I use NVivo because it gives me the option of creating models, which I find
interesting. However, I agree with Sarah Delaney that you can easily get
caught up in all the coding - it can get a little obssessional and you may
find yourself feeling pretty smug about having coded in depth all of your
interviews, but with little idea what to make of all those codes and
subcodes. In the end, excuse my stating the obvious, but these programmes
do not do the thinking for you. Even if you code, you must still interpret
and think...A very useful solution I have found to avoid the empty coding
obssession is to use the memo function to constantly take notes on my
general impressions and thoughts during reading and coding.
Good luck,
Esther Ehrensaft
----- Original Message -----
From: Sarah Delaney <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2001 4:49 AM
Subject: Re: choice of software
> I don't!! - Well, sort of - mainly agree with Susanne that using software
> saves you sooo much time and energy BUT don't forget the manual bits like
> reading them - I know it sounds obvious but sometimes especially when
under
> time pressure the temptation is to code like a mad thing and forget to
read
> them as a whole. Sometimes, if I'm feeling a bit fragmented, or I feel
that
> my understanding of the data is fragmented, I just sit and read the
> interviews and sketch out codes on a sample of them, i.e. just write
> possible codes at the side of the text - put the picture back together, so
> to speak....
>
> I always feel a bit fragmented!
>
> specially at the minute!!!
>
> Sarah Delaney
> Research Officer
> Health Services Research Centre
> Department of Psychology
> Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
> The Mercer Building
> Mercer Street Lower
> Dublin 2
> 00-353-1-4022121
> [log in to unmask]
>
> > ----------
> > From: Susanne Friese
> > Reply To: qual-software
> > Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2001 12:24 pm
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: choice of software
> >
> > > Essentially is it worthwhile to expend that time and
> > > effort in learning new software functions (and money
> > > on its purchase)? And is a manual approach (however
> > > modified) grossly antiquated in the 21st century!
> >
> > I would say - yes, in any case. I have sometimes been tempted to NOT go
> > through the effort of coding the data up in an CAQDAS package, if it was
> > just a small data set (oh yeah, this I can easily handle without
> > software).
> > Then I only found myself anoid, if I could not find text segments (or
only
> > after a lenghty search through the pages of text and my coding) that I
> > knew
> > that they were there somewhere. You need to spend the time coding anyway
> > (an
> > in your case another week or so on top to learn the software) - but
> > software
> > makes it so much easier later to retrieve that data. And that starts
> > already
> > when you just have simple queries. Asking more complex questions (in
your
> > case testing your hypothesis or research questions) is sometimes very
> > difficult to achieve using the old 'by hand' method. Software will
> > facilitate that by a great deal.
> >
> > I would also think that it is quite antiquated to use a manual approach
in
> > the 21st century (as you posed this question) - but then again, I am one
> > of
> > those persons that likes to play with new technologies....
> >
> > Susanne
> >
> >
>
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