analysis of data thesis example

11 Tips For Writing a Dissertation Data Analysis

Since the evolution of the fourth industrial revolution – the Digital World; lots of data have surrounded us. There are terabytes of data around us or in data centers that need to be processed and used. The data needs to be appropriately analyzed to process it, and Dissertation data analysis forms its basis. If data analysis is valid and free from errors, the research outcomes will be reliable and lead to a successful dissertation. 

Considering the complexity of many data analysis projects, it becomes challenging to get precise results if analysts are not familiar with data analysis tools and tests properly. The analysis is a time-taking process that starts with collecting valid and relevant data and ends with the demonstration of error-free results.

So, in today’s topic, we will cover the need to analyze data, dissertation data analysis, and mainly the tips for writing an outstanding data analysis dissertation. If you are a doctoral student and plan to perform dissertation data analysis on your data, make sure that you give this article a thorough read for the best tips!

What is Data Analysis in Dissertation?

Dissertation Data Analysis  is the process of understanding, gathering, compiling, and processing a large amount of data. Then identifying common patterns in responses and critically examining facts and figures to find the rationale behind those outcomes.

Even f you have the data collected and compiled in the form of facts and figures, it is not enough for proving your research outcomes. There is still a need to apply dissertation data analysis on your data; to use it in the dissertation. It provides scientific support to the thesis and conclusion of the research.

Data Analysis Tools

There are plenty of indicative tests used to analyze data and infer relevant results for the discussion part. Following are some tests  used to perform analysis of data leading to a scientific conclusion:

11 Most Useful Tips for Dissertation Data Analysis

Doctoral students need to perform dissertation data analysis and then dissertation to receive their degree. Many Ph.D. students find it hard to do dissertation data analysis because they are not trained in it.

1. Dissertation Data Analysis Services

The first tip applies to those students who can afford to look for help with their dissertation data analysis work. It’s a viable option, and it can help with time management and with building the other elements of the dissertation with much detail.

Dissertation Analysis services are professional services that help doctoral students with all the basics of their dissertation work, from planning, research and clarification, methodology, dissertation data analysis and review, literature review, and final powerpoint presentation.

One great reference for dissertation data analysis professional services is Statistics Solutions , they’ve been around for over 22 years helping students succeed in their dissertation work. You can find the link to their website here .

For a proper dissertation data analysis, the student should have a clear understanding and statistical knowledge. Through this knowledge and experience, a student can perform dissertation analysis on their own. 

Following are some helpful tips for writing a splendid dissertation data analysis:

2. Relevance of Collected Data

If the data is irrelevant and not appropriate, you might get distracted from the point of focus. To show the reader that you can critically solve the problem, make sure that you write a theoretical proposition regarding the selection  and analysis of data.

3. Data Analysis

For analysis, it is crucial to use such methods that fit best with the types of data collected and the research objectives. Elaborate on these methods and the ones that justify your data collection methods thoroughly. Make sure to make the reader believe that you did not choose your method randomly. Instead, you arrived at it after critical analysis and prolonged research.

On the other hand,  quantitative analysis  refers to the analysis and interpretation of facts and figures – to build reasoning behind the advent of primary findings. An assessment of the main results and the literature review plays a pivotal role in qualitative and quantitative analysis.

The overall objective of data analysis is to detect patterns and inclinations in data and then present the outcomes implicitly.  It helps in providing a solid foundation for critical conclusions and assisting the researcher to complete the dissertation proposal. 

4. Qualitative Data Analysis

Qualitative data refers to data that does not involve numbers. You are required to carry out an analysis of the data collected through experiments, focus groups, and interviews. This can be a time-taking process because it requires iterative examination and sometimes demanding the application of hermeneutics. Note that using qualitative technique doesn’t only mean generating good outcomes but to unveil more profound knowledge that can be transferrable.

Presenting qualitative data analysis in a dissertation  can also be a challenging task. It contains longer and more detailed responses. Placing such comprehensive data coherently in one chapter of the dissertation can be difficult due to two reasons. Firstly, we cannot figure out clearly which data to include and which one to exclude. Secondly, unlike quantitative data, it becomes problematic to present data in figures and tables. Making information condensed into a visual representation is not possible. As a writer, it is of essence to address both of these challenges.

          Qualitative Data Analysis Methods

Following are the methods used to perform quantitative data analysis. 

•   Deductive Method

This method involves analyzing qualitative data based on an argument that a researcher already defines. It’s a comparatively easy approach to analyze data. It is suitable for the researcher with a fair idea about the responses they are likely to receive from the questionnaires.

•  Inductive Method

In this method, the researcher analyzes the data not based on any predefined rules. It is a time-taking process used by students who have very little knowledge of the research phenomenon.

5. Quantitative Data Analysis

Quantitative data contains facts and figures obtained from scientific research and requires extensive statistical analysis. After collection and analysis, you will be able to conclude. Generic outcomes can be accepted beyond the sample by assuming that it is representative – one of the preliminary checkpoints to carry out in your analysis to a larger group. This method is also referred to as the “scientific method”, gaining its roots from natural sciences.

The Presentation of quantitative data  depends on the domain to which it is being presented. It is beneficial to consider your audience while writing your findings. Quantitative data for  hard sciences  might require numeric inputs and statistics. As for  natural sciences , such comprehensive analysis is not required.

                Quantitative Analysis Methods

Following are some of the methods used to perform quantitative data analysis. 

• Trend analysis:  This corresponds to a statistical analysis approach to look at the trend of quantitative data collected over a considerable period.
• Cross-tabulation:  This method uses a tabula way to draw readings among data sets in research.  
• Conjoint analysis :   Quantitative data analysis method that can collect and analyze advanced measures. These measures provide a thorough vision about purchasing decisions and the most importantly, marked parameters.
• TURF analysis:  This approach assesses the total market reach of a service or product or a mix of both. 
• Gap analysis:  It utilizes the  side-by-side matrix  to portray quantitative data, which captures the difference between the actual and expected performance. 
• Text analysis:  In this method, innovative tools enumerate  open-ended data  into easily understandable data. 

6. Data Presentation Tools

Since large volumes of data need to be represented, it becomes a difficult task to present such an amount of data in coherent ways. To resolve this issue, consider all the available choices you have, such as tables, charts, diagrams, and graphs. 

Tables help in presenting both qualitative and quantitative data concisely. While presenting data, always keep your reader in mind. Anything clear to you may not be apparent to your reader. So, constantly rethink whether your data presentation method is understandable to someone less conversant with your research and findings. If the answer is “No”, you may need to rethink your Presentation. 

7. Include Appendix or Addendum

After presenting a large amount of data, your dissertation analysis part might get messy and look disorganized. Also, you would not be cutting down or excluding the data you spent days and months collecting. To avoid this, you should include an appendix part. 

The data you find hard to arrange within the text, include that in the  appendix part of a dissertation . And place questionnaires, copies of focus groups and interviews, and data sheets in the appendix. On the other hand, one must put the statistical analysis and sayings quoted by interviewees within the dissertation. 

8. Thoroughness of Data

It is a common misconception that the data presented is self-explanatory. Most of the students provide the data and quotes and think that it is enough and explaining everything. It is not sufficient. Rather than just quoting everything, you should analyze and identify which data you will use to approve or disapprove your standpoints. 

Thoroughly demonstrate the ideas and critically analyze each perspective taking care of the points where errors can occur. Always make sure to discuss the anomalies and strengths of your data to add credibility to your research.

