I'm writing up my qualitative findings - bear in mind that this is only 1 out of 3 studies in my thesis.

The word count looks like its getting long. Much of this is quotes, but I feel like they make the explanations much richer and provide context to the list of themes I have.

How long do findings sections tend to be? :$

My thesis was short (10,000 words below departmental lower limit), and mostly qualitative. I think I wrote far too concisely ...

Sorry, that probably doesn't help :$

Hey Sneaks, how long is long? I only have one small qualitative study in my thesis (1 qual results chapter vs 4 quant results chapters!) and it's about 10,000 words. It was accepted for publication at that length, although I had to be quite selective about the journal- not that many journals in my field allow a 10,000 word paper (excl refs and figures). One comment I had at peer-review was to make my quotes longer to provide more context, so I wouldn't skimp on that too much. I guess the main thing I had to cut down on was giving two or three quotes that I really liked, where in fact just one would have done the job. Personally, I would keep writing the paper as you are doing and then look at the word count at the end. That way you've got everything down that you wanted to say, and if it's too long then you can think about how to edit. Can you get an idea from your sup or a previous PhD student regarding how long it should be? Best, KB

well, I wrote the chapter up for publication and it was about 6000 in total. BUT I'm now going back, I've extended the method and analysis a lot, this is mainly because qualitative in my field isn't as well known as quantitative and even my sup - who does qual work, is asking me why I haven't calculated inter-rater reliability etc. even when I explain that actually my work isn't quantifiable like that, so I've needed a lot of words to explain the process. Method and analysis currently stands at 2,600.

Findings - I have 5 themes, so far I've done 2 and its 2,400, so that's over 5,000 already, without intro (although that will be short as it leads straight from lit review), or discussion!

my study is completely qual so it's a bit different from mixed reporting. But my supv said the same as KB's - use more quotes! I thought that I had used a lot already but he said more, more, more!! One thing he did say which might apply was that 'roughly' my findings should match my theory and methodology chapters in terms of length.

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My research was entirely qualitative and it has been hard to keep my thesis to the limit. I'm currently making final changes and it's 100,674 words. The findings chapter vary but on average they are 10,000 each. I think the longest is about 12,000 and the shortest is just under 8,000.

well I want to keep it to 12000 or under really, will report back and see where I've got!

This is a major problem. Qualitative analysis is poorly-understood by researchers. It's got to be 'rich, and 'thick'.
The NVivo program for a start, works on the quantitative assumption of parsimony, and one of the things I hate about Miles and Huberman is that they use this basic quantitative theory to try to squeeze real qualitative interview data into this mean analysis. I believe you can't do that. To present qualitative data, you have to keep the data holistic to the very last moment of analysis. Don't try to chunk it into nodes. I know this is a very personal viewpoint, but the gift in doing qualitative data collection and analysis is to understand that words are only useful in context, because meaning is always deferred.
I did very few interviews in my qualitative thesis - 20 in all - and these were retained in full to the end, and quotes were long. That way, I could show the complexities in the presentation of beliefs, and demonstrate that they were all internally contradictory. One of the research gurus, I forget which one, said that you only realise that you have too many interviews when you get to the point of analysis. As a journalist, I knew that, and limited the interviews. My super thought I had too few. My examiners admired the complexities I uncovered.
BUT, I've also helped out on a PhD which was done in NVivo, and to my mind it missed the point. The girl had ripped the 6-word quotes from their context, lost the emotional messages that were sent out by the over-coded analysis, and only 'got' it when I pointed out that qualitative is about meaning-exploration and therefore the 'means', rather than a reduction and code. She got it in the end, and her PhD is really good.
My first two degrees are in Humanities, and social science did my head in. It's so unsophisticated! Jane Austin wrote about 'this little piece of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush'. That's qualitative analysis.
So, nice big chunks of quotes, in context, finely explored, but well chosen. That's the secret. But it does use up your wordage!
I ended up with 92,000 after ditching 45,000. The examiners let me off the extra words.

"Austen". I'm tired. Should go to bed. It's been a long and hard day.:-(

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Even if you are not using grounded theory, the Charmaz book on Constructivist Grounded Theory has some wonderful chapters on how to effectivly present qualitative data ( ie interview data). Her presentation guidelines would be helpful for any qualitative data, not just grounded theory work, and I would strongly recommend her to anyone looking to write up qualitative results.

(I like Charmaz's overall approach to research where she emphasises the joy in discovery, the creative process that is part of ANY research...she gives ways to think about things that make them positive and interesting, not frustrating and soul destroying...sorry, just an aside there).

PS--I agree with the post about NVivo...
I personally ran as far as I could from using computer programs to code data when I did my PhD. I hated the program, to start with, found it clunky and difficult to use, that it interfered with my own thought processes, and made it very difficult to do analysis...
I stuck to pen and paper and was happier with the results. All NVivo was to me was a jumped up coloured marker made complicated. I know some people like it and can use it, its horse for courses... I was a little horrified with the academic mindset that somehow technical gizmos made for better analysis and had to defend my non use of this program...
For that matter, I am happier composing drafts in hard copy and in editing in hard copy...perhaps just an age thing!

My data chapters range from 7000 to 12000. I aimed for roughly 10000 per chapter. I have a lot of data extracts transcribed using the Jefferson system (so often a lexical item won't be counted as one word) which I don't think are included in my final word count. I'm coming up to final draft stage so I had better make sure though, thanks for bringing it to my attention!

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ok, so now I'm stuck with quoting etiquette. I have a really good quote, with a load of faff in between so e.g.

"fish really have been a life saver for many penguins at the south pole, of course penguins are also chocolate bars, and you can nibble the ends off and dip them in tea and suck the tea through them, anyway, the fish provide penguins with yummy food"

Can I change that to..

"fish really have been a life saver for penguins at the south pole...the fish provide penguins with yummy food"

Or is that taking it out of context and being a bit naughty with the data?

not having the actual quote it's hard to assess. I try not to truncate quotes as I do think it's playing around with things. I have shortened some but not many. I don't correct particpants' grammar or tidy the quotes up.

I try not to truncate quotes, either, but in the case you illustrate, I'd say that was totally acceptable truncation, in context. However, if you were writing about the way people can digress and faff during an interview, then the quote in full would be useful as it illustrates that point.:-)

Ady, that was the actual quote :p nah, only kidding - wish it was though!

How about doing something like

"fish really have been a life saver for many penguins at the south pole, of course penguins are also chocolate bars, and you can nibble the ends off and dip them in tea and suck the tea through them, anyway, the fish provide penguins with yummy food"

Can I change that to..