Document Analysis

Conceptual Overview and Discussion

Documents can include a wide variety of materials relevant to the case under study. In Sharan Merriam's view, documents comprise a variety of written, visual, and physical material, including any artifacts that can shed light on the case. In this view, documents are by-products of human activity that “document” their activity over time. Because these documents have been created through ongoing day-to-day activities unrelated to the present research they can provide authentic records that shed light on multiple facets of the case and can provide clues that may be useful in framing interview questions and observation protocols. Documents can be categorized into three main types: (1) public records, (2) personal documents, and (3) physical materials. A fourth category of documents are those created by the researcher, such as field notes and a research journal. Many of these documents may be created and/or stored in an electronic environment.

Although at times there is a clear distinction between public and private documents, at other times the line between them is quite blurred, creating a continuum from completely public, to semi-public, to semi-private, to completely private. Personal documents can now be found anywhere along this continuum. With burgeoning online venues such as personal Web pages, Facebook, and numerous blogs, the personal easily becomes available to the public. Traditional public records include anything that is available for public use, although some of these are more readily available to the public than others. These documents include (but are not limited to) census data; newspaper articles and archives, maps; court documents; wills; company and government policy documents; manuals; handbooks; photographs; magazines; books; brochures; and advertisements, from billboards, to flyers, to television commercials. The myriad range of public documents available requires creativity on the part of the researcher in identifying which might be most relevant to the particular case. Along with researcher creativity, research participants can point to valuable documents the researcher might not have thought of, especially those that are not completely public. Thus, whereas documents can help lead to good interview questions, interviews can also lead to new document sources. This category could include semi-public documents, such as employee contracts, manuals and policy handbooks, minutes, payroll lists, health records, and so on, to leads on personal documents, such as photo collections, family histories, diaries, letters, scrapbooks, videos, and other electronically stored family or individual records. This category of documents, by representing accounts created by individuals or particular interest groups or organizations, can provide valuable perspectives on the case that likely will not be found in documents originally created for the general public. Finally, artifacts and physical traces as documentation of human activity can provide rich data sources to analyze.

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