QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
General Information and Examples
Definition
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Qualitative Research involves in-depth study of one or a few instances
of a phenomena so as to generate descriptions of characteristics of that
phenomena for later analysis.
Qualitative Research is about the quality of the data about the
phenomena rather than a quantity of the phenomena. Description and
what patterns you share with an audience is what provides it with
credibility.
Qualitative research is best for capturing WHY a phenomenon occurs.
Example research approaches that are usually qualitative in nature:
 Case Study
 Ethnography
 Interview
 Participant Observer
 Autoethnography
Common Examples
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Case Study – one “case” or instance of a phenomena in a real
world setting that is described and analyzed.
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Ethnography – a comprehensive and long-term description and
analysis of a group of cases in a real world setting.
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Coming of Age in Samoa by Margaret Mead
Interview – conversation, question and answer data attained
from one or more people.
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The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks
Most any profile or Q&A. Articles in newspapers and magazines.
Participant Observer – Observation or case study research in
which the researcher is a participant in the activity.
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Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
What is Important in Qualitative
Research
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“Thick Description” (Clifford Geertz) – describe not only the phenomena
that you are observing but the context as well.
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For example, imagine a classroom: you would describe not only the phenomena
you set out to observe (your hunch, say, gender and teacher interaction) but the
classroom layout, time of day, temperature, clothing, time in term, observable
actions (whispering, talking, passing notes, internet surfing), teacher movement,
student movement, etc. The context may be more influential than what you
thought was your hunch.
You are trying to capture as much detail as possible, so create a shorthand
or abbreviations before the observation or interview so to allow you to
better capture as much of the phenomena as possible.
Avoid evaluative or analytical comments during the observation or
interview. You are recording the event. You will analyze it later.
When you do get to the analysis stage, you are looking for patterns, things
that occurred or contributed to an occurrence in numbers too great to be
attributed to chance.
Concerns and Issues
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Qualitative Research is about the quality of the data rather than something that is
quantified. Description and what patterns you share with an audience is what
provides it with credibility.
Qualitative Research is usually inductive, which is to say that you observe a
behavior or phenomena with a hunch, but you have no idea what you are going to
find. You aren’t testing anything. Remember, you are looking for patterns in your
description of an event after you have observed it.
It is possible to do case studies and observational quantitative research. These
studies would be quantitative in nature (note, in all these cases we are just counting
the phenomena, not describing it):
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Counting people who don’t wait for the light before crossing at Evans
Counting the number of men to the number of women who order “fancy” coffee drinks at
Jazzman’s
Observing classrooms of different numbers of students to count who raises their hands the
most, small classes or large classes.
If you are observing a location that is not normally open to the public, as in behind
the scenes at a place of business or organization, then you will need permission
from a supervisor or the person who allowed you to observe the location.
You won’t be able to use everything in your assignment, but you have to set out to
record everything in your observation or interview.
OBSERVATION AND
INTERVIEWS
Conducting, Examples, and Writing
Observations
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You are trying to observe behavior or phenomena in a natural setting,
and you don’t want to disrupt that setting. Hiding in the bushes is not as
inconspicuous as it may seem (wouldn’t you call the cops if you saw
somebody hiding in the bushes?)
Be in plain sight but not obviously watching any one thing or person.
Take notes, but don’t be obvious that you are taking notes about any
one thing or person.
Never record an observation with video or audio.
Be safe. That means, no hanging off the edge of a roof to observe
behavior, skulking around dorm windows at night, or parking in front of
the elementary school with a pair of binoculars and a bag of M&M's
(all activities that would put you at risk greater than that of everyday
life).
Example Observations
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Observing how a player interacts with the game
interface or game world
Observing how characters are “attacking” targets.
Observing the patterns of chat in the game and
comparing those patterns based on location.
Observing how different classes, races, factions
interact in a group setting.
Writing the Observation into your
Assignment
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It depends on the rhetorical situation.
You have to describe for your audiences the relevant details that you observed so they may
see the same pattern you see. Do not leave relevant details out.
Save your analysis for after the description, or frame the description of your analysis with a
lead and a follow-up. Do not interpret every line. Paint the picture first, describe what it
means after.
