6.3 Processing and Analysis of Data

Processing = the raw-to-ready transformation: the editing (the completeness and legibility check), the coding (the categories assigned — the open answers classified; the qualitative data's theme codes), the entry (the digital capture), the cleaning (the errors and outliers detected, the double-entry check), the tabulation (the simple tables' assembly). Analysis = the processed data's interrogation against the questions/hypotheses: the descriptive summary (the portrait), the cross-group comparison, the association-and-relationship testing (the quantitative), the theme development and the pattern pursuit (the qualitative), the integration (the mixed design's weaving). The discipline throughout: the analysis plan pre-committed (U4's design — the analysis is not the data's post-hoc rummage), the negative findings honoured (the null result is a result), the analyst's own bias guarded (the disconfirming evidence actively sought).