How I survived data analysis (so far)...

Assalamualaikum (Peace be upon you),

Recently, I was talking to a fellow Bruneian about ways to analyze fieldwork data and the write-up that follows. It made me think about the challenges I had last year, when I first analyzed my data. Below are three basic tips/suggestions for anyone doing research for the first time.

1. Keep track of everything!

Go anal! Be pedantic!

I now keep a research doodlebook (the technical term is probably 'research journal/diary'), a statistics logbook and I maintain strict version controls of every word document and SPSS file I create. 

• The research journal is one of the more common things research students are told to keep. It's where we write notes, jot down ideas (that we fear may escape our thoughts at any second), and where we doodle some rather ugly or scary-looking diagram that might help our research. 
• The statistic logbook, on the other hand, is less common. When I run statistical tests, I'm easily lost in what I had done, what the variables are, whether I tested all assumptions etc. So the logbook keeps me sane, happy and acknowledge that life is good...(until some statistically insignificant findings comes up!).
• I used to work in a company where version control is important, i.e. the first document is named, for instance 'Umar's Recipe for Disaster v 0.1' and further changes are '.... v 0.2' until the first complete draft is '... v1.0' and so on. Doing this makes life simpler when you need to backtrack to a previous version, to re-instate that scary-looking diagram back to your latest draft.

2. Foot pedal

Aside from statistics, I also did some interviews which I had to transcribe. I used a foot pedal (which I now treasure and will bring with me, should I get secluded on an island, for no other reason than to call it 'Wilson'). 

A foot pedal lets you pause, fast forward and play the conversation using your foot, whilst your hands are free to type away, cringing at the sound of your own voice or that lame joke you told the interviewee. I use the infinity USB foot pedal, which is available at Amazon. A must have for interview-related research!

3. Credo reference

If your university subscribes to Credo Reference, you should definitely try it out and see if it works for you. It's the Wikipedia of the academic world. I use it to get a first grasp of an unfamiliar concept. It's essentially an online reference that provide entries from encyclopedias, dictionaries etc. 

I hope the above helps, in one way or another. 

Till next time.

Peace,

Umar