The Good, the Bad, and the Data

Data analysis is often the most difficult task facing students and novice qualitative researchers, including Shane the Lone Ethnographer-a grad student with fond visions of the Wild West-and her horse Transcriptor. In this comic-style textbook, we follow Shane as she attempts to corral her data and make sense of it for publication. Shane learns how to read, sort, code, write, and assess the analysis of a qualitative study in the traditions of ethnography, grounded theory, discourse, and narrative analysis. Along the trail, she receives helpful advice from experienced researchers who explain their analytic practices in detail. Written in a friendly, comic book style, Shane's Wild West adventures in data analysis will be both instructive and an enjoyable read.

Sally Campbell Pirie

Preface1. Showdown at the Coffeehouse (Introduction)2. On the Trail of the Lonesome Data Analyst: An overview of qualitative analytic strategy and assumptions3. They Coded With Their Boots On: Coding 1014. Write, Vaquero! Writing about data5. The Great Train Robbery: Doing basic narrative analysis6. The Discourse Kid: Doing basic discourse analysis7. Sure is Purdy, But Can You Eat It? Understanding and analyzing unwieldy data8. Calamity Shane! What to do when you suddenly realize something ain't right.9. Time to Hit the Old, Dusty Audit Trail: Reliability and validity concerns10. Return to the Cookbook of the Sierra Madre: Putting it all togetherAppendix: Shovels, Six-Guns and Spurs: Technology from PCs to Post-itsWorks Cited and Other Important Things for Further ReadingAbout the Author