9. Discussing Data

Discussion of data involves elaborating the dimensions to classify patterns, themes, and trends in presented data. In addition, to balancing, also take theoretical interpretations into account. Discuss the reliability of your data by assessing their effect and significance. Do not hide the anomalies. While using interviews to discuss the data, make sure you use relevant quotes to develop a strong rationale. 

It also involves answering what you are trying to do with the data and how you have structured your findings. Once you have presented the results, the reader will be looking for interpretation. Hence, it is essential to deliver the understanding as soon as you have submitted your data.

10. Findings and Results

Findings refer to the facts derived after the analysis of collected data. These outcomes should be stated; clearly, their statements should tightly support your objective and provide logical reasoning and scientific backing to your point. This part comprises of majority part of the dissertation. 

In the finding part, you should tell the reader what they are looking for. There should be no suspense for the reader as it would divert their attention. State your findings clearly and concisely so that they can get the idea of what is more to come in your dissertation.

11. Connection with Literature Review

At the ending of your data analysis in the dissertation, make sure to compare your data with other published research. In this way, you can identify the points of differences and agreements. Check the consistency of your findings if they meet your expectations—lookup for bottleneck position. Analyze and discuss the reasons behind it. Identify the key themes, gaps, and the relation of your findings with the literature review. In short, you should link your data with your research question, and the questions should form a basis for literature.

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Wrapping Up

Writing data analysis in the dissertation involves dedication, and its implementations demand sound knowledge and proper planning. Choosing your topic, gathering relevant data, analyzing it, presenting your data and findings correctly, discussing the results, connecting with the literature and conclusions are milestones in it. Among these checkpoints, the Data analysis stage is most important and requires a lot of keenness.

In this article, we thoroughly looked at the tips that prove valuable for writing a data analysis in a dissertation. Make sure to give this article a thorough read before you write data analysis in the dissertation leading to the successful future of your research.

Oxbridge Essays. Top 10 Tips for Writing a Dissertation Data Analysis.

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As an IT Engineer, who is passionate about learning and sharing. I have worked and learned quite a bit from Data Engineers, Data Analysts, Business Analysts, and Key Decision Makers almost for the past 5 years. Interested in learning more about Data Science and How to leverage it for better decision-making in my business and hopefully help you do the same in yours.

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In STAGE NINE: Data analysis , we discuss the data you will have collected during STAGE EIGHT: Data collection . However, before you collect your data, having followed the research strategy you set out in this STAGE SIX , it is useful to think about the data analysis techniques you may apply to your data when it is collected.

The statistical tests that are appropriate for your dissertation will depend on (a) the research questions/hypotheses you have set, (b) the research design you are using, and (c) the nature of your data. You should already been clear about your research questions/hypotheses from STAGE THREE: Setting research questions and/or hypotheses , as well as knowing the goal of your research design from STEP TWO: Research design in this STAGE SIX: Setting your research strategy . These two pieces of information - your research questions/hypotheses and research design - will let you know, in principle , the statistical tests that may be appropriate to run on your data in order to answer your research questions.

We highlight the words in principle and may because the most appropriate statistical test to run on your data not only depend on your research questions/hypotheses and research design, but also the nature of your data . As you should have identified in STEP THREE: Research methods , and in the article, Types of variables , in the Fundamentals part of Lærd Dissertation, (a) not all data is the same, and (b) not all variables are measured in the same way (i.e., variables can be dichotomous, ordinal or continuous). In addition, not all data is normal , nor is the data when comparing groups necessarily equal , terms we explain in the Data Analysis section in the Fundamentals part of Lærd Dissertation. As a result, you might think that running a particular statistical test is correct at this point of setting your research strategy (e.g., a statistical test called a dependent t-test ), based on the research questions/hypotheses you have set, but when you collect your data (i.e., during STAGE EIGHT: Data collection ), the data may fail certain assumptions that are important to such a statistical test (i.e., normality and homogeneity of variance ). As a result, you have to run another statistical test (e.g., a Wilcoxon signed-rank test instead of a dependent t-test ).

At this stage in the dissertation process, it is important, or at the very least, useful to think about the data analysis techniques you may apply to your data when it is collected. We suggest that you do this for two reasons:

REASON A Supervisors sometimes expect you to know what statistical analysis you will perform at this stage of the dissertation process

This is not always the case, but if you have had to write a Dissertation Proposal or Ethics Proposal , there is sometimes an expectation that you explain the type of data analysis that you plan to carry out. An understanding of the data analysis that you will carry out on your data can also be an expected component of the Research Strategy chapter of your dissertation write-up (i.e., usually Chapter Three: Research Strategy ). Therefore, it is a good time to think about the data analysis process if you plan to start writing up this chapter at this stage.

REASON B It takes time to get your head around data analysis

When you come to analyse your data in STAGE NINE: Data analysis , you will need to think about (a) selecting the correct statistical tests to perform on your data, (b) running these tests on your data using a statistics package such as SPSS, and (c) learning how to interpret the output from such statistical tests so that you can answer your research questions or hypotheses. Whilst we show you how to do this for a wide range of scenarios in the in the Data Analysis section in the Fundamentals part of Lærd Dissertation, it can be a time consuming process. Unless you took an advanced statistics module/option as part of your degree (i.e., not just an introductory course to statistics, which are often taught in undergraduate and master?s degrees), it can take time to get your head around data analysis. Starting this process at this stage (i.e., STAGE SIX: Research strategy ), rather than waiting until you finish collecting your data (i.e., STAGE EIGHT: Data collection ) is a sensible approach.

Final thoughts...

Setting the research strategy for your dissertation required you to describe, explain and justify the research paradigm, quantitative research design, research method(s), sampling strategy, and approach towards research ethics and data analysis that you plan to follow, as well as determine how you will ensure the research quality of your findings so that you can effectively answer your research questions/hypotheses. However, from a practical perspective, just remember that the main goal of STAGE SIX: Research strategy is to have a clear research strategy that you can implement (i.e., operationalize ). After all, if you are unable to clearly follow your plan and carry out your research in the field, you will struggle to answer your research questions/hypotheses. Once you are sure that you have a clear plan, it is a good idea to take a step back, speak with your supervisor, and assess where you are before moving on to collect data. Therefore, when you are ready, proceed to STAGE SEVEN: Assessment point .

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Writing the Data Analysis Chapter(s): Results and Evidence

Posted by Rene Tetzner | Oct 19, 2021 | PhD Success | 0 |

4.4 Writing the Data Analysis Chapter(s): Results and Evidence

Unlike the introduction, literature review and methodology chapter(s), your results chapter(s) will need to be written for the first time as you draft your thesis even if you submitted a proposal, though this part of your thesis will certainly build upon the preceding chapters. You should have carefully recorded and collected the data (test results, participant responses, computer print outs, observations, transcriptions, notes of various kinds etc.) from your research as you conducted it, so now is the time to review, organise and analyse the data. If your study is quantitative in nature, make sure that you know what all the numbers mean and that you consider them in direct relation to the topic, problem or phenomenon you are investigating, and especially in relation to your research questions and hypotheses. You may find that you require the services of a statistician to help make sense of the data, in which case, obtaining that help sooner rather than later is advisable, because you need to understand your results thoroughly before you can write about them. If, on the other hand, your study is qualitative, you will need to read through the data you have collected several times to become familiar with them both as a whole and in detail so that you can establish important themes, patterns and categories. Remember that ‘qualitative analysis is a creative process and requires thoughtful judgments about what is significant and meaningful in the data’ (Roberts, 2010, p.174; see also Miles & Huberman, 1994) – judgements that often need to be made before the findings can be effectively analysed and presented. If you are combining methodologies in your research, you will also need to consider relationships between the results obtained from the different methods, integrating all the data you have obtained and discovering how the results of one approach support or correlate with the results of another. Ideally, you will have taken careful notes recording your initial thoughts and analyses about the sources you consulted and the results and evidence provided by particular methods and instruments as you put them into practice (as suggested in Sections 2.1.2 and 2.1.4), as these will prove helpful while you consider how best to present your results in your thesis.

