TYPES OF NOTES Jotted notes written during the

TYPES OF NOTES • Jotted notes written during the interview – Brief – Exact words where possible • Transcript – record of what the person said – Base on jotted notes and memory – Write as soon as possible after interview – Include exact quotes and language – Do not include inferences here

TYPES OF NOTES, continued • Researcher inference notes: Your interpretation of (parts of the) transcript • Analytic notes: Your record of how you proceeded – How the research went – What decisions you made – Etc. • Personal notes are feelings and emotional reactions that color what a researcher sees or hears • These can all be combined, or kept separate from each other; must keep separate from transcript

CODING • ASSIGNING MEANING TO DATA • DATA: – TRANSCRIPT – QUOTES, EPISODES, ETC. • MEANING: CONCEPTS – IDEA – NAME – DEFINITION

CODING DATA • Initial coding (Open) – Code in margins of transcript – Create list of codes (on page, index cards, etc) – Codes range from concrete to abstract • Re-coding – Go back over coded transcripts – Add to, remove, change, combine, break apart initial codes • Final coding – Develop final list of codes, including hierarchies – Find examples (quotes, stories, episodes) that illustrate final codes

FINAL CODING • Use initial codes to ask key questions, and scan the data: – What is this a case of? What other cases are there? – What are the sub-categories of this case? – What are important comparisons, contrasts? • Note where you have data, where you do not

BUILD TOWARD • CLASSIFICATIONS – IDEAL-TYPES – TYPOLOGIES – SIMPLER SETS OF CATEGORIES • EMPIRICAL GENERALIZATIONS • HYPOTHESES

NESTED CODES 1. OPPORTUNITIES 1. 2. 2. CHALLENGES 1. 2. 3. STRATEGIES 1. 2. 3.

CODING – OBSERVATIONS • Make codes reasonably specific – “likes class discussion” not “likes” or “school” – If need be, include general and specific in the same code • E. g. “frustration – parking” not “frustration”