Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

ANALYSIS OF QUALITATIVE DATA

FIGURE 1 Analytic Memos and Other Files

Organized by Date

or Data Source

Final

Report

Analytic

Memos

Filed by Concept

or Theme

Data

Notes

Other

Files

Filed by Purpose

Likewise, in the Knights of Labor study, I used tem-

perance to understand the major theme of failed

alliances and to understand another theme, sources

of division within the movement that were based on

ethnic or religious differences among members.

Analytic Memo Writing
In qualitative research, you are always writing
notes. You record data in notes, write comments on
method or research strategy in notes, and so on. You
need to be a compulsive note taker, keep notes orga-
nized in files, and create many files with different
subjects of the notes: a file on methodological issues
(e.g., locations of sources or ethical issues), a file of
maps or diagrams, a file on possible overall outlines
of a final report or chapter, a file on specific people
or events, and so on.
The analytic memo is a special type of note.^6 It
is a memo or discussion of thoughts and ideas about
the coding process that you write to yourself. Each
coded theme or concept forms the basis of a separate
memo. The memo is a discussion of the concept or
theme. Rough theoretical ideas form the beginning
of analytic memos.

The analytic memo links concrete data or raw

evidence to abstract, theoretical thinking (see Figure

1). It contains your reflections on and thinking about

the data and coding. Add to the memo and use it as

you pass through the data with each type of coding.

The memos form the basis for analyzing data in the

research report. In fact, rewritten sections from

good-quality analytic memos can become sections

of the final report.

The tools involved in writing analytic memos

are simple: pen and paper, a few notebooks, a stack

of file folders, and photocopies of notes. Some

researchers use computers, but it is not necessary.

There are many ways to write analytic memos; you

should develop your own style or method. See

Expansion Box 3, Suggestions for Analytic Memo

Writing, for concrete suggestions based on the

experience of others. Some researchers make mul-

tiple copies of notes and then cut them and place

various copies into an analytic memo file. This

works well if the physical files are large and ana-

lytic memos are kept distinct within the file (e.g.,

on different-colored paper or placed at the begin-

ning of the file). Other researchers list within the

analytic memo file locations in the data notes where