Although the ways in which to present and organise the results of doctoral research differ markedly depending on the nature of the study and its findings, as on author and committee preferences and university and department guidelines, there are several basic principles that apply to virtually all theses. First and foremost is the need to present the results of your research both clearly and concisely, and in as objective and factual a manner as possible. There will be time and space to elaborate and interpret your results and speculate on their significance and implications in the final discussion chapter(s) of your thesis, but, generally speaking, such reflection on the meaning of the results should be entirely separate from the factual report of your research findings. There are exceptions, of course, and some candidates, supervisors and departments may prefer the factual presentation and interpretive discussion of results to be blended, just as some thesis topics may demand such treatment, but this is rare and best avoided unless there are persuasive reasons to avoid separating the facts from your thoughts about them. If you do find that you need to blend facts and interpretation in reporting your results, make sure that your language leaves no doubt about the line between the two: words such as ‘seems,’ ‘appears,’ ‘may,’ ‘might,’ probably’ and the like will effectively distinguish analytical speculation from more factual reporting (see also Section 4.5).

You need not dedicate much space in this part of the thesis to the methods you used to arrive at your results because these have already been described in your methodology chapter(s), but they can certainly be revisited briefly to clarify or lend structure to your report. Results are most often presented in a straightforward narrative form which is often supplemented by tables and perhaps by figures such as graphs, charts and maps. An effective approach is to decide immediately which information would be best included in tables and figures, and then to prepare those tables and figures before you begin writing the text for the chapter (see Section 4.4.1 on designing effective tables and figures). Arranging your data into the visually immediate formats provided by tables and figures can, for one, produce interesting surprises by enabling you to see trends and details that you may not have noticed previously, and writing the report of your results will prove easier when you have the tables and figures to work with just as your readers ultimately will. In addition, while the text of the results chapter(s) should certainly highlight the most notable data included in tables and figures, it is essential not to repeat information unnecessarily, so writing with the tables and figures already constructed will help you keep repetition to a minimum. Finally, writing about the tables and figures you create will help you test their clarity and effectiveness for your readers, and you can make any necessary adjustments to the tables and figures as you work. Be sure to refer to each table and figure by number in your text and to make it absolutely clear what you want your readers to see or understand in the table or figure (e.g., ‘see Table 1 for the scores’ and ‘Figure 2 shows this relationship’).

Beyond combining textual narration with the data presented in tables and figures, you will need to organise your report of the results in a manner best suited to the material. You may choose to arrange the presentation of your results chronologically or in a hierarchical order that represents their importance; you might subdivide your results into sections (or separate chapters if there is a great deal of information to accommodate) focussing on the findings of different kinds of methodology (quantitative versus qualitative, for instance) or of different tests, trials, surveys, reviews, case studies and so on; or you may want to create sections (or chapters) focussing on specific themes, patterns or categories or on your research questions and/or hypotheses. The last approach allows you to cluster results that relate to a particular question or hypothesis into a single section and can be particularly useful because it provides cohesion for the thesis as a whole and forces you to focus closely on the issues central to the topic, problem or phenomenon you are investigating. You will, for instance, be able to refer back to the questions and hypotheses presented in your introduction (see Section 3.1), to answer the questions and confirm or dismiss the hypotheses and to anticipate in relation to those questions and hypotheses the discussion and interpretation of your findings that will appear in the next part of the thesis (see Section 4.5). Less effective is an approach that organises the presentation of results according to the items of a survey or questionnaire, because these lend the structure of the instrument used to the results instead of connecting those results directly to the aims, themes and argument of your thesis, but such an organisation can certainly be an important early step in your analysis of the findings and might even be valid for the final thesis if, for instance, your work focuses on developing the instrument involved.

The results generated by doctoral research are unique, and this book cannot hope to outline all the possible approaches for presenting the data and analyses that constitute research results, but it is essential that you devote considerable thought and special care to the way in which you structure the report of your results (Section 6.1 on headings may prove helpful). Whatever structure you choose should accurately reflect the nature of your results and highlight their most important and interesting trends, and it should also effectively allow you (in the next part of the thesis) to discuss and speculate upon your findings in ways that will test the premises of your study, work well in the overall argument of your thesis and lead to significant implications for your research. Regardless of how you organise the main body of your results chapter(s), however, you should include a final paragraph (or more than one paragraph if necessary) that briefly summarises and explains the key results and also guides the reader on to the discussion and interpretation of those results in the following chapter(s).

Why PhD Success?

To Graduate Successfully

This article is part of a book called "PhD Success" which focuses on the writing process of a phd thesis, with its aim being to provide sound practices and principles for reporting and formatting in text the methods, results and discussion of even the most innovative and unique research in ways that are clear, correct, professional and persuasive.

The assumption of the book is that the doctoral candidate reading it is both eager to write and more than capable of doing so, but nonetheless requires information and guidance on exactly what he or she should be writing and how best to approach the task. The basic components of a doctoral thesis are outlined and described, as are the elements of complete and accurate scholarly references, and detailed descriptions of writing practices are clarified through the use of numerous examples.

The basic components of a doctoral thesis are outlined and described, as are the elements of complete and accurate scholarly references, and detailed descriptions of writing practices are clarified through the use of numerous examples. PhD Success provides guidance for students familiar with English and the procedures of English universities, but it also acknowledges that many theses in the English language are now written by candidates whose first language is not English, so it carefully explains the scholarly styles, conventions and standards expected of a successful doctoral thesis in the English language.

Individual chapters of this book address reflective and critical writing early in the thesis process; working successfully with thesis supervisors and benefiting from commentary and criticism; drafting and revising effective thesis chapters and developing an academic or scientific argument; writing and formatting a thesis in clear and correct scholarly English; citing, quoting and documenting sources thoroughly and accurately; and preparing for and excelling in thesis meetings and examinations. 

Completing a doctoral thesis successfully requires long and penetrating thought, intellectual rigour and creativity, original research and sound methods (whether established or innovative), precision in recording detail and a wide-ranging thoroughness, as much perseverance and mental toughness as insight and brilliance, and, no matter how many helpful writing guides are consulted, a great deal of hard work over a significant period of time. Writing a thesis can be an enjoyable as well as a challenging experience, however, and even if it is not always so, the personal and professional rewards of achieving such an enormous goal are considerable, as all doctoral candidates no doubt realise, and will last a great deal longer than any problems that may be encountered during the process.

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Rene Tetzner

Rene Tetzner's blog posts dedicated to academic writing. Although the focus is on How To Write a Doctoral Thesis, many other important aspects of research-based writing, editing and publishing are addressed in helpful detail.

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Data Analysis in Research: Types & Methods

Content Index

Why analyze data in research?

Types of data in research, finding patterns in the qualitative data, methods used for data analysis in qualitative research, preparing data for analysis, methods used for data analysis in quantitative research, considerations in research data analysis, what is data analysis in research.

Definition of research in data analysis: According to LeCompte and Schensul, research data analysis is a process used by researchers to reduce data to a story and interpret it to derive insights. The data analysis process helps reduce a large chunk of data into smaller fragments, which makes sense. 

