6.4 Interpretation and Presentation of Data

Interpretation = the analysed data's meaning-making — the bridge from findings to conclusions: what do the numbers and themes SAY about the question? The interpretive disciplines: (i) the question-anchored reading (the findings tied to the objectives, not free- associated); (ii) the rival-explanations rule (the alternative readings weighed and excluded — validity's interpretive face); (iii) the scope-honesty (the generalisation's limits declared — the one court's morning is the one court's morning); (iv) the theory-linkage (the findings read against the literature of U3 — the gap confirmed, the surprise explained). Presentation = the findings communicated: the tables (the standardized rows-and-columns, the title-and-source discipline), the figures and charts (the bar, the pie, the line — each honest: the axis's integrity, no chart's deception), the narrative text (the findings chapter's prose — the number and its meaning together), the annexes (the instrument, the full tables — the reader's audit trail of U7).