Chapter 1
Why NUD.IST?




What Can NUD.IST Do?

Computers can't crunch words as if they were numbers and NUD.IST won't analyze your data for you. What then can you expect of the software? NUD.IST will help you manage your data as you analyze documents such as interview transcripts, field notes, journal articles, papers, email archives or any other data you can save as a text file. It will also facilitate your management of other data formats such as video and audio tapes. You can search and code your data and automate many of the coding, searching and reporting tasks. You can write memos and add context-sensitive annotations to your data. As you progress through your analysis you can use NUD.IST to document your analytic process and reflect on your role as a researcher.

You might think this sounds trivial. You might be saying to yourself, "I can do all of this using traditional paper/pencil technology". Well, not quite. Not by a long shot.

Picture yourself as a university librarian.
You've been asked to alphabetize all the book and journal records in the library.
Would you rather alphabetize them using the 4 x 5 card catalog or the computer system?

It is this magnitude of difference in shear data management power that NUD.IST can give you. You might already have encountered a NUD.IST user who seems to speak in almost evangelical terms about the software. You can trust that it is this magnitude of power to manage data in ways that simply can't be done manually that has turned NUD.IST users into "believers"!

Perhaps most significantly, NUD.IST allows you to fracture and reorganize your data in ways that simply aren't possible with traditional software applications, and thus develop new insights into your research.

The Advantages of Using NUD.IST

When you begin your first research project with NUD.IST you will find two particular features of the software to be especially reassuring. First, and perhaps most importantly is context. NUD.IST at all times enables you to remain close to your data; even closer than if you had hard copy at your fingertips! You never need to worry about coding selections of your data and later not having access to the original context of the data. You can code data and go back to it days or even weeks later, and you're only one keystroke away from viewing the coded data in its original context. The second important feature of NUD.IST is its flexibility. You can develop and easily modify your coding structure "on the fly" even during the initial stages of your project when your analysis and/or cognitive style is itself, fluid and changing.

With NUD.IST you will have improved ease of access to your data compared with traditional paper/pencil methods and this is especially helpful for large data sets. Qualitative data analysis is often a "messy" business, particularly in the early stages, with many loose ends and unconnected ideas and pieces of information to deal with. To qualitative researchers it can often feel like you're drowning in your data.

With NUD.IST you will be able to reliably track seemingly disparate pieces of data, reflect on the emerging concepts and continuously revise your thinking. Using this more thorough and systematic approach will enhance the interpretive accuracy of your analysis.

After gaining some experience with NUD.IST, you'll probably wonder what all the fuss was about, but in the beginning learning to use the software can sometimes feel a little bit like trying to find your way home in a fog. I've crafted this guide to lead you safely and swiftly through the prerequisite stages of beginning your own data analysis project with NUD.IST.

Assumptions Underpinning this Guide

You can use NUD.IST to help you analyze a variety of textual data. For the purposes of this guide we will assume you are working with interview data, although you can also use NUD.IST to analyze journal articles or any other kind of textual data.

You should begin by first orienting yourself to the NUD.IST environment (Chapter 2).

Chapter 3 will help you understand and use the Index[Tree] System in your project.

The essence of using NUD.IST to assist with your analysis of your interview transcripts is this:

For example, let's say you've identified a certain behaviour, or perhaps a belief that you want to examine more closely. You can use your demographic data to examine how men's beliefs might differ from those of women - or how parents and grandparents might differ in their childrearing practices. Or you might intersect your Case data with the concept to examine how a particular ethic or teaching practice differs in schools within a district. NUD.IST's structure allows you to tease apart concepts and data through a system-wide comprehensive coverage of data that otherwise is simply not possible using paper-pencil techniques.

 




Copyright Bobbi A. Kerlin, Ph.D.
http://kerlins.net/bobbi/research/nudist/
Last updated February 14, 2002