ENC 1102 - Composition II

Interviews can be helpful when you are looking for detailed information from a few specific people or when you want to ask experts about their opinions. When planning a successful interview:

• Determine the purpose of the interview and how it relates to your research question
• Plan well in advance, deciding the interview format (virtual or face-to-face) to use, the location, the length, and whether or not you will record it
• Prepare a list of factual and open-ended questions; consider whether you wish to conduct a structured or semi-structured interview
• Take careful notes, including the subject, date, time, and place of the interview
• Thank your interviewee.

There are two types of observation: participant observation and non-participant (or unobtrusive) observation. Participant observation is a common method of ethnographic research in sociology and anthropology, where a researcher may interact with the participants and become part of the community. In non-participant research, the researcher just records the participants' behavior and does not interact with them. Tips for successful observation include:

• Determine the purpose of the observation and how it relates to your research question
• Brainstorm about what you are looking for (but don't be too guided by your expectations)
• Develop a system for recording data to help reduce bias
  • Consider using a double-entry notebook, separating observations (what you see) and interpretations (judgments about what you see)
  • Organize your notes in chronological order, noting the day, time, and location the observation took place
  • Set aside time after each observation to review your notes and expand them into descriptive narrative form
  • Describe your observations with rich adjectives and details rather than abstract, evaluative, or summative phrases

See additional resources below.

Surveys are helpful to learn about general trends in people's opinions, experiences, and behavior. To conduct an effective survey, follow these steps:

• Write out the purpose of the survey, determine what population you want to survey, and what kinds of questions (open or closed-ended questions) to ask
• Determine how to administer your survey (in person, over the phone, through email, etc.)
• Draft your questions
  • keep your survey short and focused
• Test your questions on a small group and revise based on their feedback
• Proofread your survey carefully before distributing it.

After gathering interview responses, observations, survey responses of open-ended questions, you will need to organize and analyze your data. This process is called coding. 

Denny & Clark (2002) identify the following steps to code qualitative data:

1. Organize and prepare the data

   1. Anonymizing data (removing names) to avoid identifying participants and reduce researcher bias

2. Reading through all the data
   1. Make notations as you read
   2. Recognize trends, patterns, or recurring features
3. Doing detailed coding analysis of the data
   1. Initial (or open) coding (grounded theory method): being "open" to codes and categories that develop out of the data, research begins with the data and generates codes from that
4. Using codes to create a description using categories, themes, settings, or people
5. Interpreting coded data

In  The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers, Saldana (2021) identifies 7 personal attributes qualitative researchers should possess, especially in terms of coding. 

1. You need to be organized.
2. You need to exercise perseverance.
3. You need to be able to deal with ambiguity.
4. You need to exercise flexibility.
5. You need to be creative.
6. You need to be rigorously ethical.
7. You need an extensive vocabulary.