Case summaries
Producing case summaries
One of the dangers of thematic approaches like template analysis is that they can result in a loss of the sense of the individual person in the examination of themes occurring across a group of accounts (see "Pitfalls" for more on this). One device I often use to help me keep in mind the individuality of accounts is to produce summaries of each transcript early in the analysis. These summaries do not try to systematically include every theme identified in the transcript, but rather try to provide a condensed version of the person's account, highlighting those elements that seem most important in understanding their story. Summaries may include reflections on the style of the account as well as the content - for example the use of metaphors, or the general tone of the piece - stoical, optimistic, matter-of-fact, or whatever. Reflexive comments may also be included, such as how the interviewer or the data analyst (if a different person) felt about the account, the nature of the interaction between interview and participant, and so on. The degree of focus on aspects of the data other than the story content will vary according to the general methodological approach taken by the researcher. A realist case study with a large number of interviews would tend to be less concerned with aspects other than content than a small, in-depth phenomenological study, for example.
The limited realist epistemology of our Carers study meant that our summaries were mostly concerned with story content, but we did include other aspects where they appeared to offer something important to the interpretation, as will be evident in the example I am giving here of "Phyllis". This was the longest summary, because the interview raised some especially important issues in relation to our research aims.