Three essential things occur during the data analysis process — the first is data organization . Summarization and categorization together contribute to becoming the second known method used for data reduction. It helps find patterns and themes in the data for easy identification and linking. The third and last way is data analysis – researchers do it in both top-down and bottom-up fashion.

LEARN ABOUT: Research Process Steps

On the other hand, Marshall and Rossman describe data analysis as a messy, ambiguous, and time-consuming but creative and fascinating process through which a mass of collected data is brought to order, structure and meaning.

We can say that “the data analysis and data interpretation is a process representing the application of deductive and inductive logic to the research and data analysis.”

Researchers rely heavily on data as they have a story to tell or research problems to solve. It starts with a question, and data is nothing but an answer to that question. But, what if there is no question to ask? Well! It is possible to explore data even without a problem – we call it ‘Data Mining’, which often reveals some interesting patterns within the data that are worth exploring.

Irrelevant to the type of data researchers explore, their mission and audiences’ vision guide them to find the patterns to shape the story they want to tell. One of the essential things expected from researchers while analyzing data is to stay open and remain unbiased toward unexpected patterns, expressions, and results. Remember, sometimes, data analysis tells the most unforeseen yet exciting stories that were not expected when initiating data analysis. Therefore, rely on the data you have at hand and enjoy the journey of exploratory research. 

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Every kind of data has a rare quality of describing things after assigning a specific value to it. For analysis, you need to organize these values, processed and presented in a given context, to make it useful. Data can be in different forms; here are the primary data types.

• Qualitative data: When the data presented has words and descriptions, then we call it qualitative data . Although you can observe this data, it is subjective and harder to analyze data in research, especially for comparison. Example: Quality data represents everything describing taste, experience, texture, or an opinion that is considered quality data. This type of data is usually collected through focus groups, personal qualitative interviews , qualitative observation or using open-ended questions in surveys.
• Quantitative data: Any data expressed in numbers of numerical figures are called quantitative data . This type of data can be distinguished into categories, grouped, measured, calculated, or ranked. Example: questions such as age, rank, cost, length, weight, scores, etc. everything comes under this type of data. You can present such data in graphical format, charts, or apply statistical analysis methods to this data. The (Outcomes Measurement Systems) OMS questionnaires in surveys are a significant source of collecting numeric data.
• Categorical data: It is data presented in groups. However, an item included in the categorical data cannot belong to more than one group. Example: A person responding to a survey by telling his living style, marital status, smoking habit, or drinking habit comes under the categorical data. A chi-square test is a standard method used to analyze this data.

Learn More : Examples of Qualitative Data in Education

Data analysis in qualitative research

Data analysis and qualitative data research work a little differently from the numerical data as the quality data is made up of words, descriptions, images, objects, and sometimes symbols. Getting insight from such complicated information is a complicated process. Hence it is typically used for exploratory research and data analysis .

Although there are several ways to find patterns in the textual information, a word-based method is the most relied and widely used global technique for research and data analysis. Notably, the data analysis process in qualitative research is manual. Here the researchers usually read the available data and find repetitive or commonly used words. 

For example, while studying data collected from African countries to understand the most pressing issues people face, researchers might find  “food”  and  “hunger” are the most commonly used words and will highlight them for further analysis.

LEARN ABOUT: Level of Analysis

The keyword context is another widely used word-based technique. In this method, the researcher tries to understand the concept by analyzing the context in which the participants use a particular keyword.  

For example , researchers conducting research and data analysis for studying the concept of ‘diabetes’ amongst respondents might analyze the context of when and how the respondent has used or referred to the word ‘diabetes.’

The scrutiny-based technique is also one of the highly recommended  text analysis  methods used to identify a quality data pattern. Compare and contrast is the widely used method under this technique to differentiate how a specific text is similar or different from each other. 

For example: To find out the “importance of resident doctor in a company,” the collected data is divided into people who think it is necessary to hire a resident doctor and those who think it is unnecessary. Compare and contrast is the best method that can be used to analyze the polls having single-answer questions types .

Metaphors can be used to reduce the data pile and find patterns in it so that it becomes easier to connect data with theory.

Variable Partitioning is another technique used to split variables so that researchers can find more coherent descriptions and explanations from the enormous data.

LEARN ABOUT: Qualitative Research Questions and Questionnaires

There are several techniques to analyze the data in qualitative research, but here are some commonly used methods,

• Content Analysis:  It is widely accepted and the most frequently employed technique for data analysis in research methodology. It can be used to analyze the documented information from text, images, and sometimes from the physical items. It depends on the research questions to predict when and where to use this method.
• Narrative Analysis: This method is used to analyze content gathered from various sources such as personal interviews, field observation, and  surveys . The majority of times, stories, or opinions shared by people are focused on finding answers to the research questions.
• Discourse Analysis:  Similar to narrative analysis, discourse analysis is used to analyze the interactions with people. Nevertheless, this particular method considers the social context under which or within which the communication between the researcher and respondent takes place. In addition to that, discourse analysis also focuses on the lifestyle and day-to-day environment while deriving any conclusion.
• Grounded Theory:  When you want to explain why a particular phenomenon happened, then using grounded theory for analyzing quality data is the best resort. Grounded theory is applied to study data about the host of similar cases occurring in different settings. When researchers are using this method, they might alter explanations or produce new ones until they arrive at some conclusion.

LEARN ABOUT: 12 Best Tools for Researchers

Data analysis in quantitative research

The first stage in research and data analysis is to make it for the analysis so that the nominal data can be converted into something meaningful. Data preparation consists of the below phases.

Phase I: Data Validation

Data validation is done to understand if the collected data sample is per the pre-set standards, or it is a biased data sample again divided into four different stages

• Fraud: To ensure an actual human being records each response to the survey or the questionnaire
• Screening: To make sure each participant or respondent is selected or chosen in compliance with the research criteria
• Procedure: To ensure ethical standards were maintained while collecting the data sample
• Completeness: To ensure that the respondent has answered all the questions in an online survey. Else, the interviewer had asked all the questions devised in the questionnaire.

Phase II: Data Editing

More often, an extensive research data sample comes loaded with errors. Respondents sometimes fill in some fields incorrectly or sometimes skip them accidentally. Data editing is a process wherein the researchers have to confirm that the provided data is free of such errors. They need to conduct necessary checks and outlier checks to edit the raw edit and make it ready for analysis.

Phase III: Data Coding

Out of all three, this is the most critical phase of data preparation associated with grouping and assigning values to the survey responses . If a survey is completed with a 1000 sample size, the researcher will create an age bracket to distinguish the respondents based on their age. Thus, it becomes easier to analyze small data buckets rather than deal with the massive data pile.

LEARN ABOUT: Steps in Qualitative Research

After the data is prepared for analysis, researchers are open to using different research and data analysis methods to derive meaningful insights. For sure, statistical analysis plans are the most favored to analyze numerical data. In statistical analysis, distinguishing between categorical data and numerical data is essential, as categorical data involves distinct categories or labels, while numerical data consists of measurable quantities. The method is again classified into two groups. First, ‘Descriptive Statistics’ used to describe data. Second, ‘Inferential statistics’ that helps in comparing the data .

Descriptive statistics

This method is used to describe the basic features of versatile types of data in research. It presents the data in such a meaningful way that pattern in the data starts making sense. Nevertheless, the descriptive analysis does not go beyond making conclusions. The conclusions are again based on the hypothesis researchers have formulated so far. Here are a few major types of descriptive analysis methods.

Measures of Frequency

• Count, Percent, Frequency
• It is used to denote home often a particular event occurs.
• Researchers use it when they want to showcase how often a response is given.

