Hi All

I am just about to start writing my 'presentation of findings' chapter. I used grounded theory for data collection and analysis and did 10 non-participant observations, followed by ~60 semi-structured interviews. I'm trying to get a feel for how best to present my findings and then the analysis but inspiration seems to be sorely lacking today. I've skimmed through some theses online but am feeling a bit overwhelmed :-(

Any advice/tips/ideas - gratefully received - even from those not using Grounded theory. How to present qualitative findings in an interesting way, or is it just me who feels lost????

Hi Ady

I am feeling exactly the same - not that that is much help to you! I am not using grounded theory but I have decided to arrange my analysis chapters around my 3 research questions. So i will have a chapter for addressing each question and then a final discussion chapter to pull it all together. I conducted interviews as the main part of my research collection. I think it is difficult to get your head around the analysis and how to structure it so I am hoping once i get writing i find some inspiration from somewhere! :)

Hi Ady,

That's a lot of data, don't envy you but there is hope. 

I don't know about an 'interesting way' but depending on your approach / question could you structure them around themes - like before, during and after. Or  past, present and future.   Or Why, what and when ? and maybe who?  

You could look to your literature or your methodological approach too and see if there is a structure that you can use that will continue a theme - helps with the feeling of flow, the elusive golden thread. 

Feeling lost is good, anything else and you'll learn nothing !  at least that's what i kept telling myself.

All the best,  Chuff

Thanks SarahLouise and Chuff - yep it's a lot of data all right :-(. I do feel that I know it pretty well and even now looking back over the names of my interviewees I can remember being in that sitting room or that kitchen etc even though some of them took place over a year ago. A friend of mine told me once that "you know your data best" and to be honest I do - it's just a bit daunting. I have grounded theory guiding me overall but then I will also have to incorporate some additional layers of theory about particular aspects of my research and I'm a bit all over the place. GT allows for that; it's just that none of the text books advise how to present it!!

I've given myself a metaphorical kick and aim to get myself sorted by the end of this week, to start writing by next week, to have a draft of this done by Easter. That would be all my PhD written save for my conclusion chapter so that's incentive enough.

:-)

I have 40 interviews to present. I've done my 'themes' in a table and then discussed each major theme in my 'findings' section - with quotes to make the points clearer.

I found the best way was to trawl journal articles in my discipline using the same technique and look at how it had been presented - and then hopefully it will be in a 'correct' format that the examiners will be familiar with.

Thanks Sneaks, I'll do that, it's worth a try. I hate this foundering feeling :-(

I know what you mean, my post probably makes it sound easy, but I'm STILL reworking the findings section -I think I'm on about my 20th re-write of it!

======= Date Modified 15 Mar 2011 11:06:20 =======
Ady, check out if you can get access to it--Kathy Charmaz's book on Constructive Grounded Theory. She has a few chapters about presenting interview findings, which I have found to be very helpful. I myself did qualitative analysis using grounded theory--and I presented my work to support my grounded theory using a Strauss-Corbin tool of "relational statements".

There is some split about whether or not to use "raw" interview data in presenting findings ( ie quotes from interviews rather than your own analysis OF the interview data. Charmaz does use quotes. --others in the field do not. A very helpful article is
Roy Suddaby, 'What Grounded Theory is Not' (2006) 49(2) Academy of Management Journal 633.
Don't be put off by the title of the publication--this article is a gem, and very instructive on how to present grounded theory research findings.
Hope this helps!

As always Olivia, really good recommendations (up)

I have Kathy Charmaz's book and am now reading through her 'writing the draft' chapter. I have just downloaded Suddaby's article but it looks familiar. Sure enough, I found it in my 'TBR' pile of articles. I must have downloaded it before - but have no memory of that :$ I WILL read it today!

Thanks, Ady, I hope that helps. There are lots of good articles out there that both present interview data from grounded theory work, and discuss HOW to present data in grounded theory work. If you need any suggestions let me know ( though this would mean having to --eeek----touch my thesis to look in the bibliography---and one year post PhD award---eeek---I still hate to go near the thing...but if needs must :p )

======= Date Modified 15 Mar 2011 19:13:25 =======
Thanks for the offer Olivia but I wouldn't ask you to do that. I can barely stand looking at my Bibliography sometimes and I'm pre, not post submission. The Suddeby article (I read it today:-) ) pointed me to three specific articles (recommended by Suddeby himself) where the authors are transparent about how they did things and per him, also presented their findings really well and crucially (for me) very clearly.

Thanks again for the help

A

Note to self: must stop [over]using brackets!! :$