ABSTRACT
For most qualitative researchers, data analysis is the point at which all of your organizational, conceptual, and intellectual skills are truly put to the test, and it is easy for newer researchers to be daunted by the challenge. In this first of two chapters on data analysis, we focus on the early stages of organizing and sorting the body of material you are accumulating so that you can inform the ongoing data collection process on the basis of evolving learnings and set the stage for ultimately working with the data to produce findings. In this context, we consider the implications of various coding and data management options so that informed choices can be made.
