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(Download PDF) How To Write Qualitative Research Marcus B Weaver Hightower Online Ebook All Chapter PDF
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Marcus B. Weaver-Hightower
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How to Write
Qualitative Research
Qualitative research has exploded in popularity in nearly every discipline from the social sciences to health
fields to business. While many qualitative textbooks explain how to conduct an interview or analyze
fieldnotes, rarely do they give more than a few scant pages to the skill many find most difficult: writing.
That’s where How to Write Qualitative Research comes in. Using clear prose, helpful examples,
and lists, it breaks down and explains the most common writing tasks in qualitative research, and each
chapter suggests step-by-step how-to approaches writers can use to tackle those tasks.
Topics include:
Each chapter features real-world examples from both professionals and students, hands-on practice
activities, and template sentences that show qualitative writers how to get started.
This text provides the perfect companion for writers of almost any skill level, from undergraduates
to professionals. Whether you are writing a course paper, a dissertation, or your next book, How to
Write Qualitative Research will help you write clearer, more effective qualitative research.
Marcus B. Weaver-Hightower
First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2019 Marcus B. Weaver-Hightower
The right of Marcus B. Weaver-Hightower to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-06630-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-06631-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-15926-3 (ebk)
Typeset in Frutiger
by Out of House Publishing
Visit the eResources: www.routledge.com/9781138066311
To Michael Apple, who models how to research deeply,
think fairly, and write accessibly.
Contents
Introduction 1
References 255
Index 266
Tables and figures
Tables
8.1 A planning table for identifying organization, gaps, and necessary citations 160
9.1 Transcription conventions (based on Jefferson, 2004) 181
10.1 Attendance by committee members at Australian legislative hearings
(Weaver-Hightower, 2006) 196
10.2 Participant information example (Karasouli et al., 2014) 199
10.3 Timeline of major events in the production and implementation of Boys:
Getting it Right (House of Representatives Standing Committee on
Education and Training, 2002). Reprinted from Weaver-Hightower (2008c) 205
10.4 Topics for analyzing visuals, adapted from Clarke (2005, pp. 227–228) 223
Figures
10.11 Ecology diagram for US school lunch policy. Reprinted from Robert
and Weaver-Hightower, School Food Politics (2011, p. 8) 209
10.12 Procedural diagram example (Weaver-Hightower, 2014) 211
10.13 Map of serious crime near elementary schools over eight days.
Map data by Google 212
10.14 Ropes course diagram and overview map 213
10.15 Word cloud of personal health record blogs. Reprinted from
Chinta & Raghavan (2015). No changes were made;
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 214
10.16 Photograph of statue informally called “Cock Rock” 215
10.17 Drawing of school uniform variations for girls and boys 216
10.18 Grounded theory of tourism behavior at a resort in Hawaii.
Reprinted from Martin and Woodside (2008, p. 253), Journal of
Travel & Tourism Marketing. Used by permission of Taylor and
Francis, www.tandfonline.com 217
10.19 A comparison of two tables, one with “chartjunk” (Table A) and
one without (Table B) 218
10.20 Franklin Sage’s (2017) indigenous research methodology figure.
Used by permission of the author 219
12.1 A sample Fulbright grant rationale (unpublished manuscript) 244
12.2 A comparison of bad and good slide design 251
newgenprepdf
Acknowledgements
I owe thanks to many people for their help, either for inspiring this book or for guiding it to comple-
tion. My deepest apologies to anyone I have neglected here.
Thanks to the many anonymous reviewers of my work over the years who have taught me to
write better –whether I wanted them to or not!
At Routledge, Hannah Shakespeare provided insightful guidance and trust, and Matthew
Bickerton excelled with even the smallest of details.
My colleagues and students at the University of North Dakota have been great teachers about
writing and research. Special thanks to Renee Nilsen for incredibly helpful comments that gave me
a learner’s perspective, and to Renuka de Silva for her careful editing. I also thank my departmental
colleagues, particularly Cheryl and Josh, Kathy, Richard, Rob, Sam, Steve, and Virginia.
Michael Apple showed me (and so many of us) that accessible writing can be smart and theor-
etically savvy, too. Many of my other professors during grad school did similarly for me, including Jim
Gee, David Bloome, and Deb Brandt.
Most importantly, I owe thanks to my family –my wife, my children, and my angel babies.
