Thematic analysis is an approach used in qualitative research that allows you to identify and analyze themes in your data. If you want to find out how this approach can help you write a better dissertation or paper, keep reading! If you are not aware of different types of thematic approach, you may face challenges. You may not be able to collect all the necessary information. The organized data will be a challenge to build a logical sequence. It will also confuse you in identifying which information is to use in different sections. Proper information helps you bring clarity, sequence and sound knowledge to the study. Also, if you are stuck while using this analysis, this article is for you. We cover everything from types of thematic analysis and how each type is used in dissertation writing.
What Is Thematic Analysis?
Thematic analysis is used in the qualitative research method. In this, you read a set of qualitative data, such as information collected from in-depth interviews, open-ended questions, or focus groups. Through this data set, you identify patterns to drive different themes. The researcher’s subjective experience plays a significant role in cleaning and transforming the data for better interpretations.
What Are Different Types Of Thematic Analysis?
There are three different types of thematic approach. Each type of this analysis is different from the others. The details of each type are given below:
Inductive Thematic Analysis
In thematic approach, you can generate themes inductively from the data at the initial level from theories. In an inductive thematic analysis, your generated themes are highly linked to the raw data. They have very little connection with the questions you will ask the study participants. You will code your raw data without using the researcher’s analytical preconceptions or the existing coding frame. In simple words, inductive thematic analysis is a data-driven analysis.
Applications of Inductive Thematic Analysis
This approach is good to go when you aim to determine the experience and other opinions of an audience at the time of data collection for research. The best example can be the open-ended questions in the questionnaire. Also, you can find it applicable while conducting interviews for academic research or organizational project study.
Writing Tips for Analysis
The following tips can help you write an inductive thematic analysis:
- First of all, you have to know about the base of data. It helps you to get insights into data, and you can better understand the fundamental aspects.
- The second step is about assigning codes to data. This step aims to give you a description of information collected in the form of data.
- After assigning codes to your data, you are supposed to work on searches related to themes. You can generate data patterns, so it becomes easy to know about an effective theme. The data theme is the most important thing which can make your analysis stand out. Similarly, if the theme of study is inaccurate, it can ruin all of your efforts. Also, it can become the cause of waste of time.
- Once you are done with the search related to a theme, you need to review them. At the time of review, you have to see if some themes are overlapping. Furthermore, each theme has to be clear and meaningful. In order to make it clear, you should ensure simple language and the right choice of words. On the other hand, you can make it meaningful by ensuring that it is directly representing the thesis statement of research. Also, you have to avoid too narrow or too broad theme. By working on these points, you can move in the right direction with compelling themes.
- In the next step, you have to define themes with proper descriptions. Define each theme in such a way which can engage the reader effectively. The use of a coherent story while defining a theme can help you a lot.
- Finally, you have to analyze the whole work to split research work. At the time of conducting an inductive thematic study, you have to be careful about the choice of questions. You need to summarize the finding of research work and make it engaging. This is the last step of inductive thematic analysis, which can make your work reliable.
- Deductive Thematic Analysis
Deductive thematic approach is driven by the analysis or theories of the researcher. It will generate very little detail of your data and will only give a detailed analysis of few aspects of your data. Before doing any research, you must understand the difference between deductive and inductive thematic analysis, as it will guide you in selecting a perfect method to generate themes.
Semantic Thematic Analysis
Another type of thematic analysis is named as semantic. In semantic analysis, you have to deal with subjective data in qualitative research. In subjective data, every piece of information is not useful; you have to get meaningful data from scratch. This type of thematic approach allows you to make interpretations of data. In this type of analysis, you do not have to put much effort, but a computer is supposed to work on the structure of sentences. It analyzes the subjective data and develops relationships between words, sentences and paragraphs. In simple words, you can say that this type works well to generate scientific theories. While using a semantic approach, you have to be very careful about the correct structure. If you find it difficult to work on semantic thematic approach, you can go for some service as masters dissertation help.
Concluding Lines
The thematic approach can Assignment help you uncover new insights, make sense of large data sets, and communicate your research findings to others in a better way. However, if you are unfamiliar with the process and types, it can seem more complex than it is. If you’re planning to write a dissertation, you should use thematic analysis to interpret the data for qualitative research. Based on the objective and problem statement of research, you can identify which type of thematic approach can help you in generating effective results.
