Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
9
ANALYZING THE
DATA
There is no department of inquiry in which it is not just as easy to miss the truth as
to find it, even when the materials from which truth is to be drawn are actually
present to our senses.
Harriet Martineau
Chapter summary
•
Selecting qualitative research software
•
Working with HyperResearch & NVivo
•
Working with quantitative research tools
So you've designed and developed your study, recruited participants, con-
ducted the research, and have begun to organize the subsequent mounds of
data. Now what? Obviously, we conduct research because we believe we'll val-
idate our suspicions about some phenomenon or arrive at a new understand-
ing about something. This leads us to the wonderful world of analysis.
There are a number of ways in which we can conduct analysis. Some of us
still use the tried and true paper and pencil methods, and maybe a calculator,
to quantify basic univariate statistical measures, while others organize note
cards and slips of paper that indicate ideas that emerged from interviews.
Today, however, the majority of us are more likely to start up our computer
and use some type of analytical tool designed for our particular method of
analysis. As a qualitative researcher, we might use HyperResearch to code and
organize our data. As a quantitative researcher, we might turn to SPSS or the
basic statistical functions in Microsoft's Excel. If we happen to be a fan of tri-
angulation, a research approach that involves the use of different research
methods as a means of improving research validity, we might even be using a
combination of the two.
Whatever our research endeavor, it will undoubtedly involve some type of
analysis. Even if we're an ethnographer who believes strongly that it is not our
place,asresearchers,tointerpretoranalyzeaparticipant'swords,butratherto