Becky is the best foxhole companion one could want in the trenches of writing –and in life. Thanks,
Sweetie, for all the advice and readings, not to mention for bearing with me all these years. And Evie,
now that Daddy’s done writing the book, we can finally finish that Lego Wonder Woman castle. And
Harrison, after that, you and I can try out that new VR helmet you got. Sorry to keep you both waiting.
Introduction
I remember when I discovered the power of writing. It was eighth grade, and Meredith, the girl I was
“going with,” could manipulate my head and heart with every note she clandestinely passed in class.
She wrote superbly, and when I realized the power that skill had over me, I knew I had to become
better at writing.
Many great stories and songs, I suppose, start with such a romance. Yet great stories also revolve
around tragedy. Or comedy. Action and adventure. Travel. Oppression or adversity and overcoming
them. The collision of strangers. Fantastic new worlds, cultures, and creatures. By writing about
these –trading ideas by making marks on a page –humans express the wonders that billions of
versions of life can hold. When written well, ideas can transform lives, cultures, and history. Or, to crib
Mr. Keaton in the movie Dead Poets Society –and more compelling to me as that eighth-grader –
good writing can “woo women.” Or men. Or both.
Rather than changing history or snaring mates, though, I have more modest goals for helping
you. I hope How to Write Qualitative Research will live up to its title and help you write good quali-
tative research. Done well, qualitative research can change ways of thinking in academia, in profes-
sional practice, in policy and politics, and in societies. It can give insights into ways of living, practices,
contexts, relationships, and human impacts so that people better understand ourselves and others.
Perhaps this book will help you in making those impacts yourself.
As my title also suggests, this book provides “how to” advice. The book longs to snuggle up
beside your laptop while keystrokes are being put to page. It wants to be decorated with sticky
flags and scribblings in the margin. I have thus tried to make it practical and logical, with many
examples that clarify processes. Having geared the book toward the pragmatic, I anticipate that those
with deeply held stances toward scientificity (of whatever variety, conservative or progressive) will
have numerous objections. I look forward to hearing those objections; feel free to email me. I am
not unaware of the complexities of epistemology, ontology, aesthetics, and power dynamics that
qualitative representation invokes. I am, however, attempting both to write across vast disciplinary
differences and trying to avoid burdening new qualitative writers with the paralysis that sometimes
accompanies deep dives into philosophical reflexivity. Many other books can help with that.
The approach to writing I advocate may not appeal to all. I prefer clarity. Writing, to me, princi-
pally seeks to communicate ideas, not to impress others with huge, specialized vocabulary and long
multi-clause sentences. Don’t get me wrong: Sometimes ideas are complicated and only struggling
can untangle their knots. Importantly, though, I argue that writers, not readers, must do the struggling
2 Introduction
to clarify ideas. Too often academics mistake impenetrable writing for insightful writing, perhaps
believing that, if they were smarter, they could write the same 98-word sentences written by some
famous philosopher or sociologist. It’s not true. That’s why a whole academic industry has grown up
around translating famous philosophers and sociologists into plain language! Students, especially,
need to realize that obscurity does not equal brilliance and clarity does not equal obviousness (see
also Howard S. Becker, 2008, Chapter 2). This book hopefully demonstrates what clarity can do for
your writing.
This book also reflects my reader- centered view of writing. Readers can only base their
understanding on what writers supply. Most qualitative writing doesn’t happen live, like in text
messages, where the reader and writer negotiate understanding in short exchanges, so writers must
be clear at submission. Readers can make decisions only on existing words, not what one meant
to say. If a reader of qualitative research didn’t “get” what a writer “meant,” the writer almost
always deserves the blame. Effective writing, then, requires anticipating readers’ needs and desires as
much as possible. Throughout this book I pull back the curtain on the shadowy mindset of “average
readers” so you can anticipate their wants and needs.
Writing qualitative research, at its core, involves translating the complex, deep experience of
fieldwork or data analysis into an understandable story for readers. Readers want to see and feel the
scenes you witnessed; they want a sense of “being there.” But they don’t want to wade through every
note you wrote and every transcript you collected. Instead, your job as a writer involves selecting and
organizing experiences from the field so that readers get only the most necessary information. Not
“just the facts,” but purposely selected facts that explain something that matters. You supplement
these facts with descriptions and explanations that give life, context, theoretical understanding, dig-
nity, and importance to the humans involved.
