Doing Qualitative Research: A Comprehensive Guide

"As a novice researcher and doctoral student myself, I found this text basic, resourceful, and encouraging. I now feel that my research journey has been segmented into individual steps that are both manageable and practical." 
―NACADA (National ACademic ADvising Association)


Chock-full of useful pedagogy, Doing Qualitative Research contains interdisciplinary and real-world examples and student diaries that speak to those readers undertaking new research projects and qualitative dissertations.

Key Features

• Offers a thorough review of the major methods in qualitative research and data analysis techniques specific to each method
• Gives practical advice on key issues, such as defining "originality" and narrowing down a topic
• Presents end-of-chapter accounts of current or former graduate students′ experiences with the topics covered in the respective chapters
• Contains web-based exercises designed to help students and their instructors incorporate web-based learning in their courses
• Includes exercises to test readers′ knowledge and to encourage the development of relevant skills

Intended Audience

This lively, accessible textbook is ideal for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in the social sciences―including those in sociology, education, communications, anthropology, and health departments.

David Silverman trained as a sociologist at the London School of Economics and the University of California, Los Angeles. He taught for 32 years at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is interested in conversation and discourse analysis and he has researched medical consultations and HIV-test counselling.

He is the author of Interpreting Qualitative Data (Seventh Edition, 2024) and A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Qualitative Research (Second Edition, 2013). He is also the editor of Qualitative Research (Sixth Edition, 2026) and the Sage series, Introducing Qualitative Methods. In recent years, he has offered short, hands-on workshops in qualitative research for research students and faculty at universities in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.

Now retired from full-time work, David aims to watch one hundred days of cricket a year. He also enjoys voluntary work in an old people’s home where he sings with residents with dementia and strokes.

Amir B. Marvasti is Associate Professor of Sociology at Pennsylvania State University, Altoona. His research focuses on the social construction of deviant identities in everyday life. He is the author of Being Homeless: Textual and Narrative Constructions (Lexington Books 2003), Qualitative Research in Sociology (Sage 2003), Middle Eastern Lives in America (with Karyn McKinney, Rowman and Littlefield 2004), and Doing Qualitative Research: A Comprehensive Guide (with David Silverman, Sage 2008). His articles have been published in the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Qualitative Inquiry, Symbolic Interaction, and Critical Sociology.