Analytical memos and notes in qualitative data analysis

What is an analytical memo?

Analytical memos are the notes that you make about your qualitative data, while you are analysing it.

There is a lot more to qualitative coding than just deciding which sections of text belong in which theme. It is a continuing, iterative and often subjective process, which can take weeks or even months. During this time, it’s essential to be recording your thoughts, reflecting on the research process, and keeping yourself writing and thinking about the bigger picture. Writing doesn’t start after the coding and analysis process; in qualitative research it often should precede, follow and run in parallel to an iterative interpretation.

The standard way to do this is either through a research journal (which is also vital during the data collection process) or through analytic memos.

Why should you use analytical memos for qualitative research?

Analytical memos create an important extra level of narrative: an interface between the participant’s data, the researcher’s interpretation and wider theory. You can also use memos as part of a summary process, to articulate your interpretations of the data in a more concise format, or even throw the data wider and larger by drawing from larger theory.

It’s also a good cognitive exercise: regularly make yourself write what you are thinking, and keep articulating yourself. It will make writing up at the end a lot easier in the end! Memos can be a very flexible tool, and qualitative software can help keep these notes organised. Here are 9 different ways you might use memos as part of your workflow for qualitative data analysis.

9 ways to use memos for qualitative analysis

1: Log surprises and intrigue in your qualitative data.

During your reading and coding, note things that are especially interesting, challenging or significant in the data. This is probably the most obvious way to use memos, but it’s important to do more than just ‘tag’ these sections. Reflect to yourself (and others) why these sections or statements stand out.

2: Identify points where you are not sure what the data means.

Record sections of the data that are ambiguous, could be interpreted in different ways, or just plain don’t fit neatly in to existing codes or interpretations. But again, this should be more than just ‘flagging’ bits that need to be looked at again later. It’s important to record why the section is different: sometimes the act of having to describe the section can help comprehension and illuminate the underlying causation.

3: Use memos as prompts for discussion with other researchers.

Memos are very important in team projects where multiple people are coding and analysing qualitative data collaboratively, as they can be used to explain why one researcher interpreted or coded sources in a certain way, and flag up ambiguous or interesting sections for discussion. This can help to spread the workload, but also allows for a plurality of interpretations, and peer-checking of assumptions and interpretations.

4: Create a paper trail with your memos.

Even if you are not working as part of a team, it can be useful to keep memos to explain your coding and analytical choices. This may be important to your supervisors (or viva panel) as part of a research thesis, and can be seen as good practice for sharing findings in which you are transparent about your interpretations. There are also some people with a positivist or quantitative outlook who find qualitative research difficult to trust because of the large amount of seemingly subjective interpretation. Memos which detail your decision making process can help ‘show your working out’ and justify your choices to others.

5: Challenge or confirm theory with your memos.

This is another common use of memos, to discuss how the data either supports or challenges theory. It is unusual for respondents to neatly say something like “I don’t think my life fits with the classical structure of an Aeschylean tragedy” should this happen to be your theoretical approach! This means you need to make these observations and higher interpretation, and note how particular statements will influence your interpretations and conclusions. If someone says something that turns your theoretical framework on its head, note it, but also use the memos as a space to record context that might be used later to explain this outlier. Memos like this might also help you identify patterns in the data that weren’t immediately obvious.

6: Question and critique your qualitative data and sources.

Respondents will not always say what they mean, and sometimes there is an unspoken agenda below the surface. Depending on the analytical approach, an important role of the researcher is often to draw deeper inferences which may be implied or hinted at by the discourse. Sometimes, participants will outright contradict themselves, or suggest answers which seem to be at odds with the rest of what they have shared. Memos are also a great place to note the unsaid. You can’t code data that isn’t there, but sometimes it’s really obvious that a respondent is avoiding discussing a particular issue (or person). Memos can note this observation, and discuss why topics might be uncomfortable or left out in the narrative.

7: Use memos as part of an iterative process.

Most qualitative research does not follow a linear structure; it is iterative and researchers go back and re-examine the data at different stages in the process. Memos should be no different; they can be analysed themselves, and should be revisited and reviewed as you go along to show changes in thought, or wider patterns that are emerging.

8: Use memos to record your prejudices and assumptions.

There is a lot of discussion in the literature about the importance of reflexivity in qualitative research, and recognising the influence of the non-neutral researcher voice. Too often, this does not go further than a short reflexivity/positionality statement, but should really be a constantly reconsidered part of the analytical process. Memos can be used as a prompt and record of your reflexive process, how the data is challenges your prejudices, or how you might be introducing bias in the interpretation of the data.

9: Log personal thoughts and future directions in your memos.

As you go through the data, you may be noticing interesting observations which are tangential, but might form the basis of a follow-on research project or reinterpretation of the data. Keeping memos as you go along will allow you to draw from this again and remember what excited you about the data in the first place.

Creating research memos in qualitative analysis software

Qualitative analysis software can help with the memo process, keeping them all in the same place, and allowing you to see all your memos together, or connected to the relevant section of data. However, most of the major software packages (Quirkos included) don’t exactly forefront the memo tools, so it is important to remember they are there and use them consistently through the analytical process.

Memos in Quirkos can be assigned to text in your qualitative data alongside your codes. You can also create a blank source to write memos that aren't necessarily attached to any text. Keeping your notes like this allows you to code your memos in the same way you would with your other data, and use the source properties to include or exclude your memos in reports and outputs as needed.

Another option is to use the 'Chat' window. The chat window is normally intended for collaborative analysis projects, but it is available even in projects you haven't shared, so you can use it as a dedicated place to write memos to yourself. These will be automatically logged and dated in the project data exports, e.g. in the 'Chat' section of the spreadsheet export.

If you often find yourself 'thinking out loud' to work through a research problem, consider taking audio memos as well. Sometimes talking through an issue that came up in your notes is a great way to view it from a new angle. Pretend you are chatting about the data to another person to figure out the most important aspects of the analysis. If you have Quirkos Transcribe, you can upload your audio memos to have them automatically transcribed into a blank source. We offer a generous 50 hours of transcription per month, so there's plenty of time you could use on your own notes, as well as the audio/video you recorded as part of data collection.

This article provides more detail and examples of qualitative memos in Quirkos.

There is a 2-week free trial of Quirkos, and it is so simple to use that you should be able to get going just by watching one of our short intro videos, or reading the built-in guide. We are also here to help at any stage of your process, with advice about the best way to record your analytical memos, coding frameworks or anything else. Don’t be shy, get in touch!

References and further reading:
Chapman, Y., Francis, K., 2008. Memoing in qualitative research, Journal of Research in Nursing, 13(1).

Gibbs, G., 2018. Analysing Qualitative Data. Sage, London.

Saldaña, J., 2015. 'Writing Analytic Memos about Narrative and Visual Data', in The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers. Sage, London.