Much Ado About ‘Discussion’ 2

Notice that when you rushed things, instead of falling in place together, everything seem to be falling apart. Hu..hu..hu..it’s normal for me - bila nak cepat, lagi bertambah lambat lagi ada. Huwaaa… Anyway, I thought the stress and 'keseksaan' of writing my first 3 chapters in my initial year was difficult enough, I was hoping …

Choosing an Examiner

One of the good thing about being home recently was the chance to meet my associate supervisor Dr NAH. She had browsed through my findings chapters and highlight an important aspect of the thesis and thus, in my choice of examiners. I was initially hoping that she could suggest a few names for my external examiner from …

Data Analysis 5 – NVivo again…

I have noticed that NVivo is causing several complications for some of my colleagues. In fact to tell you the truth, I was initially bogged down with the software. A lot of people thought that the software is supposed to save you time in data analysis but they failed to invest their time in proper training. …

Data Analysis 4 – Circles & Time

I guess it's normal to go in circles in research. To go back and forth. To go here and there, left and right. Or to get totally lost at times, before eventually, achieving the main aim i.e. to have the research come full circle. My data analysis has finally took off, in the right direction (Insya Allah), …

Data Analysis 3 – Approaching The Data

After a few weeks reviewing a bulk of literature on qualitative data analysis techniques and mechanics, I found myself overwhelmed and lost. And I thought transcribing the interviews was hard work, but I was apparently wrong! This was even harder. At one point in time, I was just staring at all these 'words' and don't …

Data Analysis 2 – Juggling Jargon

Seriously, there are just too many things on my mind, half are not even PhD related. And with the children back at school, I am actually exhausted from running around from one school to another. At the moment (still in Phd mode) I am not one of those parents who joined in with a sigh …

Data Analysis 1 – NVivo

After sitting on my raw data for three weeks, it’s time to face the facts – that they will remain ‘raw’ unless I started ‘cooking’ them.  Just for the record – ‘raw data’ here means, a whole lot of information collected by an overzealous researcher (me…:-P) and given by (most of the time) all the …

A little something about interview transcriptions

A new year has arrived, although between yesterday, today & tomorrow means no more than time is closing in on me!! Anyway here are some interview tips (For making transcription easier) for friends out there considering interviews in their studies:   1) Get a decent digital audio recorder, and set them up properly. Use the Noise Cut function but …

Intricacies of Interviews in Malaysia

Interviews requires a certain amount of skills & techniques. Lots of references out there will discuss most of those skills & techniques. However, when conducting interviews in Malaysia, there are some other matters that needs 'extra' consideration.I personally think, in Malaysia most of the time when you are given the interview appointment, you are halfway …

The Ethics in Research Interviews

When discussing about conducting an ethical research, especially qualitative interviews, there are some issues that never crossed my mind before. For instance:Do you know that, you can't approach a participant through his boss directly? Meaning you can't ask the boss to point out A, B or C and specifically ask them to participate in the …