Chapter 9

Blaxter,L., Hughes,C., Tight,M., 2010 How to Research. Fourth Edition. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Chapter 9

Again, as with the previous blog, this will be a typed up, clarified and thought about version of the notes I made whilst reading this.  Writing always helped me to clarify my thoughts on something.

So, what kind of data have i collected? - Qualitative.  Does this mean that it's exclusive to qualitative analysis only? No.  Numbers may come into it during the process, I may find that 2 out of 5 dramatherapists agreed with a certain idea and can use numbers to show this, so I mustn't rule numbers out completely and keep an open mind as to when they may actually be useful in conveying an idea and making my explanation understandable and valid.

In this chapter I found a very useful section giving detail into what exactly I am going to do...

Analysing Interviews.

1) ' Familiarising yourself with your data'

This has also been mentioned to me in an interview and is the reason I am taking the time to transcribe all of my interviews, not only for my analysis but so I can listen thoroughly, just a few words at a time, to all of my interviews again. So far I have found this very useful in picking up things that were not apparent to me the first time around.

2) ' Generating initial codes... coding interesting features of the data in a systematic way fashion across the entire data set...' 

Again, something mentioned to me in an interview and I mentioned it in my last blog.  I plan to be organised and systematic by colour coding and using highlighters to categorise sections of my data as I see it in chronological order first of all.

3) ' Searching for themes... Collating codes into potential themes. Gathering all data relevant to each potential theme'

By this point, I will have colour coded various different things and will now be finding the themes hidden in these sections.  I plan to do this in several ways, the first being very practical and literally piling all the themes together.  Then, I plan to stick with my organised themes and enter my themes into a word document so I can see them all together.

4) ' Reviewing themes... Checking if the themes work in relation to the coded extract' 

 An example of this for me might be reviewing a piece of data which I have originally put under the heading 'emotional literacy' and checking that it isn't better placed elsewhere.  This is an example of what a theme could potentially be just based on my thinking so far.  Imaging the situation in my head, physically seeing what I will do has always helped me to plan ahead.

5) ' Defining and renaming themes... Ongoing analysis to refine the specifics of each theme and the overall story the analysis tells, generating clear definitions and names for each theme' 

So, constantly re working and revisiting previous themes, this highlights the creativity aspect of analysis, something with is constantly being reshaped until the final product becomes more solidified... or until you say enough!

6) ' Producing the report... The final opportunity for analysis. Selection of vivid , compelling extract examples, final analysis of selected extracts relating back the analysis to the research question and literature, producing a scholarly report of the analysis.' 

Keeping that feel of creativity throughout and till the last moment.  Producing something that will link back to why I did what I did and what have I found out.  I particularly like the words vivid and compelling used in this section, something I will remember.  Yes, this is academic writing, does that mean it has to be boring? absolutely not! Quiet the opposite! I want to inspire my reader with the same passion for this subject as I have and say  Look! This is what I discovered and this is why it matters!

I would highly recommend this book to others on my BAPP course as i found it really helped to clear up the process for me, I was able to relate back the information and think about how it might work for my own particular research.  I will be referring back to my notes and this blog throughout my analytic process and using this as a resource.