Monday, January 08, 2007

Taking shape but still a sack

Why can't you copy and paste text from Microsoft Word for Mac into a blogger post? I have to take an indirect route by pasting text in my stickies first and then copying and pasting it into the post. I thought the problem might disappear when I upgraded my Mac OS but alas no. Anyway, that's not what I wanted to say.

I’m now up to the tenth interview processed. This process I’ve been undertaking constitutes my analysis to date. It has become somewhat systemitized as I've evolved my own special analytical method. I listen to the recorded interview, compare it to the typed up transcript and attempt to correct typos and fill in inaudible sections. This is not done very easily since whatever the transcriber couldn't make out I generally can't make out either. I make handwritten notes – to mark the main quotations and answers in the text in my exercise book. I then type up the notes by reading through the transcript again and simultaneously extract relevant and interesting quotes into examples and issues (if the quotes aren’t likely to be used in my thesis for example).

I am mindful of the kinds of issues that might be useful for the organisation in relation to potential recommendations about how to develop their IT system and strategies and note these below my other observations. I have started to index all of these example quotes and issues under major headings.

Something is starting to emerge. What it is I'm not quite sure. At the moment it’s so embryonic its difficult to say what it is or what shape it has. Maybe a sack. My thesis is a sack. My supervisor tried to help me transform it into chapter headings for my thesis the other day. I so wish the material would fit neatly under these headings and I have redone my thesis table of contents based on these headings but alas, I’m not so sure they do very well...

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