ABSTRACT
I found my way into qualitative research, as I hope you will, through the research questions I raised. When I first brought my twenty questions to Margot, she looked at me and said, ‘Are you sure you want to do this research?’ This was not an auspicious beginning. Margot went on to explain that the questions were sound and reasonable, but much too specific, too ‘set’. At that time she had no idea how flexible I could be. Her point about the nature of the questions I asked, however, was to become one of the most important lessons I learned about data gathering. I will discuss these matters in this chapter.
