Ways A Researcher Could Manage And Organize Qualitative Data Essay Examples

Qualitative Data Management and Organization

Qualitative data is often overwhelming to the researcher most especially in large-scale researches. Unlike quantitative data, text-based data entails a lot of work for it to produce meaningful results. After the process of data collection, the researcher needs to organize and manage the information for it to be meaningful.
According to White, Oelke, and Friesen (2012), developing a coherent and useful system for naming the files is the first critical step in managing and organizing qualitative data. For instance, a researcher can use the file-naming regime of the initials of the collector and the date and use it as the standard naming system for all the qualitative data files. After that, he or she should also create a definitive procedure for changing raw data into meaningful information such as the process of data transcription into electronic materials then categorizing and coding the relevant ones. After the process of data coding, one needs to pull and sort them out by transferring the marked data into a named document according to the keyword or category.
And finally, the process of analysis and interpretation is imperative since it makes significant the information one gets from the collected data (White, Oelke & Friesen, 2012). This step entails making sense of the results by searching for the fundamental causes that brought about the results hence the drawn conclusions. This final step would help the researcher to uncover any misconceptions and single out the essential things that one had no prior knowledge to but are paramount to the research. Also, this step is aimed at confirming what one may already know. Therefore, once a researcher has collected raw data, he or she should organize and manage the information and later analyze it to give it some importance and meaning.

Reference

White, D., Oelke, N., & Friesen, S. (2012). Management of a Large Qualitative Data Set: Establishing Trustworthiness of the Data. International Journal Of Qualitative Methods, 11(3), 244-258.