One of the most important and difficult steps of dissertation is data analysis. Students find this extremely overwhelming and are often faced with many problems while analysing data. Data analysis is basically the process of getting a meaning from all the data that you have collected.
In quantitative data analysis, usually you can collect all the data and then start the analysing process.However, in qualitative data analysis, you can simultaneously collect and analyse data. Qualitative data analysis can be comparatively tougher since it doesn’t deal with only numbers, but involves a lot of raw data that is collected in the form of interview questions. Since many are open ended questions, it requires some creativity to analyse the data and interpret it in a way that the reader will understand your research. If your sample size is high, it can be daunting to analyse the large data. The process of data analysis for qualitative methods in your dissertation involves using various software like AtlasTi or NVivo. These are specifically designed to help students in their dissertation data analysis. You can get software coaching to help you conduct the analysis or take assistance from data analysing companies to guide you through your dissertation research.
In qualitative data analysis, the questions also play an important role. It will be easier for you to analyse the data if the questions are well-formed and they are not irrelevant to the study. After you enter the data in your computer for study purposes, you must conduct a statistical analysis in order to explore the curves of the data.
If done systematically, qualitative data analysis can be fun and exciting and surely rewarding in your dissertation!