ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews key issues in the analysis of qualitative research data, and considers the issue of how one might tell whether this had been done well or badly. The introduction of audio- and video-recording technologies to qualitative research has made possible a number of innovations in the process of analysis. The chapter examines these innovations in some detail, partly to underline the extent to which qualitative work can, and has, moved away from some of the intuitive traditions discussed. The practice of analysis involves searching for ways to reduce the "full weight of evidence" to manageable proportions for a final report and to demonstrate the researcher's credibility to the reader. In discussing the credibility of the researcher, good work is in part an ethical commitment. Qualitative methods are often thought to present special ethical problems. The chapter argues that some of this concern is misplaced.
