-
Create a documentation of the data and the process of data collection.
-
Analyze the data rather than just describing it - use it to tell a story that focuses on answering the research question.
-
Use charts or tables to help the reader understand the data and then highlight the most interesting findings.
- Don’t get bogged down in the detail - tell the reader about the main themes as they relate to the research question, rather than reporting everything that survey respondents or interviewees said.
- State that ‘most people said …’ or ‘few people felt …’ rather than giving the number of people who said a particular thing.
- Use brief quotes where these illustrate a particular point really well.
- Respect confidentiality - you could attribute a quote to 'a faculty member', ‘a student’, or 'a customer' rather than ‘Dr. Nicholls.'