Measures of Central Tendency

• Mean, Median, Mode
• The method is widely used to demonstrate distribution by various points.
• Researchers use this method when they want to showcase the most commonly or averagely indicated response.

Measures of Dispersion or Variation

• Range, Variance, Standard deviation
• Here the field equals high/low points.
• Variance standard deviation = difference between the observed score and mean
• It is used to identify the spread of scores by stating intervals.
• Researchers use this method to showcase data spread out. It helps them identify the depth until which the data is spread out that it directly affects the mean.

Measures of Position

• Percentile ranks, Quartile ranks
• It relies on standardized scores helping researchers to identify the relationship between different scores.
• It is often used when researchers want to compare scores with the average count.

For quantitative research use of descriptive analysis often give absolute numbers, but the in-depth analysis is never sufficient to demonstrate the rationale behind those numbers. Nevertheless, it is necessary to think of the best method for research and data analysis suiting your survey questionnaire and what story researchers want to tell. For example, the mean is the best way to demonstrate the students’ average scores in schools. It is better to rely on the descriptive statistics when the researchers intend to keep the research or outcome limited to the provided  sample  without generalizing it. For example, when you want to compare average voting done in two different cities, differential statistics are enough.

Descriptive analysis is also called a ‘univariate analysis’ since it is commonly used to analyze a single variable.

Inferential statistics

Inferential statistics are used to make predictions about a larger population after research and data analysis of the representing population’s collected sample. For example, you can ask some odd 100 audiences at a movie theater if they like the movie they are watching. Researchers then use inferential statistics on the collected  sample  to reason that about 80-90% of people like the movie. 

Here are two significant areas of inferential statistics.

• Estimating parameters: It takes statistics from the sample research data and demonstrates something about the population parameter.
• Hypothesis test: I t’s about sampling research data to answer the survey research questions. For example, researchers might be interested to understand if the new shade of lipstick recently launched is good or not, or if the multivitamin capsules help children to perform better at games.

These are sophisticated analysis methods used to showcase the relationship between different variables instead of describing a single variable. It is often used when researchers want something beyond absolute numbers to understand the relationship between variables.

Here are some of the commonly used methods for data analysis in research.

• Correlation: When researchers are not conducting experimental research or quasi-experimental research wherein the researchers are interested to understand the relationship between two or more variables, they opt for correlational research methods.
• Cross-tabulation: Also called contingency tables,  cross-tabulation  is used to analyze the relationship between multiple variables.  Suppose provided data has age and gender categories presented in rows and columns. A two-dimensional cross-tabulation helps for seamless data analysis and research by showing the number of males and females in each age category.
• Regression analysis: For understanding the strong relationship between two variables, researchers do not look beyond the primary and commonly used regression analysis method, which is also a type of predictive analysis used. In this method, you have an essential factor called the dependent variable. You also have multiple independent variables in regression analysis. You undertake efforts to find out the impact of independent variables on the dependent variable. The values of both independent and dependent variables are assumed as being ascertained in an error-free random manner.
• Frequency tables: The statistical procedure is used for testing the degree to which two or more vary or differ in an experiment. A considerable degree of variation means research findings were significant. In many contexts, ANOVA testing and variance analysis are similar.
• Analysis of variance: The statistical procedure is used for testing the degree to which two or more vary or differ in an experiment. A considerable degree of variation means research findings were significant. In many contexts, ANOVA testing and variance analysis are similar.
• Researchers must have the necessary research skills to analyze and manipulation the data , Getting trained to demonstrate a high standard of research practice. Ideally, researchers must possess more than a basic understanding of the rationale of selecting one statistical method over the other to obtain better data insights.
• Usually, research and data analytics projects differ by scientific discipline; therefore, getting statistical advice at the beginning of analysis helps design a survey questionnaire, select data collection methods , and choose samples.

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• The primary aim of data research and analysis is to derive ultimate insights that are unbiased. Any mistake in or keeping a biased mind to collect data, selecting an analysis method, or choosing  audience  sample il to draw a biased inference.
• Irrelevant to the sophistication used in research data and analysis is enough to rectify the poorly defined objective outcome measurements. It does not matter if the design is at fault or intentions are not clear, but lack of clarity might mislead readers, so avoid the practice.
• The motive behind data analysis in research is to present accurate and reliable data. As far as possible, avoid statistical errors, and find a way to deal with everyday challenges like outliers, missing data, data altering, data mining , or developing graphical representation.

LEARN MORE: Descriptive Research vs Correlational Research The sheer amount of data generated daily is frightening. Especially when data analysis has taken center stage. in 2018. In last year, the total data supply amounted to 2.8 trillion gigabytes. Hence, it is clear that the enterprises willing to survive in the hypercompetitive world must possess an excellent capability to analyze complex research data, derive actionable insights, and adapt to the new market needs.

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What is data analysis? Examples and how to get started

Even with years of professional experience working with data, the term "data analysis" still sets off a panic button in my soul. And yes, when it comes to serious data analysis for your business, you'll eventually want data scientists on your side. But if you're just getting started, no panic attacks are required.

Table of contents:

Quick review: What is data analysis?

Why is data analysis important, types of data analysis (with examples), data analysis process: how to get started, frequently asked questions.

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Data analysis is the process of examining, filtering, adapting, and modeling data to help solve problems. Data analysis helps determine what is and isn't working, so you can make the changes needed to achieve your business goals. 

Keep in mind that data analysis includes analyzing both quantitative data (e.g., profits and sales) and qualitative data (e.g., surveys and case studies) to paint the whole picture. Here are two simple examples (of a nuanced topic) to show you what I mean.

An example of quantitative data analysis is an online jewelry store owner using inventory data to forecast and improve reordering accuracy. The owner looks at their sales from the past six months and sees that, on average, they sold 210 gold pieces and 105 silver pieces per month, but they only had 100 gold pieces and 100 silver pieces in stock. By collecting and analyzing inventory data on these SKUs, they're forecasting to improve reordering accuracy. The next time they order inventory, they order twice as many gold pieces as silver to meet customer demand.

An example of qualitative data analysis is a fitness studio owner collecting customer feedback to improve class offerings. The studio owner sends out an open-ended survey asking customers what types of exercises they enjoy the most. The owner then performs qualitative content analysis to identify the most frequently suggested exercises and incorporates these into future workout classes.

Here's why it's worth implementing data analysis for your business:

Understand your target audience: You might think you know how to best target your audience, but are your assumptions backed by data? Data analysis can help answer questions like, "What demographics define my target audience?" or "What is my audience motivated by?"

Inform decisions: You don't need to toss and turn over a decision when the data points clearly to the answer. For instance, a restaurant could analyze which dishes on the menu are selling the most, helping them decide which ones to keep and which ones to change.

Adjust budgets: Similarly, data analysis can highlight areas in your business that are performing well and are worth investing more in, as well as areas that aren't generating enough revenue and should be cut. For example, a B2B software company might discover their product for enterprises is thriving while their small business solution lags behind. This discovery could prompt them to allocate more budget toward the enterprise product, resulting in better resource utilization.

Identify and solve problems: Let's say a cell phone manufacturer notices data showing a lot of customers returning a certain model. When they investigate, they find that model also happens to have the highest number of crashes. Once they identify and solve the technical issue, they can reduce the number of returns.

There are five main types of data analysis—with increasingly scary-sounding names. Each one serves a different purpose, so take a look to see which makes the most sense for your situation. It's ok if you can't pronounce the one you choose. 

Text analysis: What is happening?

