Chapter 6
Introduction to Coding

Qualitative research usually means the collection and analysis of unstructured textual material in order to develop concepts, categories, hypotheses, theories (or mere descriptions of social life worlds). Thus, most of the time during 'qualitative data analysis' is spent on reading, rereading, interpreting, comparing and thinking on texts (Kelle, U. 1997).

It is important to have a clearly identified method for analyzing data and it is our responsibility as researchers to connect the ontological and epistemological underpinnings in ways that are appropriate to our particular discipline. These foundational issues are well beyond the scope of this guide but if you're still struggling with these issues you might find the following papers and web resources helpful:

What Does It Mean To Code Data?

Not often does the literature address the act of coding - the cognitive processes we invoke when we think about and code data. In my classes and through the web I've been exploring different understandings about what it means to code data. What is coding? What is it you actually do when you code data? It's interesting to see the variety of understandings researchers bring to this concept. You can see what others think about coding.

Codes as Containers - Code (as a Noun)

Code, used as a noun is a name - a word or very short phrase - that you choose to represent a concept or idea that you want to study further or learn more about. You can think of a code as a categorical name for a concept. Codes are arbitrary names we assign as a way of organizing and categorizing selected chunks of data. It is sometimes helpful to think of codes as containers for storing groups of related or similar items. As you refine your thinking about your study you may also want to refine the codes you use to organize your data and NUD.IST is sufficiently flexible to support these kinds of fluid transformations in your thinking.

Coding as a Verb

As a verb, coding is the act of searching for a concept in your data, naming the concept, assigning the concept name to a node location/address in the Node Explorer.

Codes 'n Nodes

A node is a positional location on the Index Tree. The node location is represented by an Address and a NAME. The Name is a shorthand code you designate as representative of a concept in your data. As you develop a system of codes for your data you will assign both a Node Name and a Node Address (number) to each of your codes.

Coding with Nudist

With NUD.IST you can code data in a number of different ways. You can code data:

  1. as you read your imported documents
  2. by using text searches (see Chapter 7: Basic Searches)
  3. by writing command files to automate some text search functions (see Chapter 8: Command Files)

If you haven't reviewed Chapter 2: Working with Nodes you might want to take a few minutes to look at the different ways you can add nodes to your Index Tree in advance of your actual coding.

Code as You Read

Reading, examining, and discovering the meanings derived from your transcripts constitutes the most fundamental aspect of your analysis. And the ability to code your data as you read makes NUD.IST a great partner in this process.

To code parts of a document (text units) as you read, first open the document by choosing Documents --> Explore. Select a document and click the browse button. To highlight the text units (lines, sentences or paragraphs) you want to code, click and drag your mouse to select/highlight the desired text.

There are two ways to code the text you've highlighted:

  • you can click the Add Coding button on the Coding Palette, or


  • you can use the keyboard equivalent by hitting the 'A' key



Figure 30. Coding Palette

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next you'll see a dialogue window like the one below in Figure 31. Here you can enter a node address or search and Select the desired node address or you can assign your coded selection to a Free Node.

    Figure 31. Code selected text at a node

The Node Address is entered by typing the node number (e.g., 1 1 or 2 1) or by checking the Free Node box. Type the Node Address as:

node number - spacebar - subnode number

If you enter a node address that doesn't exist you will be prompted to create and name a new node. NUD.IST will then process your coding assignment and add data to an existing node or create a new node for the data.

View the Results of Your Coding

To view the results of your coding activate the Node Explorer window, highlight a node and click the Explore button at the bottom of the Node Explorer window.



Copyright Bobbi A. Kerlin, Ph.D.
http://kerlins.net/bobbi/research/nudist/
Last updated December 1, 2002