Message-ID: <3652FAB4.2FE9E739@ssc.upenn.edu>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 11:49:56 -0500
From: "Virginia Adams O'Connell" <via@ssc.upenn.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Medical Sociology List <MedSoc@csf.colorado.edu>
Subject: Qualitative Software
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Thank you to everyone who has responded to my query.  I will give a
brief synopsis of my data so that everyone can better understand why I
am interested in a software package (I probably should have done this in
the first place, you say?).  I have "qualitative" answers to about five
survey questions for roughly 1000 surgical residents.  My doctoral
dissertation is about attrition in residency programs for five surgical
specialties.  I would like to use a software package for organizing the
qualitative comments by question, and by such characteristics as race
and gender.  I can certainly do this by rote, but was looking for a
facilitating tool since my sample is so big.
    From the comments I have gotten so far, people are reluctant to use
packages like NUDIST since they require "indexing" which some find
dangerously limiting.  Has anyone had much success with Ethnograph 4.0
which claims not to require the same index trees for sorting and
organizing qualitative data?
    By the way, I agree with many of you that nothing can replace a
personal relationship with your qualitative data, but I do not want to
rule out the possibility that some software packages might make my work
more efficient.  For example, I would not trade in my word processor for
my old typewriter.

Virginia Adams O'Connell
University of Pennsylvania
Department of Sociology
email via@ssc.upenn.edu