Text analysis, AKA data mining , involves pulling insights from large amounts of unstructured, text-based data sources : emails, social media, support tickets, reviews, and so on. You would use text analysis when the volume of data is too large to sift through manually. 

Here are a few methods used to perform text analysis, to give you a sense of how it's different from a human reading through the text: 

Word frequency identifies the most frequently used words. For example, a restaurant monitors social media mentions and measures the frequency of positive and negative keywords like "delicious" or "expensive" to determine how customers feel about their experience. 

Language detection indicates the language of text. For example, a global software company may use language detection on support tickets to connect customers with the appropriate agent. 

Keyword extraction automatically identifies the most used terms. For example, instead of sifting through thousands of reviews, a popular brand uses a keyword extractor to summarize the words or phrases that are most relevant. 

Because text analysis is based on words, not numbers, it's a bit more subjective. Words can have multiple meanings, of course, and Gen Z makes things even tougher with constant coinage. Natural language processing (NLP) software will help you get the most accurate text analysis, but it's rarely as objective as numerical analysis. 

Statistical analysis: What happened?

Statistical analysis pulls past data to identify meaningful trends. Two primary categories of statistical analysis exist: descriptive and inferential.

Descriptive analysis

Descriptive analysis looks at numerical data and calculations to determine what happened in a business. Companies use descriptive analysis to determine customer satisfaction , track campaigns, generate reports, and evaluate performance. 

Here are a few methods used to perform descriptive analysis: 

Measures of frequency identify how frequently an event occurs. For example, a popular coffee chain sends out a survey asking customers what their favorite holiday drink is and uses measures of frequency to determine how often a particular drink is selected. 

Measures of central tendency use mean, median, and mode to identify results. For example, a dating app company might use measures of central tendency to determine the average age of its users.

Measures of dispersion measure how data is distributed across a range. For example, HR may use measures of dispersion to determine what salary to offer in a given field. 

Inferential analysis

Inferential analysis uses a sample of data to draw conclusions about a much larger population. This type of analysis is used when the population you're interested in analyzing is very large. 

Here are a few methods used when performing inferential analysis: 

Hypothesis testing identifies which variables impact a particular topic. For example, a business uses hypothesis testing to determine if increased sales were the result of a specific marketing campaign. 

Confidence intervals indicates how accurate an estimate is. For example, a company using market research to survey customers about a new product may want to determine how confident they are that the individuals surveyed make up their target market. 

Regression analysis shows the effect of independent variables on a dependent variable. For example, a rental car company may use regression analysis to determine the relationship between wait times and number of bad reviews. 

Diagnostic analysis: Why did it happen?

Diagnostic analysis, also referred to as root cause analysis, uncovers the causes of certain events or results. 

Here are a few methods used to perform diagnostic analysis: 

Time-series analysis analyzes data collected over a period of time. A retail store may use time-series analysis to determine that sales increase between October and December every year. 

Data drilling uses business intelligence (BI) to show a more detailed view of data. For example, a business owner could use data drilling to see a detailed view of sales by state to determine if certain regions are driving increased sales.

Correlation analysis determines the strength of the relationship between variables. For example, a local ice cream shop may determine that as the temperature in the area rises, so do ice cream sales. 

Predictive analysis: What is likely to happen?

Predictive analysis aims to anticipate future developments and events. By analyzing past data, companies can predict future scenarios and make strategic decisions.  

Here are a few methods used to perform predictive analysis: 

Machine learning uses AI and algorithms to predict outcomes. For example, search engines employ machine learning to recommend products to online shoppers that they are likely to buy based on their browsing history. 

Decision trees map out possible courses of action and outcomes. For example, a business may use a decision tree when deciding whether to downsize or expand. 

Prescriptive analysis: What action should we take?

The highest level of analysis, prescriptive analysis, aims to find the best action plan. Typically, AI tools model different outcomes to predict the best approach. While these tools serve to provide insight, they don't replace human consideration, so always use your human brain before going with the conclusion of your prescriptive analysis. Otherwise, your GPS might drive you into a lake.

Here are a few methods used to perform prescriptive analysis: 

Lead scoring is used in sales departments to assign values to leads based on their perceived interest. For example, a sales team uses lead scoring to rank leads on a scale of 1-100 depending on the actions they take (e.g., opening an email or downloading an eBook). They then prioritize the leads that are most likely to convert. 

Algorithms are used in technology to perform specific tasks. For example, banks use prescriptive algorithms to monitor customers' spending and recommend that they deactivate their credit card if fraud is suspected. 

The actual analysis is just one step in a much bigger process of using data to move your business forward. Here's a quick look at all the steps you need to take to make sure you're making informed decisions. 

Data decision

As with almost any project, the first step is to determine what problem you're trying to solve through data analysis. 

Make sure you get specific here. For example, a food delivery service may want to understand why customers are canceling their subscriptions. But to enable the most effective data analysis, they should pose a more targeted question, such as "How can we reduce customer churn without raising costs?" 

These questions will help you determine your KPIs and what type(s) of data analysis you'll conduct , so spend time honing the question—otherwise your analysis won't provide the actionable insights you want.

Data collection

Next, collect the required data from both internal and external sources. 

Internal data comes from within your business (think CRM software, internal reports, and archives), and helps you understand your business and processes.

External data originates from outside of the company (surveys, questionnaires, public data) and helps you understand your industry and your customers. 

You'll rely heavily on software for this part of the process. Your analytics or business dashboard tool, along with reports from any other internal tools like CRMs , will give you the internal data. For external data, you'll use survey apps and other data collection tools to get the information you need.

Data cleaning

Data can be seriously misleading if it's not clean. So before you analyze, make sure you review the data you collected.  Depending on the type of data you have, cleanup will look different, but it might include: 

Removing unnecessary information 

Addressing structural errors like misspellings

Deleting duplicates

Trimming whitespace

Human checking for accuracy 

You can use your spreadsheet's cleanup suggestions to quickly and effectively clean data, but a human review is always important.

Data analysis

Now that you've compiled and cleaned the data, use one or more of the above types of data analysis to find relationships, patterns, and trends. 

Data analysis tools can speed up the data analysis process and remove the risk of inevitable human error. Here are some examples.

Spreadsheets sort, filter, analyze, and visualize data. 

Business intelligence platforms model data and create dashboards. 

Structured query language (SQL) tools manage and extract data in relational databases. 

Data interpretation

After you analyze the data, you'll need to go back to the original question you posed and draw conclusions from your findings. Here are some common pitfalls to avoid:

Correlation vs. causation: Just because two variables are associated doesn't mean they're necessarily related or dependent on one another. 

Confirmation bias: This occurs when you interpret data in a way that confirms your own preconceived notions. To avoid this, have multiple people interpret the data. 

Small sample size: If your sample size is too small or doesn't represent the demographics of your customers, you may get misleading results. If you run into this, consider widening your sample size to give you a more accurate representation. 

Data visualization

Last but not least, visualizing the data in the form of graphs, maps, reports, charts, and dashboards can help you explain your findings to decision-makers and stakeholders. While it's not absolutely necessary, it will help tell the story of your data in a way that everyone in the business can understand and make decisions based on. 

Automate your data collection

Data doesn't live in one place. To make sure data is where it needs to be—and isn't duplicative or conflicting—make sure all your apps talk to each other. Zapier automates the process of moving data from one place to another, so you can focus on the work that matters to move your business forward.

Need a quick summary or still have a few nagging data analysis questions? I'm here for you.

What are the five types of data analysis?