These are not easy tasks. Yet conveying your participants’ world becomes easier with systematic
writing knowledge. This book aims to provide some of that systematic knowledge. You can learn
qualitative writing, just as anything else. The qualitative writer is an artisan, meaning they use artistry,
yes, but also craft and technical ability. You should strive to learn the qualitative writing trade if you
truly care about your research participants, readers, discipline, and students.
Even though qualitative writing is learnable, I am chastened by Kamler and Thompson’s (2008)
article, “The Failure of Dissertation Advice Books,” which I came across while composing this book.
(How to Write Qualitative Research does not primarily address dissertations, though I suspect many
readers might first write qualitative research for their dissertations). As Kamler and Thompson rightly
argued, many guidebooks for writing make four problematic moves:
(a) An expert–novice relationship is produced and reproduced, (b) the process of writing a
dissertation is simplified to a series of linear steps, (c) writing advice is packaged as a set of
overgeneralized rules, and (d) the texts are emphatic and offer a paradox of reassurance and
fear. (p. 509)
Introduction 3
I almost certainly fall into some of these traps in the following pages –I didn’t call the book One
Possible Way of Writing Qualitative Research, for instance –but I have assiduously tried to avoid
traps by doing some alternatives they recommended (p. 512). These include assuming that you, dear
reader, bring expertise to the writing, offering my advice as somewhat tentative and not applicable to
every writing situation, and framing that advice as situated broadly within the social context of aca-
demia, which students particularly are striving to join.
Fair warning: This book cannot cover everything you need to know about conducting qualitative
research. It focuses on writing. It does not, for instance, teach you how to plan or to collect and ana-
lyze data. Instead it explains how to write about methods and data. Many other texts teach the nuts
and bolts of research design and methods. This one belongs to a much smaller set focusing solely on
qualitative writing. (Other books I would recommend for qualitative writing include those by Wolcott
[2009], Biklen and Casella [2007], Woods [2006], and Golden-Biddle and Locke [2007]. No slight
intended to any others I have not listed here.)
This book tends toward heuristics –or “rules of thumb” –and away from algorithms –or math-
ematical formulas (Rose, 1980). Writing does have some algorithms, things that always work if you
do certain procedures. Mostly, though, writing has heuristics, things that feel or sound right for the
circumstance. If you are hoping that I’m going to give you the exact right thing to say about your
specific data, you will come away disappointed. No one can tell you that. I do have some ideas and
best practices to share, though.
I won’t pretend that I know everything about writing, nor can I put everything into this book. If
you have ideas for what I’ve left out or friendly suggestions about why I’m totally wrong, I invite you
to share those with me. My email address is mwh@und.edu.
About me
Writing about writing seems boastful just in the undertaking. So probably every book I’ve read on writing
does exactly what I’m about to do, which is to rationalize why I have the moxie to write about writing.
I am not a perfect writer myself and frequently have peer reviewers fuss at me for various foibles.
I do think of my qualitative writing as pretty strong, though, and I have earned some successes and
awards based on it. My curriculum vitae includes a qualitative monograph and numerous qualitative
articles that use a variety of qualitative methods.
I also have much experience with reading others’ writing. I earned my bachelor’s degree in English
and spent three years reading high schoolers’ essays. I got my masters in English education and a
4 Introduction
doctorate in curriculum and instruction. I have peer reviewed for more than 30 academic journals and
for national grant programs in three countries. I have edited three essay collections. In my day job,
I have taught both basic and advanced qualitative research courses at the graduate level for nearly
15 years. I have read and directed dozens of dissertations in numerous disciplines. So I know many
rules and traditions, and I know what skillful writing looks and sounds like. This book grows from
what I have learned and relies on the insights of other writing guide authors.
I intentionally constructed this book to be used in multiple ways. If you don’t like my order, it’s your
book, so read it however you like.
First, you can of course read cover to cover, front to back, straight through. Instructors of qualita-
tive research courses might prefer this tack. Or those who consider skipping around a heresy –some-
thing that would provoke cold sweats –might prefer going straight through.
