This is your first attempt of thematic analysis! Follow the instructions carefully.
- Read the assigned sections of Thematic Analysis of
Qualitative Data - Transcribe your interviews (use free auto-transcription software).
- Familiarize yourself with the transcripts of your interviews.
Read through them and reflect (review the notes you took at the time. What trends or patterns seemed to arise from responses in and across all the interviews? - Go through your transcripts and note each time that a code appears. You may make a note of it any way you prefer (post-it notes, insert comments in a document, highlight text, etc.). Add a few words to indicate what it means or why it is important (in relation to your research questions). These words are the codes you use in the next step.
- Review your list of codes for all interviews and the information you identified for each code. Sort them into themes (refer to p. 20 of your reading). Make sure each of these is related to the research question in some way.
- Create a brief title for each theme and write a good description of each.
- Finally, prepare your written thematic analysis document for this assignment! Refer to the next page for the format.
First, write each theme in bolded font. Under each theme’s name include a description of what the theme means for your study (your definition of the theme). In addition, include a few quotes/ excerpts from your interviews (use a bullet point for each quote, aim for 2-3 good quotes for each theme). These quotes should be descriptive of the theme and provide a good example of each.
Remember to include the participant number/ letter in parentheses after each quote.