The five types of data analysis are text analysis, statistical analysis, diagnostic analysis, predictive analysis, and prescriptive analysis. Each type offers a unique lens for understanding data: text analysis provides insights into text-based content, statistical analysis focuses on numerical trends, diagnostic analysis looks into problem causes, predictive analysis deals with what may happen in the future, and prescriptive analysis gives actionable recommendations.

What is the data analysis process?

The data analysis process involves data decision, collection, cleaning, analysis, interpretation, and visualization. Every stage comes together to transform raw data into meaningful insights. Decision determines what data to collect, collection gathers the relevant information, cleaning ensures accuracy, analysis uncovers patterns, interpretation assigns meaning, and visualization presents the insights.

What is the main purpose of data analysis?

In business, the main purpose of data analysis is to uncover patterns, trends, and anomalies, and then use that information to make decisions, solve problems, and reach your business goals.

Related reading: 

How to get started with data collection and analytics at your business

How to conduct your own market research survey

Automatically find and match related data across apps

How to build an analysis assistant with ChatGPT

What can the ChatGPT data analysis chatbot do?

This article was originally published in October 2022 and has since been updated with contributions from Cecilia Gillen. The most recent update was in September 2023.

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Shea Stevens

Shea is a content writer currently living in Charlotte, North Carolina. After graduating with a degree in Marketing from East Carolina University, she joined the digital marketing industry focusing on content and social media. In her free time, you can find Shea visiting her local farmers market, attending a country music concert, or planning her next adventure.

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How To Write The Results/Findings Chapter

For qualitative studies (dissertations & theses).

By: Jenna Crossley (PhD Cand). Expert Reviewed By: Dr. Eunice Rautenbach | August 2021

So, you’ve collected and analysed your qualitative data, and it’s time to write up your results chapter – exciting! But where do you start? In this post, we’ll guide you through the qualitative results chapter (also called the findings chapter), step by step.  

Overview: Qualitative Results Chapter

• What (exactly) the qualitative results chapter is
• What to include in your results chapter
• How to write up your results chapter
• A few tips and tricks to help you along the way

What exactly is the results chapter?

The results chapter in a dissertation or thesis (or any formal academic research piece) is where you objectively and neutrally present the findings of your qualitative analysis (or analyses if you used multiple qualitative analysis methods ). This chapter can sometimes be combined with the discussion chapter (where you interpret the data and discuss its meaning), depending on your university’s preference.  We’ll treat the two chapters as separate, as that’s the most common approach.

In contrast to a quantitative results chapter that presents numbers and statistics, a qualitative results chapter presents data primarily in the form of words . But this doesn’t mean that a qualitative study can’t have quantitative elements – you could, for example, present the number of times a theme or topic pops up in your data, depending on the analysis method(s) you adopt.

Adding a quantitative element to your study can add some rigour, which strengthens your results by providing more evidence for your claims. This is particularly common when using qualitative content analysis. Keep in mind though that qualitative research aims to achieve depth, richness and identify nuances , so don’t get tunnel vision by focusing on the numbers. They’re just cream on top in a qualitative analysis.

So, to recap, the results chapter is where you objectively present the findings of your analysis, without interpreting them (you’ll save that for the discussion chapter). With that out the way, let’s take a look at what you should include in your results chapter.

What should you include in the results chapter?

As we’ve mentioned, your qualitative results chapter should purely present and describe your results , not interpret them in relation to the existing literature or your research questions . Any speculations or discussion about the implications of your findings should be reserved for your discussion chapter.

In your results chapter, you’ll want to talk about your analysis findings and whether or not they support your hypotheses (if you have any). Naturally, the exact contents of your results chapter will depend on which qualitative analysis method (or methods) you use. For example, if you were to use thematic analysis, you’d detail the themes identified in your analysis, using extracts from the transcripts or text to support your claims.

While you do need to present your analysis findings in some detail, you should avoid dumping large amounts of raw data in this chapter. Instead, focus on presenting the key findings and using a handful of select quotes or text extracts to support each finding . The reams of data and analysis can be relegated to your appendices.

While it’s tempting to include every last detail you found in your qualitative analysis, it is important to make sure that you report only that which is relevant to your research aims, objectives and research questions .  Always keep these three components, as well as your hypotheses (if you have any) front of mind when writing the chapter and use them as a filter to decide what’s relevant and what’s not.

Need a helping hand?

How do I write the results chapter?

Now that we’ve covered the basics, it’s time to look at how to structure your chapter. Broadly speaking, the results chapter needs to contain three core components – the introduction, the body and the concluding summary. Let’s take a look at each of these.

Section 1: Introduction

The first step is to craft a brief introduction to the chapter. This intro is vital as it provides some context for your findings. In your introduction, you should begin by reiterating your problem statement and research questions and highlight the purpose of your research . Make sure that you spell this out for the reader so that the rest of your chapter is well contextualised.

The next step is to briefly outline the structure of your results chapter. In other words, explain what’s included in the chapter and what the reader can expect. In the results chapter, you want to tell a story that is coherent, flows logically, and is easy to follow , so make sure that you plan your structure out well and convey that structure (at a high level), so that your reader is well oriented.

The introduction section shouldn’t be lengthy. Two or three short paragraphs should be more than adequate. It is merely an introduction and overview, not a summary of the chapter.

Pro Tip – To help you structure your chapter, it can be useful to set up an initial draft with (sub)section headings so that you’re able to easily (re)arrange parts of your chapter. This will also help your reader to follow your results and give your chapter some coherence.  Be sure to use level-based heading styles (e.g. Heading 1, 2, 3 styles) to help the reader differentiate between levels visually. You can find these options in Word (example below).

Section 2: Body

Before we get started on what to include in the body of your chapter, it’s vital to remember that a results section should be completely objective and descriptive, not interpretive . So, be careful not to use words such as, “suggests” or “implies”, as these usually accompany some form of interpretation – that’s reserved for your discussion chapter.

The structure of your body section is very important , so make sure that you plan it out well. When planning out your qualitative results chapter, create sections and subsections so that you can maintain the flow of the story you’re trying to tell. Be sure to systematically and consistently describe each portion of results. Try to adopt a standardised structure for each portion so that you achieve a high level of consistency throughout the chapter.

For qualitative studies, results chapters tend to be structured according to themes , which makes it easier for readers to follow. However, keep in mind that not all results chapters have to be structured in this manner. For example, if you’re conducting a longitudinal study, you may want to structure your chapter chronologically. Similarly, you might structure this chapter based on your theoretical framework . The exact structure of your chapter will depend on the nature of your study , especially your research questions.

As you work through the body of your chapter, make sure that you use quotes to substantiate every one of your claims . You can present these quotes in italics to differentiate them from your own words. A general rule of thumb is to use at least two pieces of evidence per claim, and these should be linked directly to your data. Also, remember that you need to include all relevant results , not just the ones that support your assumptions or initial leanings.

In addition to including quotes, you can also link your claims to the data by using appendices , which you should reference throughout your text. When you reference, make sure that you include both the name/number of the appendix , as well as the line(s) from which you drew your data.

As referencing styles can vary greatly, be sure to look up the appendix referencing conventions of your university’s prescribed style (e.g. APA , Harvard, etc) and keep this consistent throughout your chapter.

Section 3: Concluding summary

The concluding summary is very important because it summarises your key findings and lays the foundation for the discussion chapter . Keep in mind that some readers may skip directly to this section (from the introduction section), so make sure that it can be read and understood well in isolation.

In this section, you need to remind the reader of the key findings. That is, the results that directly relate to your research questions and that you will build upon in your discussion chapter. Remember, your reader has digested a lot of information in this chapter, so you need to use this section to remind them of the most important takeaways.

