Formats for analysis
However, to be able to analyse your data you must first of all produce it in a format that can be easily analyse. This might be a transcript from an interview or focus group, a series of written answers on an open-ended questionnaire, or field notes or memos written by the researcher. It is useful to write memos and notes as soon as you begin to collect data as these help to focus your mind and alert you to significant points which may be coming from the data. These memos and notes can be analysed along with your transcripts or questionnaires.
You can think of the different types of qualitative data analysis as positioned on a continuum At the one end are the highly qualitative, reflective types of analysis, whereas on the other end are those which treat the qualitative data in a quantitative way, by counting and coding data.