Hi all,

Been a lurker but felt the need to sign up and post today! I am a current MPhil student (just MPhil at the moment unless I find some funding).

I'm a qualitative researcher, and today had a bit of a nightmare. I have completed 6 interviews and transcribed, all sound good. Today I had the last interview, all went well until I rounded the interview off, and my heart sinks. The dictaphone is off for some reason, gutted! I do not tell the participant as I do not want him to worry or think it is a waste of time. So anyway, I switch back on the dictaphone as I get outside... it still has two bars of battery so that wasn't the problem. I've listened back and 5 minutes of the interview has been recorded and then it just goes blank and goes off. No one touched the recorder or anything, must be some kind of malfunction that has happened?

This ever happened to anyone else? I've wrote the notes up from the interview from what I can remember, and I am going to email the transcript of the 5 minutes and what I can remember from the interview to the participant, to see if he agrees with the jist with what is said. Will this be acceptable?

Thanks in advance.

Something like this has never happened to me as I don't do that kind of research but I think what you've said about emailing the transcript and summerising the rest to see if they agree sounds fine.

Agreed (though again, not my field). It may be advisable to mention this in your write up though.

I think some qualitative researchers use two recording devices for this kind of reason. Might be worth considering.