Coding and Retrieving Data
At a very elementary level, computer software can provide counts of how often particular words or phrases appear in a text or field notes and which words and phrases tend to appear together or near one another in the text. However, most qualitative data analysis uresearcher in creating and using a coding scheme and coding the qualitative data. To do this, the research displays the text on the screen and selects a portion of interest. In some software, this is done by blocking the section of text on the screen much the way you block a section of text in a word processor to copy it or cut it; other software automatically divides the text into sections based on lines, sentences, or paragraphs, and then you place a market at the beginning or end of the section you want to assign a code to. For example, a section of text describing the way a mother disapproved of her daughter’s behavior could be selected and marked with a code for “mother disapproval of daughter behavior.” CAQDA software can then search through the text identifying and counting the number of times various codes appear in field notes. Advanced software can analyze whether certain words, phrases, or codes tend to be used together, how far apart from one another they tend to be used. Whether word or codes used in a text tend to be positively or negatively evaluated, and whether certain word or codes tend to be associated with certain other words or codes (Kelle, 1995 ; Weitzman and Miles, 1995; Evans, 1996). Some software assistsin the coding with search procedures and what are called “ wild cards.” So, if you request a search for “moth”, the program will go though the field notes and identify all words that begin with “moth” and display them. Such a search might produce such words as “mother,” “motherly,” “motherhood,” and “motherballs,” and you can decide which code to assign to each one.