The Interviews Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Interviews - Research Paper Example The first step in carrying out qualitative analysis of informal or semi-structured interview data is to read carefully the transcripts while making notations in the margins (Fields, 2008, p. 183-193). These printed copies of interview transcripts are useful for analysis before they can be entered into the database of the software. It is advisable to break the long respondent soliloquies into single paragraphs in order to reflect the transition from one idea to another. In case one is not using a computer software package for analysis, it would be easier to insert line numbers onto every page of the transcripts to help in referencing in the course of the analysis. The second step entails developing the observations into preliminary interpretive and descriptive categories based on evidence that is presented in the transcripts, the conceptual or theoretical framework used in guiding the research, as well as one’s literature review (Fields, 2008,p. 183-193). Observations made in the first step are extended until possibilities and implications are played out in full. It is prudent at this stage or level to examine additional transcripts in order to determine whether the notion expressed is uniform in the remainder of the sample. Here, there is more engagement with the computer software packages for analysis where documents are entered into the system, and a memo written for every one of them. The memos are derived from the researcher’s field notes, as well as any thoughts they have had concerning the respondent since the interview’s date. The third step of analyzing the qualitative data collected from informal, semi-structured interviews consists of a thorough examination of the preliminary codes developed to further review the interview text (Fields, 2008, p. 183-193). This is done in order to develop pattern codes and