Five ways of organizing and presenting data analysis

Five ways of organizing and presenting data analysis

1. We present five ways of organizing and presenting analysis as follows: the first two methods are by people, and the next two methods are by issue, and the final method is by instrument

   • The first way of organizing data is through a qualitative data analysis - by groups. The advantage of this method is that it automatically groups the data and enables themes, patterns and similar to be seen at a glance. this method is often used in relation to a single-instrument approach, otherwise it becomes unwieldy (for example, trying to put together the data derived from qualitative questionnaires, interviews and observations could be very cumbersome in this approach).

2. A second way of organizing the data analysis is by individuals. Here the total responses of a single participant are presented, and then the analysis moves on to the next individual. This preserves the coherence and integrity of the individual’s response and enables a whole picture of that person to be presented, which may be important for the researcher.

3. A third way of organizing the data is to present all the data that are relevant to a particular issue. The economic approach to managing, summarizing and presenting data raises three main concerns:

   • The integrity and wholeness of each individual can be lost, such that comparisons across the whole picture from each individual is almost impossible. The data can become decontextualized. Having had its framework and areas of interest already decided pre-ordinately, the análisis may be unresponsive to additional relevant factors that could emerge responsively in the data

4. A fourth method to organize the analysis is per research question. This is a very useful way. Of organizing data, since it retains the coherence of the material. We must approach all relevant data from various data transmissions (interviews, observations, questionnaires etc.) are collated to provide a collective response to a research question.

5. A fifth method of organizing the data is by instrument. Typically this approach is often used in conjunction with another approach, by issue or by people. Here the results of each instrument are presented, all the interview data are presented and organized, and then all the data from questionnaires are presented, in analyzing qualitative data, a major tension may arise from using contrasting holistic and fragmentary/atomistic modes of analysis.