Qualitative Data Collection Approaches:
- Gather observational notes by conducting an observation as a participant
- Gather observational notes by conducting an observation as an observer
- Conduct an unstructured, open-ended interview and take interview notes
- Conduct an unstructured, open-ended interview, audiotape the interview, and transcribe the interview
- Keep a journal during the research study
- Have a participant keep a journal during the research study
- Optically scan newspaper accounts
- Collect personal letters from participants
- Analyze public documents (e.g., official memos, minutes, records, archival material)
- Examine autobiographies and biographies
- Have a participant write her or his autobiography
- Write your own (the researcher's) autobiography
- Have participants take photographs or videotapes (i.e., photo elicitation)
- Examine physical trace evidence (e.g., footprints in the snow)
- Videotape a social situation or an individual/group
- Examine photographs or videotapes
- Collect sounds (e.g., musical sounds, a child's laughter, car horns honking)
- Collect e-mail or electronic messages
- Examine possessions or ritual objects to elicit views during an interview
- Collect smells, tastes, or sensations through touch
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Adopted from Creswell (1998) and Creswell (2002)