Assessment overview:
The aim of this assessment is to test students’ ability to analyse qualitative interview data. Students will be provided with transcripts from interviews with Sheffield residents collected as part of a study of residents’ housing circumstances, experiences and perceptions of the Sheffield housing market. Students will be required to undertake an individual thematic analysis of the data and write an essay on their qualitative analysis.
PLEASE READ THIS SHEET AND FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES VERY CAREFULLY.
Analysis essay (1,500 words plus references, but including quotes from the interview dataset): 60% of available marks.

Assessment aims
This is an assessment of your ability to thematically analyse in-depth qualitative data and form an argument based on empirical evidence. You will be given a set of five interview transcripts and be asked to code them thematically. You will be expected to do some of your own research on the academic literatures (i.e. social research methodology literature) on how to produce the thematic codes. You will also be expected to incorporate wider literature on your chosen theme/topic into the essay. For example, if you identify the theme of social segregation from the transcripts, then you will need to briefly introduce this concept and frame your essay within that wider literature.
Some introductory readings in the MOLE folder “assessment 2 recommended readings” should prove useful.
The three main criteria for the assessment will be:
• Your ability to work with qualitative data – to apply thematic codes to the interview data, to draw themes across interviews, and to compare and contrast interview responses.
• Your ability to form a coherent argument based upon data you have analysed, identify issues across the data, interpret interview responses and relate to the literature on research methods.
• Your ability to write clearly and to structure your analysis using clearly written English, clear headings and subheadings for appropriate sections, appropriate language and citation.

Marking criteria
Working with qualitative data
• Ability to apply thematic codes to the interview data, and the depth and quality of the coding
• Ability to compare and contrast responses across the interviews
Analytical and argumentation skills
• Ability to use your coding to analyse trends and themes in the data
• Ability to form a coherent argument, backed up by empirical evidence from the interview transcripts and informed by relevant academic debates and concepts
• Capacity to link research findings back to the broader field of inquiry and engage with the relevant literature (e.g. planning, urban design, development, real estate etc.)
Structure and clarity
• Essay structure and written clarity.
• Spelling, grammar and layout.

Suggested essay structure

Introduction (suggested 150 words)
• Present the core research question, theme or issue you wish to address (not the individual interview questions)
• Identify and briefly describe the key points of your analysis

Data analysis (suggested 1000 words)
• Present the analysis of the data.
• Discuss the main overarching themes that emerged from your coding (visual display in the form of tables, visual diagrams or spider-diagrams, conceptual maps may be appropriate but not a requirement) – You do not have to cover every issue raised in the transcripts, 3 or 4 themes may suffice and they may then generate further sub-themes and connections to other themes.
• Use direct quotes from the interviews to illustrate important perspectives. If using long quotes, please indent and italicise to mark it out from the main discussion text.
• Compare and contrast similar and competing perspectives within the data.

NOTE: Tables, spider-diagrams and conceptual maps will not be included in the word count

Discussion (suggested 350 words)
• Clearly discuss how your work has answered the research question or issue that you identified in the Introduction and addressed within the data.
• Briefly link your findings to the wider literature in the topic area.
• Explain the relevance of your analysis to the broader field:
o What value does this research have to the discipline (e.g. urban studies, real estate, design etc…)?
o What future research might be done, having analysed your findings? What further issues are raised?
o What research approaches and methodologies might complement a qualitative approach?
• Briefly summarise and conclude – giving a ‘take home message’ for the reader.