S.TRUEMAN PhD THESIS 2016

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Figure 5.2. Handwritten thematic map.

5.9.4 Memo writing Throughout the process of data analysis the researcher engaged in reflective thinking about both the process of analysis and the data itself. Gibbs (2002) refers to this as ‘metadata’ and ‘is written by researchers during the life of a project about the data, how they were collected and the process of data analysis’ (p. 83). Glaser (1978) defines memos as ‘theorizing write-ups of ideas about codes and their relationships as they strike the analyst while coding ...it can be a sentence, a paragraph or a few pages’ (p. 83). In this study, the researcher recorded metadata by keeping memos, data annotations, draft summaries and mind maps about the study project. Each document was hand written and dated. The vast majority of the hand written reflective thinking was recorded in a number