Quantitative methods are usually the most appropriate if you want to find out social facts or the causes of some phenomenon. If you are more interested in how social phenomena arise in the interactions of their participants, then qualitative methods should be your choice.

Not every document you come across in your research has to be treated as a set of true or false statements. Take any one document relevant to your topic and ask:

• How has the document been put together to make its statements seem credible?
• What can you learn from this about how the topics you are concerned with are being ‘constructed’ by the authors of this document?
• Where could you find other documents which might construct these ‘facts’ differently?

Students often err by assuming that ‘theory’ is best done from the armchair while speculating upon great philosophical problems. By contrast, theorising is best accomplished by thinking through the implications of how you have gathered and analysed your data.

• Don’t think of the role of the interviewer as just asking questions. Consider the variety of your other actions e.g. saying ‘hmm, mm’, reformulating a question, agreeing and remaining silent. Always assess how these influence what an interviewee says.

• If you are interested in understanding people’s experiences, do not assume that the interview is the only appropriate research method.

• Like so many activities when doing qualitative research, choosing a transcription method is never a purely technical matter. Transcription is saturated with theoretical assumptions.

• Visit the web sites of CAQDAS software sellers and see if you can download a test version: try before you buy!

• The quality of your project will depend largely on the quality of the analytic categories you use to understand your data. Pretty often, these categories are embodied in a coding scheme.
• CAQDAS can’t do your thinking for you but once you have applied a coding scheme to your data the software can speed up your ability to think about your codes, as well as retrieve data associated with each code

Apparent ‘contradictions’ in your data depend on the model you are employing. For constructionists, such contradictions may reflect the different discourses that are being used by participants.

Romanticism is an approach in which ‘authenticity’ is attached to ‘personal’experiences. Although this approach originated in the early nineteenth century, it underlies much contemporary popular culture.

Providing your supervisor is willing, it makes sense to audio record each supervision as well as to keep written notes. This will allow you to review what was said in greater detail. It may also provide material for your methodology chapter.