Steps of qualitative data analysis as outlined in four popular textbooks7 8 19 22
| Merriam and Tisdell8 | Creswell and Poth7 | Marshall and Rossman22 | Creswell and Guetterman19 |
| Identifying segments or units of data responsive to research questions. | Managing and organising the data. | Organising the data. | Preparing and organising the data for analysis. |
| Category construction (coding). | Reading and memoing emergent ideas. | Immersion in the data. | Initial exploration of the data through the process of coding. |
| Sorting categories and data. | Describing and classifying codes into themes. | Generating case summaries and possible categories and themes. | Using codes to develop descriptions and themes. |
| Naming the categories. | Developing and assessing interpretations. | Coding the data. | Representing the findings through narratives and visuals. |
| How many categories? (narrowing the focus). | Representing and visualising the data. | Offering interpretations through analytical memos. | Interpreting the meaning of the results through personal reflection and use of literature. |
| Becoming more theoretical (levels of data analysis in qualitative research). | Searching for alternative understandings. | Conducting strategies to validate the accuracy of the findings. | |
| Writing the report. |