 See Ehrenreich excerpt from Nickel and Dimed
Your purpose should be served by your analysis and your analysis your purpose. In other
words, you are using this data as evidence for your argument, so make your point, support
your point with your description/analysis, and then connect the two.
Details first, and you should provide context. You should use schema such as, “In an
observation I conducted on [blah], I observed [blah].”
Interpretation or analysis uses adverbs of possibility (maybe, possibly, etc.), modals (could,
might, should) and hedges (about, possible). Here is an example:
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While observing the cook at the waffle house, I noticed that he would place butter packets on
the top of the plate for every order of waffles and a packet of butter at the bottom of the
plate for every order of pancakes that was called in by the waitress. This could be the system
that the cook uses to remember the orders, or it could, in fact, by the system the company trains
its employees to use.
Interviews
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Don’t conduct impromptu interviews. People are busy and just showing up to conduct an
interview is rude and may lead to a rushed set of responses. Conduct this interview as a
professional. Show up early with a prepared set of questions.
Don’t interview family members or friends. Interviewing your friend about parking at DU isn’t
useful nor is interviewing a family member about being a parent. However, you might
interview a close friend or relative if they are in a unique position to respond to the interview.
Interviewing a friend who works at the movie theater about the number of people who sneak
food into the theater is ok.
Don’t record an interview unless the interviewee has agreed to this. While most people might
be receptive to being taped, some people do not approve. Always treat an interviewee with
respect and do not pressure him/her.
If you are recording, do not rely on the recording device. You should take notes and lots of
them.
Don’t forget to have your interviewee provide written consent to the interview. You must have
the interviewee sign the permission. A project without this signed consent will not be accepted.
Interviews conducted in the game are different because of implicit anonymity.
Always remember The Deal – people are giving up their time to help you out, so help them out
by treating them and their responses fairly in your written work. You might even tell them that
you will send the person a finished copy of your assignment before you turn it in.
Interview Questions
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Try to avoid questions that force the interviewee into one answer. Leading questions or limiting questions
don’t allow the interviewee to really answer how he or she would normally answer.
Construct questions that allow the interviewee to say a lot. Think of a reporter’s questions--who, how, what,
why, where, when—as guides to constructing questions. What does this all mean? Well, instead of starting
with “What role does education play in law?” Try and build up to such a question by asking a series of
questions such as, “What is your education background? What subjects have been most helpful in your
career? How do you think it benefits your profession to have certain subjects dedicated to your field?”
Your lead question is important. Ideally, it should establish why you are asking the questions and why you
are asking the questions of that particular person; most importantly, it should be answerable.
 “I’m currently working on a research project at the University of Denver, and I wanted to interview you
regarding this project?
Don’t be limited by the questions you wrote out beforehand. It’s more important to follow the conversation.
Two questions you should always have prepared are, “Can you give an example?” and “Could you tell more
about what you just said?”
Have an “ender” question so that the interviewee can sense when the interview is over and he/she can share
any last tidbit that he/she was thinking.
 Columbo approach: “I think that is about it. However, I did want to ask you one more thing?”
 Elise Hancock: “One last question. Is there anything that I should have asked you but didn’t?”
 “As a final question, what is the most important part about X that you think people should know?”
Always thank your interviewee for his/her time and make sure he or she has your contact information in case
they think of anything else
Example Interviews
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Interviewing a player about why he/she chooses to
interact with the game a particular way.
Interviewing a player about his/her “rotation” or
preferences for leveling/playing.
Interviewing player characters about chat and
social preferences in the game
Following up after an observation has been
analyzed to confirm or gain further insight into
something observed.
Writing the Interview into your
Assignment
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It depends on the rhetorical situation.
Interviewer questions are sometimes as important as the interviewee’s
responses. Use your best judgment and imagine yourself as a reader:
would I know what the person is talking about if I hadn’t heard the
question?
The length of the interview is not related to the length of the
assignment. Sometimes a 30 minute interview will result in one usable
quote. That’s ok. You are using this as evidence for your argument. If
you were writing a profile, you would ask different things and focus on
different responses. In this case, you are not.
Make sure you provide background, credentials and context for your
audience in your interview. You should write schema such as, “in an
interview with [name], a [job/position] at [location].” However, you can
only use the person’s name if they sign the appropriate line on the IRB
form or, in the game, provide permission for you to use their character
name.