Transcribing Interview Tapes

Transcribing interview tapes is time-consuming and potentially costly work. It can be facilitated by using a transcribing machine that has a foot pedal and earphones. Nonetheless it will normally take from 4 to 6 hours to transcribe a 90-minute tape. If possible, the initial transcrip­tions should be made using a computer-based word-processing program. Later,

Studying, Reducing, and Analyzing the Interview Text

As one can see, in-depth interviewing generates an enormous amount of text. The vast array of words, sentences, paragraphs, and pages have to be reduced to what is of most significance and interest (McCracken, 1988; Miles & Huberman, 1984; Wolcott, 1990). Most important is that reducing the data be done inductively rather than deductively.

Sharing Interview Data: Profiles and Themes

One goal of the researcher in marking what is of interest in the inter­view transcripts is to reduce and then shape the material into a form in which it can be shared or displayed (Miles & Huberman, 1984). Reducing the data is a first step in allowing the researchers to present their inter­view material

Making and Analyzing Thematic Connections

A more conventional way of presenting and analyzing interview data than crafting profiles is to organize excerpts from the transcripts into cat­egories. The researcher then searches for connecting threads and patterns among the excerpts within those categories and for connections between the various categories that might be called themes. In addition to present­ing profiles

Interpreting the Interview Material

Interpreting is not a process researchers do only near the end of the project. Even as interviewers question their participants, tentative inter­pretations may begin to influence the path of their questioning. Marking passages that are of interest, labeling them, and grouping them is analytic work that has within it the seeds of interpretation. Crafting

Interview Note

The number of themes that emerge into prominence in an interview study has implications for the organization of a dissertation. While the format of a dissertation is in the purview of dissertation committees, I think it reasonable to suggest that interviewing studies, so rich in words, may not lend themselves to the conventional five-chapter

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