Lately, I have been absorbed with coding data in NVivo 7. I’m using different kinds of coding–topical, descriptive, analytical–at different levels of organization (free nodes, tree nodes). Preparing documents to enable auto-coding for topical coding was tedious and took a long time, but I think it is beginning to pay off. In terms of descriptive coding, some of it is counting, for example, the number of times participants use a particular scaffold. However, I think the descriptive coding turns into more analytical coding when I explore the relationship between a certain scaffold and one of my coding scheme categories to trace the development of progressive discourse.
The data analysis process is interesting. I puzzle over how to code something. Sometimes, I just can’t figure out why my participants wrote a group of notes the way they did. Then the next day, I can see a promising alternative explanation to the “not applicable” category that I resigned some of the notes to the day before. These insights, I’ve begun to write up in a memo document within NVivo, which has become a kind of creative learning environment for me. What I’m particularly enjoying in writing the memo is the fact that I write about the process in academic style, just as I would write a paper. In my paper journal, sometimes I just scraw cryptic notes to myself rather than attempt to form full sentences.
Anyway, my dog is not very impressed with the amount of time that I spend working on my research:
He would rather I play with him…
and follows me around the house hoping that I would throw the soccer ball around.
But I’m currently under deadline pressure for a number of projects:
I always have a sock on the go.
I also began a cotton camisole because
I obviously can’t wear the tweedy, cabled cardigan I started in the winter anytime soon now that it’s spring.
I jest. The knitting projects are supposed to be for relaxing, actually. I have a lot of deadlines for conferences and publications this month.
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