Data Analysis in research Process

Submitted to: Ms. Atia Rahman

Submitted by: Soma
Roll No: EG-35G/18
Department: BS English
Semester: 7th
Subject: Research Methods in Linguistics
Date: 18th February-2022
Government City Girls College Gulbahar Peshawar
Introduction:
Antonius (2003:2) succinctly states that the word data points to information that is collected in a
systematic way and organised and recorded to enable the reader to interpret the information
correctly. As such, data are not collected haphazardly, but in response to some questions that the
researcher wishes to answer.
Data analysis is the process of collecting, modeling, and analyzing data to extract insights that
support decision-making.  Data analysis is the process of cleaning, changing, and processing raw
data, and extracting actionable, relevant information that helps businesses make informed
decisions. The procedure helps reduce the risks inherent in decision-making by providing useful
insights and statistics, often presented in charts, images, tables, and graphs.

Definition:
According to LeCompte and Schensul, research data analysis is a process used by researchers for
reducing data to a story and interpreting it to derive insights. The data analysis process helps in
reducing a large chunk of data into smaller fragments, which makes sense. Marshall and
Rossman, on the other hand, describe data analysis as a messy, ambiguous, and time-consuming,
but a creative and fascinating process through which a mass of collected data is being brought to
order, structure and meaning.

Functions of data analysis:

The researcher should analyze the available data for examining the statement of the problem.
The researcher should analyze the available data for examining each hypothesis of the problem.
The researcher should study the original records of the data before data analysis. The researcher
should analyze the data for thinking about the research problem in lay man’s term. The
researcher should analyze the data by attacking it through statistical calculations. The researcher
should think in terms of significant tables that the available data permits for the analysis of data.

Types of data in Research

Qualitative data: 
When the data presented has words and descriptions, then we call it qualitative data. Although
you can observe this data, it is subjective a Quality data represents everything describing taste,
experience, texture, or an opinion that is considered quality data. This type of data is usually
collected through focus groups, personal interviews, or using open-ended questions in surveys
and harder to analyze data in research, especially for comparison.

Quantitative data:
Any data expressed in numbers of numerical figures are called quantitative data. This type of
data can be distinguished into categories, grouped, measured, calculated, or ranked. Questions
such as age, rank, cost, length, weight, scores, etc. everything comes under this type of data. 
Data analysis in qualitative research:
When the data presented has words and descriptions, then we call it qualitative data. With
qualitative analysis, data is not described through numerical values or patterns, but through the
use of descriptive context (i.e., text). Typically, narrative data is gathered by employing a wide
variety of person-to-person techniques. This type of data is usually collected through focus
groups, personal interviews, or using open-ended questions in surveys. Marshall and Rossman
(1999:150) state that qualitative data analysis is a search for general statements about
relationships among categories of data.

Two Main Approaches to Qualitative Data Analysis:

Deductive Approach:

The deductive approach involves analyzing qualitative data based on a structure that is
predetermined by the researcher. A researcher can use the questions as a guide for analyzing the
data. This approach is quick and easy and can be used when a researcher has a fair idea about the
likely responses that he/she is going to receive from the sample population.

Inductive Approach:

The inductive approach, on the contrary, is not based on a predetermined structure or set ground
rules/framework. It is a more time-consuming and thorough approach to qualitative data analysis.
An inductive approach is often used when a researcher has very little or no idea of the research
phenomenon.

Steps to follow for Qualitative Data Analysis:

Step 1: Arrange your Data:

Once you have collected all the data, it is largely unstructured and sometimes makes no sense
when looked at a glance. Therefore, it is essential that as a researcher, you first need to transcribe
the data collected. The first step in analyzing your data is arranging it systematically. Arranging
data means converting all the data into a text format. You can either export the data into a
spreadsheet or manually type in the data or choose from any of the computer-assisted qualitative
data analysis tools.

Step 2: Organize all your data:

After transforming and arranging your data, the immediate next step is to organize your data.
There are chances you most likely have a large amount of information that still needs to be
arranged in an orderly manner. One of the best ways to organize the data is by going back to
your research objectives and then organizing the data based on the questions asked. Arrange your
research objective in a table, so it appears visually clear. At all costs, avoid the temptations of
working with unorganized data. You will end up wasting time, and there will be no conclusive
results obtained.

Step 3: Set a Code to the data collected

Setting up proper codes for the collected data takes you a step ahead. Coding is one of the best
ways to compress a tremendous amount of information collected. The coding of qualitative data
simply means categorizing and assigning properties and patterns to the collected data. Coding is
an important step in qualitative data analysis, as you can derive theories from relevant research
findings. After assigning codes to your data, you can then begin to build on the patterns to gain
in-depth insight into the data that will help make informed decisions.

Step 4: Interpretation of data:

After coding and grouping data, the researcher then interprets the data. This is one of the most
common methods to analyze qualitative data. It is used to analyze documented information in the
form of texts, media, or even physical items. When to use this method depends on the research
questions. The analysis of qualitative data involves different ways of reading and interpreting
data, to find interesting observations, trends and discoveries that help answer the research
questions in a project or write a dissertation based on qualitative research.

Step 5: Validate your data:

Validating data is one of the crucial steps of qualitative data analysis for successful research.
Since data is quintessential for research, it is imperative to ensure that the data is not flawed.
Please note that data validation is not just one step in qualitative data analysis; this is a recurring
step that needs to be followed throughout the research process. There are two sides to validating
data:

Accuracy of your research design or methods.

Reliability, which is the extent to which the methods produce accurate data consistently.

