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. OPPORTUNITIES1. 2.

1. 2.

2. CHALLENGES1. 2.

3. STRATEGIES1. 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”