Note: The top of the tree in NUD*IST is referred to as the root, or firth, level! The next, lower, level in the hierarchy is the second level, etc. This is the reverse of the way in which trees grow; and also of how we usually think of hierarchies (although a familiar usage in computer file organization).
Making memos in NUD*IST
The making of memos plays an important part in the practice of qualitative flexible design research generally and is central to the analysis qualitative data. Traditionally, this is carried out in field notebooks, on odd pieces of paper, etc. Memos provide ways of capturing insights and surmises occurring both in the field and when analyzing the data, which can all too easily be lost if not written down straight away. Miles and Huberman (1994) suggest ways of systematizing this process, which is also integral to the grounded theory school; see p. 473 below.
Traditional paper-based approaches to taking memos can still be used with NUD*IST through the ‘external document’ route. Or, if the notes can either be produced as a word processed or other computer file, or can be transformed into one, they can be internal fully searchable documents. There are other possibilities with NUD*IST: