Yay! It has finally started...well if this were a multimodal blog you would realise that the written expression is meant as a sarcastic take on the that fact that while it has actually started, there is certainly nothing to be remotely enthusiastic about. Basically today I started to pilot my basic coding categories on a small set of documents that are fairly similar to the types that will form part of the larger thesis analysis. I only really had two upfront codes - literacy practices and textual practices which I tried to operationalised i.e. explain how I would identify them in my data. As the coding progressed more code categories were added and sub-levels created. I now need to refine what I mean by these initial coding categories so that I can be consistent in how I use them across a larger data set. I worked on 4 documents and it took me the whole freaking day. Just very basic coding - nothing fancy, nothing special...leading to another important, although recently, clearly overlooked realisation. I HAVE TO MUCH FLIPPING DATA! I can't physically code it all - well certainly not if I want to finish this f&%$ing PhD by September 2012. So I've been brutal and cut throat today. I've made decisions and I'm going to stick to it. In relation to the data that will be included in the Atlas formal analysis process - my selection is enough to tell my story in a plausible, credible and justifiable way.
But alas, Atlas has brought along some additional organisational and structural challenges for me to overcome - yes more organisation and structuring of data into folders and files ready for analysis (well this ever end I ask myself). Seems like I'm more of an administrator than a researcher at the moment.
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| Data Organisation and Selection for Atlas Analysis |
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