Research Data

Data entry for my research is going slower than I thought it would. There are some obvious inconsistencies either because the respondent did not fully understand a question or the interviewer noted it down wrongly. It is a frustrating process going through every single response, sort out the meaningful ones and discard the ones that make no sense at all. But the good thing about doing the data entry myself is getting to know my data up close and personal, especially because I did not personally conduct any interviews in the later stage of the project. On a related note, as much as cold hard data is important, I think it is very important to understand what it does not tell you. When I did the interviews, I took down copious notes to help me understand certain responses and issues. Since it was my own research, I knew where to ask for clarifications, ask additional questions and make the interviews open ended where necessary. In some cases, patient and very helpful respondents spent up to three hours with me answering question after question (These are the 'First 17' respondents who volunteered to participate at the very beginning and helped me lay deep foundations for my research). The problem with subsequently 'outsourcing' to a survey agency and making the target sample time and (very) budget sensitive is that I ended up a bit short of those complete stories I was looking for. The average interview conducted by this agency's field interviewer took about 30 minutes and in many cases appointments were obtained through cold calls. But then again, with my larger data set I know exactly what has fallen through the cracks and what needs to be mended if a similar survey needs to be done in the future. As for now and the rest of my thesis, its what Frank Sinatra said- 'I'll state my case, of which I'm certain'.