Coding Your Interview SOCL 3633 Research Methods · Lab 11 · Midwestern State University

The class codebook

Everyone starts with the same five codes, so that we can compare coding across the class. Create each one as a tag in Taguette: open the Highlights tab, click Create a tag, and copy in the name and description below.

Your own codes

As you code, you may find passages that fit none of these. You may add up to two codes of your own. Each one needs a name, a one-sentence description, and in your notes one example that counts and one that does not. Response sheet question 2 asks about them.

Code your transcript

1. Read your whole transcript once without coding. Notice what repeats.
2. Go back to the start. Select a passage by clicking and dragging. Click new highlight, choose one or more tags, and click Save & Close.
3. Code passages, not single words. A passage is usually one to four sentences that make one point.
4. Code the respondent's words, not your own opinion of them. "Something felt unfair" needs the respondent to present it as unfair.
5. Skip your own questions unless the respondent's answer only makes sense with them.
6. When you hesitate over a passage, write a line in a notes file: the passage, the code you chose, and why. Those notes become your memo.

Two coders: the practice transcript

You and a partner code the same practice transcript, then compare. The respondent is a woman in her 30s who worked as a server at a chain restaurant. The transcript was written for this course. Do not show your own transcript to your partner.

1. Code each passage on your own, using the class codebook. Check every code that fits, or "No code fits."
2. When you and your partner have both finished, take turns reading your codes for each passage aloud. Mark whether your codes were the same.
3. Pick one passage where you disagreed. Talk about why, and write the rule you would add to the codebook.

Memo and model

Memo

Write one paragraph about your interview, using your codes and your notes. What do the codes suggest about how your respondent experienced the job? Quote at least one passage. This is response sheet question 4.

Model

1. Go to app.diagrams.net. When it asks where to save, choose Device. Choose Create New Diagram, then Blank Diagram.
2. Add one rectangle for each of two or three codes that seem connected in your interview. Type the code name in each.
3. Draw arrows between them. Label each arrow with a few words that say how the codes connect, for example "led to" or "made worse."
4. Click File, then Export as, then PNG. Save it as lastname_lab11_model.png.

Lab 11 response sheet

Answer in complete sentences. Then assemble your answers and paste them into the Lab 11 submission on D2L. In the same submission, upload the picture of your model. Both are due Thursday, April 8, at 11:59 p.m.

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