Step 6: Concluding the Analysis Process:

It is important to finally conclude your data, which means systematically presenting your data, a
report that can be readily used. The report should state the method that you, as a researcher, used
to conduct the research studies, the positives, and negatives and study limitations. In the report,
you should also state the suggestions/Inferences of your findings and any related areas for future
research.

Methods used for data analysis in qualitative research

Content Analysis:
 It is widely accepted and the most frequently employed technique for data analysis in research
methodology. It can be used to analyze the documented information from text, images, and
sometimes from the physical items. It depends on the research questions to predict when and
where to use this method.

Narrative Analysis:
This method is used to analyze content gathered from various sources such as personal
interviews, field observation, and surveys. The majority of times, stories, or opinions shared by
people are focused on finding answers to the research questions.

Discourse Analysis: 
Similar to narrative analysis, discourse analysis is used to analyze the interactions with people.
Nevertheless, this particular method considers the social context under which or within which the
communication between the researcher and respondent takes place. In addition to that, discourse
analysis also focuses on the lifestyle and day-to-day environment while deriving any conclusion.

Grounded Theory:
 When you want to explain why a particular phenomenon happened, then using grounded theory
for analyzing quality data is the best resort. Grounded theory is applied to study data about the
host of similar cases occurring in different settings. When researchers are using this method, they
might alter explanations or produce new ones until they arrive at some conclusion.

Data analysis in Quantitative Research

The steps in the process of quantitative data analysis and interpretation involve first preparing
your numeric data for analysis using statistical programs, conducting the analysis using statistics
that reports both descriptive and inferential results, representing and reporting the results using
tables, figures, and a discussion of each statistical test, and finally interpreting the results by
restating the general findings, comparing the findings to past literature, the potential limitations
of the study, and advancing ideas that will extend the research in the future.

Step: 1 Preparing Your Data for Analysis:

After collecting numeric scores on instrument or through obsevations, quantitative researchers
need to prepare and organize their data for statistical analysis. This process consists of assigning
numeric scores to each response option on instruments (if the instrument does not already
include this information); determining whether single-item, net or difference scores will be used
in the analysis, and selecting a computer software program to analyze the data. Next, the
Investigator enters the data into a computer file by building a data grid consisting of variables
and their values.

Step 2: Analyzing the Data:

With the dataset built, the researcher begins the process of analyzing the data to address the
research questions or hypothesis. Some questions may call for describing trends in the data, and
the researcher uses descriptive analysis such as measures of central tendency, the spread of the
scores, and the relative ranking of the scores. Other research questions and hypotheses call for
inferential analysis in which the researcher studies a sample and draws inferences from the
sample to a population. To conduct inferential analysis, three procedures might be used:
a) conduct hypothesis testing by using statistical tests and calculating p values that are
determined to be significant or non-significant and suggest that the sample means is or is
not a good estimate of the population mean,
b) set a confidence interval to identify a range of scores that is likely to include the
population mean;
c) (c) calculate an effect size that examines the strength of the differences and the practical
meaning of these differences for group comparisons or relating variables.

Step 3: Reporting the Results:

Whether the analysis consists of descriptive or inferential analysis, or both the researcher
presents results in tables, figures, and a detailed discussion of the results. This detailed
discussion involves presenting information about the results of each statistical test and presenting
information using language acceptable to quantitative researchers.

Step 4: Interpreting the Results:

Finally, investigators conclude their research by summarizing the detailed results in general
statements. They also provide explorations for their findings based on prior predictions made in
the literature or in theories, and they contrast their results with past research. It is also important
in concluding a study to advance limitations to the research, nothing potential weaknesses that
might have affected the results. These limitations build directly into suggestions for future
research that will improve the weaknesses and further contribute to the literature on a topic.

Methods used in Quantitative Data Analysis:

Descriptive Statistics:
Descriptive statistics are used to describe the basic features of the data in a study. They provide
simple summaries about the sample and the measures. Descriptive Statistics are used to present
quantitative descriptions in a manageable form.
Descriptive statistics help us to simplify large amounts of data in a sensible way. Each
descriptive statistic reduces lots of data into a simpler summary.

Inferential Statistics:
The term inferential statistics refers to applying statistical analysis with observed data for the
purpose of making inferences to that which cannot be observed. We use inferential statistics to
try to infer from the sample data what the population might think. Inferential statistics use
statistical models to help you compare your sample data to other samples or to previous research.
Conclusion:
Interpretation involves attaching meaning and significance to the analysis, explaining descriptive
patterns, and looking for relationships and linkages among descriptive dimensions. Once these
processes have been completed the researcher must report his or her interpretations and
conclusions.

References
https://www.simplilearn.com/data-analysis-methods-process-types-article
https://www.questionpro.com/blog/data-analysis-in-research/
https://www.questionpro.com/blog/data-analysis-in-research/amp/
www.researchgate.net
https://www.datapine.com/blog/data-interpretation-methods-benefits-problems/
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.questionpro.com/blog/data-analysis-in-research/
https://www.studocu.com/row/document/minhaj-university-lahore/research-methodology/data-
analysis-and-interpretation-in-research/15329974
http://kwangaikamed.weebly.com/data-collection-analysis--interpretation.html
https://conjointly.com/kb/descriptive-statistics/
https://www.questionpro.com/blog/data-analysis-in-research/
https://www.statisticshowto.com/probability-and-statistics/statistics-definitions/inferential-
statistics/
https://conjointly.com/kb/inferential-statistics/
https://methods.sagepub.com/reference/the-sage-encyclopedia-of-educational-research-
measurement-and-evaluation/i10750.xml