A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Etheses - Queen Margaret ...

Participants returned the scripts requesting very few minor changes relating, for example, to
the spelling of a medical condition, the use of a friend‟s name which someone wanted
changed, and a request to remove something somebody had quoted their father as saying.
In summer 2008 I received a very kind offer from a friend, Eleanor Coner, who I had been
talking with about my research and the trials of transcription on a train journey back from
Edinburgh to Dunbar. She offered to assist with the transcription of interviews, an offer I
eagerly took her up on. While I don‟t think she quite anticipated the volume of work she was
getting herself into, she has helped me greatly by transcribing around twenty of the total
forty-eight interviews I carried out during the course of my research. I gained assurance from
Eleanor about the necessity for confidentiality and that these interviews should not be
discussed with anybody. She has refused to take any payment for her help.
Open coding
During and after interview transcription I began a process of open coding, working through
the scripts line by line to identify themes that seemed of interest in relation to my research
question. I did this by using highlighter pens to highlight themes and making notes and short
descriptions in the margins beside text. Initially themes seemed to range over a wide area,
but the further I got into the process the clearer it became that certain themes recurred more
frequently than others in discussion not only with each participant but also between
participants. I did not pre-define codes or themes but let them emerge from participants‟
comments and reflections (Lofland et al, 2006).
I carried out open coding procedures with all interviews, making lists of my codes by hand,
in ink, in a large book I had bought for the purpose.
Focussed coding
This process led to the emergence of frequently recurring themes, categories raised and
discussed by several participants during interviews. I then considered which of these would
be most useful in developing my analysis.
I revisited my interview transcripts, copying highlighted passages relating to a particular
theme and pasting in a Word document alongside other participants‟ comments on the same
theme, along with names and line numbers so that they could be re-identified easily. I then
went over these collected passages thoroughly a number of times, identifying areas where
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