Qualitative Research Methods: Collecting Evidence, Crafting Analysis, Communicating Impact

Step-by-step advice for constructing a qualitative project from beginning to end, covering both foundational theory and real-world application

Qualitative Research Methods: Collecting Evidence, Crafting Analysis, Communicating Impact guides you through sequential stages of a qualitative research project, from project design and data collection to analysis, interpretation, and presentation. Drawing on her background in qualitative research methods and human communication, Sarah J. Tracy shares personal and backstage stories while showing you how to code data, craft meaningful claims, develop theoretical explanations, and communicate research that impacts key stakeholders.

Employing a practical, problem-based contextual approach, the third edition of Qualitative Research Methods incorporates developments in textual, media, visual, arts-based, and digital analysis. New coverage includes social media data-scraping techniques, AI and ChatGPT, fieldwork and interviewing, digital ethnography, working with neurodivergent populations, adopting digital and traditional archival approaches, and much more. This edition includes a wealth of new examples, case studies, discussion questions, full-color visuals, and hands-on “Project Building Blocks” activities you can use at any stage of your qualitative research project.

Supported by a companion website containing extensive teaching and learning tools, Qualitative Research Methods: Collecting Evidence, Crafting Analysis, Communicating Impact is an indispensable resource for undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty across multiple disciplines, as well as researchers, ethnographers, and user experience professionals looking to hone their methodological practice.

SARAH J. TRACY is Professor and School Director of The Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University. She developed the “Big Tent” model for high-quality qualitative research and has published more than 100 scholarly monographs, in publications such as Communication Monographs, Management Communication Quarterly, and Communication Theory.