Seven Ways of Looking at a Data Set. (September 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sword, Helen; Blumenstein, Marion; Kwan, Alistair; Shen, Louisa; Trofimova, Evija
• Is Part Of: Qualitative inquiry. Volume 24:Number 7(2018)
• Page Start: 499
• Page End: 508
• Publication Date: 2018-09
• Subjects: academic writing -- emotion -- data coding -- metaphor -- alternative methodological approaches; Social sciences -- Methodology -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- Research -- Periodicals; 300.72
• DOI: 10.1177/1077800417729847
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1077-8004

Abstract

A literary theorist, a biologist, an historian, a writing studies scholar, and a poet walk into a wine bar. The poet says, "I've got a stack of 1, 223 handwritten questionnaire responses here in my bag; would you like to have a look?" The others reply, "Sure. Let's see what we can learn here." Descending from their respective disciplinary perches, they all gather around a table and start sifting through the questionnaires, which chronicle the writing background, habits, and emotions of PhD students and faculty in 15 countries. In this single corpus of data, each researcher sees something different, and from the other researchers' responses, each learns new ways of seeing. What counts as an appropriate data analysis? What, for that matter, counts as data? We invite you to grab a drink and join our conversation.