Organize and reduce data. Qualitative studies collect data via observations, interviews and focus groups. These methods can amass a lot of raw data that you need to sort through. While organizing your data, refer frequently to your research question. This will help you to organize in a manner that makes sense in relation to your overall study. Your goal at this stage is to organize the data in such a way that it will be condensed in a way that is manageable and allows you to look at the issues at hand in your overall study.
Sort your data by different categories. Do this by identifying common themes in responses. For instance, look at the similarities and differences in responses and then group your data. Start with broad categories and slowly start to sort answers into subcategories (References 2 & 3).
Find meaningful patterns. What recurring themes do you observe in your data? Analyze your data according to both content and theme. Content analysis includes coding your data for common words. There is no set way to do this, but organize in the way that makes the most sense for you and for your study. Go through the data and label words, phrases and sections. Identify patterns and interpret their meanings, as related to your research questions.
You can also analyze by theme. Thematic analysis involves creating themes prior to your data collection, based on your research questions. Sort the data into these thematic groups, and look at the meanings you see in these groups.
Display data. Organize data into a display that will help others to clearly see the meanings and conclusions that you have drawn from the data. Displays can take the form of a graph, table, matrix or textual display. A textual display can show higher order categories that have emerged from the organization and analysis of the data. You can also see patterns that have emerged between and across groups.