For the straight-through crowd, my chapter order might seem somewhat strange. Instead of
following the traditional qualitative manuscript order –introduction, literature review, methods,
findings, discussion –and telling you how to write each in sequence, I have divided the chapters into
two parts based on skillsets. Learning skillsets rather than chapter types gives you freedom to write
to fit your specific study, whether it has five traditional chapters or twelve experimental ones. Part I
discusses the writing process specific to qualitative research, beginning with writing’s central role in
all stages of qualitative research, then how to structure a manuscript and the writing within, then
grammar (gently!), and ending with the most important skill, revision. Part II focuses on putting your
study onto screen or page. I provide some tried and true methods for creating your presence in the
research, using data as evidence, crafting defensible findings, using literature and theory, describing
methods, and working with visuals. The final two chapters discuss how to write different “genres” of
qualitative research and different kinds of documents.
This book might also be read a second way. You may want to read single chapters, as needed.
As you write your dissertation, book, white paper, or other document, you can read the chapter on
whatever section you need help on.
For students and instructors, each chapter has pedagogical features for classroom use. Chapter
summaries seek to solidify understanding of the chapter. Throughout I provide real world examples
of qualitative writing that show what to do rather than simply telling you. And I have included lists,
tables, and figures that provide steps or templates to follow.
In Part II, on the specifics of writing your own study, I include template sentences at the end
of most chapters. These can give you a jump start; you don’t normally directly slot them into your
writing, but they prompt you to think about the relationships of ideas and how you might phrase
them. Templates offer those not already immersed in a discipline (students, in particular) practice
16 Writing throughout qualitative research
happens live, in history, digitally, textually, visually, or otherwise. Because qualitative methods cannot
literally peer inside bodies, machines, or brains, qualitative writing avoids unqualified assumptions
about psychological states and motivations. It attends to causation located in the social world and the
explanations people in that world give. What policies, laws, cultural beliefs, or religious tenets guide
or limit how someone acts? What processes cause harmony or discord? How do the spaces humans
create enhance, restrict, or prohibit activity and meaning? What emotions and thoughts do people
explicitly attach to experiences? One calls writing qualitative only when it scrutinizes and attempts to
explain such social phenomenon.
Third, because qualitative research often engages deeply with people and places, qualitative
writing examines the day-to-day routines that structure human lives as well as unusual events that
disrupt or alter lives. Qualitative writing documents such events with detail and descriptive fidelity.
It doesn’t leap to generalizations without first detailing the concrete events, interactions, and words
of participants. Readers witness moments –telling, typical, and atypical moments –that exemplify
broader ways of life. Quantitative research often cannot see into this invisible world of context and
process, so qualitative research has an advantage here, too.
Fourth, qualitative writing attempts to bring the social world alive, to make it multi-dimensional
on a two-dimensional page. Qualitative writers highlight narratives and quotations that help readers
imagine the “feel” of people and places. They provide sensory details that encourage reader visual-
ization, showing rather than telling through thick descriptions (originally from Ryle, expanded on
by Geertz, 1973, Chap. 1). Geertz colorfully called this “exceedingly extended acquaintances with
extremely small matters” (p. 21). Qualitative researchers seek evidence of larger concerns –like lit-
eracy learning, doctor effectiveness, change tolerance, kinship structures –within the highly detailed
recounting of small, local events. Qualitative writing shows those small signals by recording as many
aspects of the social setting and participant behaviors as possible.
Fifth, qualitative research designs emerge and change as the study progresses. Qualitative
researchers don’t slavishly stick with opening hypotheses, but, instead, they respond to surprises and
the shattering of initial misunderstandings. Quantitative scholars –poor things –must anticipate every
answer they’ll get so they can put them into their instruments; they have little room for surprise –
except when they add a qualitative item! Because of this inherent mutability of qualitative research,
writing a qualitative study involves detailing how methods changed, what events provoked unex-
pected insights, and even failures that happened along the way. Traditionalists might avoid discussing
failures for fear of losing credibility, but pragmatists realize failures always accompany human activity
and encourage one to do better next time.
Sixth, rather than formulas that compute the data for us, qualitative researchers employ their
own cognition to analyze the world. Qualitative researchers have only our human sense percep-
tion, our cognitive abilities, and our deep knowledge of a context gained through honest, prolonged
engagement from which to draw. Thus, qualitative writing keeps the researcher’s human specificity
in the reader’s mind. Good qualitative writing stays within the writer’s own experience and conveys
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gun and called it the Winchester Repeating Rifle. It is the outcrop of the old
Jennings rifle.”[221]
[221] From the Hartford Evening Post, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 1890.
A PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY ON TOOL BUILDING