a pilot it is

I've been subsumed (correct word?) by data and transcribing for the past week. Somewhat resentful that my current work-plan does not allow or cater for the amount of time I've take to get my data ready for analysis. This weekend I finished a complete data set for one of my case studies which meant I could start the analysis process for Case 1. Of course Case 2 is incomplete - there are about 8 formal interviews that still need to be transcribed and a stack of interactional data and informal interviews.

But, today in the spirit of making a stab at the analysis phase of my work, I had a mini-tutorial session with SP on the Atlas software that I will use for my analysis. We got to talking about all things related and unrelated to the software, the analysis process, approaches to coding, operationalisation of codes, what to say to supervisors, being burnt out and the importance to taking breaks from one's work, using drop-box and how to manage my image files and their relation to the coding process. But long story short...I have too much data, or rather I have more than enough data to make a solid and valid argument. Generating additional data through the transcription of all my collected recordings is not a smart move that this stage. Well that's the advice been offered to me anyway. And I know its good advice, I've been told this before - be strategic because you don't have time - but one is always caught in that precarious place where you fear that leaving out 'that interview' will rob your argument, your thesis of that all important bits of information. You become over cautious about everything and 'precious' about all the data you collected, which of course does a lot for your ego in the comparison stakes with other PhD students - which when you come to think if it, is as pointless an activity as young men bragging about the size of their penises, because as any experienced woman would know, it really has nothing to do with penis size its how that freaking penis gets used.

So what to do? Well firstly - take stock of the all data I've collected and make a firm decision about outstanding transcription requirements. Here I need to be brutal - seriously! I don't have the time to become precious about what data gets 'included' in my final data set. On another level, all the data I've collected will be used in my work - simply the act of collecting a piece of data has assisted in the development of my ideas and understandings of the various contexts. The fact that it isn't directly referenced in the actual thesis - is almost irrelevant. Secondly, I need to Pilot the data in Atlas and refine my coding schemes.

So that's the work cut out for me for the rest of the week. Happy Days!