Interpreting and Writing up your Qualitative Findings

Focusing on developing explanations, drawing conclusions and writing up qualitative research findings, the course includes:

• explanation in qualitative research
• distillation of key themes and conclusions
• the challenge of qualitative reporting
• displaying qualitative evidence
• reviewing examples of qualitative writing.

Objectives

• to build on participants existing experience of analyzing qualitative data
• to show how main themes can be identified and conclusions drawn
• to demonstrate different ways of making and illustrating qualitative arguments
• to examine and review different styles and conventions in the presentation of qualitative findings

Course tutor

Liz Spencer is a Sociologist and a Fellow of both the Academy of Social Sciences and the Royal Society of Arts, who has specialised in qualitative methods since 1973. She has held research posts at a number of British universities, including the London School of Economics, The London Graduate School of Business Studies, The University of Kent and the University of Essex, and was a Research Director at the National Centre for Social Research. She teaches a range of short courses for the Social Research Association and for the Universities of Hong Kong, Fribourg, Aberdeen and Essex, and has been a Visiting Professor at the Institute for Higher Studies in Vienna.

Currently Liz is an independent research consultant and partner in Q2 training Complete. Her recent publications include Rethinking Friendship: Hidden Solidarities Today; chapters in Qualitative Research Practice (Ritchie et al 2013), and a report for the Cabinet Office on judging the quality of qualitative research and evaluation. Together with Jane Ritchie, she pioneered ‘Framework’, a matrix-based approach to data management and display.

www.the-sra.org.uk/training