NUD*ISt could support that approach, but she wasn't clear
>enough about what her approach was, before she started.
>Some software programs are designed to help you 'manage 'and process large
>volumes of text - but the trade off is, that you lose touchy feely contact
>with how you can physically 'handle' and 'annotate' the text.
>
>NOW... 5 years later, there are software packages that might have helped her
>handle her data in more flexible ways. In any of the 'rich text format'
>softwares, MAXqda, NVivo (parallel stream package to Nudist) she could have
>had both the touchy feely ability to mark and colour her text and break it
>down phrase by phrase, with embedded written analysis (or more hidden
>annotations)...but also have used parallel, traditional coding/retrieval
>devices if she had wanted, to help her 'manage' other aspects of her data.
>Rather differently, ATLAS.ti, though not quite yet rich text format -
>provides efficient ways to set up linked passages (hyperlinks) of say,
>'trails thro the data' the sequence of which you want to preserve (when
>re-examining them. This is the restriction with coding... this fragments
>the text and tends to retrieve the text fragments in 'text' order - not so
>helpful with narrative.
>
>.... hope that helps to contextualise some of the issues you may need to
>consider -
>I suppose what I am saying also is that - the management of your data is
>important - and this is what CAQDAS softwares tend to do well. But ask
>yourself what you were hoping it could do for you?
>
>All these packages are very dependent on you thought processes - nothing
>happens automatically. There are some packages (investigate Diction 4 for
>instance which analyses the tone, or confidence level - based on pattern
>recognition etc - used in management contexts) ...but I'd hesitate though
>before recommending it as a flexible data management tool.
>
>
>cheers
>Ann Lewins
>
>
>CAQDAS Networking Project: http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/caqdas/
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>Dept of Sociology
>University of Surrey
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