Importantly, the concluding summary should not present any new information and should only describe what you’ve already presented in your chapter. Keep it concise – you’re not summarising the whole chapter, just the essentials.

Tips and tricks for an A-grade results chapter

Now that you’ve got a clear picture of what the qualitative results chapter is all about, here are some quick tips and reminders to help you craft a high-quality chapter:

• Your results chapter should be written in the past tense . You’ve done the work already, so you want to tell the reader what you found , not what you are currently finding .
• Make sure that you review your work multiple times and check that every claim is adequately backed up by evidence . Aim for at least two examples per claim, and make use of an appendix to reference these.
• When writing up your results, make sure that you stick to only what is relevant . Don’t waste time on data that are not relevant to your research objectives and research questions.
• Use headings and subheadings to create an intuitive, easy to follow piece of writing. Make use of Microsoft Word’s “heading styles” and be sure to use them consistently.
• When referring to numerical data, tables and figures can provide a useful visual aid. When using these, make sure that they can be read and understood independent of your body text (i.e. that they can stand-alone). To this end, use clear, concise labels for each of your tables or figures and make use of colours to code indicate differences or hierarchy.
• Similarly, when you’re writing up your chapter, it can be useful to highlight topics and themes in different colours . This can help you to differentiate between your data if you get a bit overwhelmed and will also help you to ensure that your results flow logically and coherently.

If you have any questions, leave a comment below and we’ll do our best to help. If you’d like 1-on-1 help with your results chapter (or any chapter of your dissertation or thesis), check out our private dissertation coaching service here or book a free initial consultation to discuss how we can help you.

Psst... there’s more!

This post was based on one of our popular Research Bootcamps . If you're working on a research project, you'll definitely want to check this out ...

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20 Comments

This was extremely helpful. Thanks a lot guys

Hi, thanks for the great research support platform created by the gradcoach team!

I wanted to ask- While “suggests” or “implies” are interpretive terms, what terms could we use for the results chapter? Could you share some examples of descriptive terms?

I think that instead of saying, ‘The data suggested, or The data implied,’ you can say, ‘The Data showed or revealed, or illustrated or outlined’…If interview data, you may say Jane Doe illuminated or elaborated, or Jane Doe described… or Jane Doe expressed or stated.

I found this article very useful. Thank you very much for the outstanding work you are doing.

What if i have 3 different interviewees answering the same interview questions? Should i then present the results in form of the table with the division on the 3 perspectives or rather give a results in form of the text and highlight who said what?

I think this tabular representation of results is a great idea. I am doing it too along with the text. Thanks

That was helpful was struggling to separate the discussion from the findings

this was very useful, Thank you.

Very helpful, I am confident to write my results chapter now.

It is so helpful! It is a good job. Thank you very much!

Very useful, well explained. Many thanks.

Hello, I appreciate the way you provided a supportive comments about qualitative results presenting tips

I loved this! It explains everything needed, and it has helped me better organize my thoughts. What words should I not use while writing my results section, other than subjective ones.

Thanks a lot, it is really helpful

Thank you so much dear, i really appropriate your nice explanations about this.

Thank you so much for this! I was wondering if anyone could help with how to prproperly integrate quotations (Excerpts) from interviews in the finding chapter in a qualitative research. Please GradCoach, address this issue and provide examples.

what if I’m not doing any interviews myself and all the information is coming from case studies that have already done the research.

Very helpful thank you.

This was very helpful as I was wondering how to structure this part of my dissertation, to include the quotes… Thanks for this explanation

This is very helpful, thanks! I am required to write up my results chapters with the discussion in each of them – any tips and tricks for this strategy?

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23 Data Analytics Portfolio Examples [2024 Edition]

The data analytics market is highly competitive. Data analytics statistics show that the global market for data analytics was worth over $100 billion in 2023.

Whether you are a data analyst or data scientist, adopt effective digital marketing strategies to help you stand out.

Most successful data analysts owe their stunning portfolios to attracting their dream clients and carving a niche in the highly competitive market. Creating a stunning portfolio gives you an advantage, providing a platform to showcase your skills, projects, and expertise.

Wix and Squarespace are the best website builders for creating stunning data analytics portfolios that appeal to your ideal target audience.

This article covers the 25 best data analytics portfolio examples to inspire you to create your own data analytics portfolio to showcase your portfolio projects.

Let's get started.

1. David Venturi

Made with Squarespace

Through his excellent communication skills, David Venturi helps people land their dream six-figure data analyst job in three months. This top data analyst portfolio example is aesthetically pleasing, with a captivating hero section.

An extensive CTA button stands out over the eye-catching hero section background, prompting visitors to become six-figure data analysts.

Standard project links to David's entire portfolio, including blog posts and Python, SQL, and Scala portfolio projects, stand out on the homepage, accessible above the footer section. 

2. Alex The Analyst

Made with Wix

Alex The Analyst is an analytics manager and YouTuber using his YouTube channel to teach subscribers all they need to know about data analytics. This beautiful data analyst portfolio sticks to a modern and clean layout for its website design. 

Logos linked to Alex's social media pages are pinned at the top of the hero section, easily recognizable in their clear White color. Beneath the hero section is an About section detailing Alex's impressive portfolio and analytics skills. 

3. Kelly Adams

Kelly Adams is a full-time data analyst with experience analyzing and cleaning data using SQL and creating data visualization in Tableau and Google Looker. This top data analyst portfolio example is unique, sticking to a minimalistic website design. 

The entire site sticks to a consistent, centralized layout, making it easy for screen readers to focus on the data analysis projects. Animated icons add a personal touch to the website design, one of the few visual representations. 

4. Shawhin Talebi

Shawhin Talebi is a data scientist, entrepreneur, researcher, and content creator driven by an insatiable curiosity to understand the world and create better systems. This outstanding data analytics portfolio is professionally looking, sticking to a consistent display of bold text.

Links to Shawhin's content channel stand out over an extensive all-black background, captivating visitors with their bold display.

I love how the site's clear CTA buttons alternate between Dark Blue and Grey as their fonts and background color pair.

5. Ryan Nolan Data

Made with WooCommerce

Ryan Nolan Data assists businesses and individuals with their analytics and data science requirements. One of the top data analyst portfolio websites, Ryan Nolan Data, is unique and built on a predominantly black-and-white color scheme. 

A progress indicator feature is visible as an upward arrow is pinned to the homepage's bottom right-hand corner, helping visitors keep track. 

The Brandeis Blue color adds a unique touch to the website design, visible as the background color for different sections and multiple CTA buttons. 

6. James Le

James Le is currently the leading developer experience at Twelve Labs, building foundation models for video understanding. This beautiful data analyst portfolio example is unique, sticking to a consistent, centralized display. 

Plenty of white spaces from the homepage's plain white background are consistent on the site, helping visitors focus on the site's main content. 

Excerpts from James' Twitter page stick to an extensive centralized display on the portfolio homepage, each linked directly to the page. 

7. Jessie Raye Bauer

Jessie Raye Bauer is passionate about solving challenging problems, creating data-driven products, and helping people pursue data analyst jobs. 

One of the stand-out data analytics portfolios, her portfolio is unique, displaying Hunter Green as the site's primary color. 

The entire site sticks to a consistent, centralized layout, enticing visitors with clear fonts on a Hunter Green-colored background. 

Bold logos linked to Jessie's social media pages catch attention in two separate homepage sections, sticking to a Hunter Green and White color scheme.

8. Tim Hopper

Tim Hopper is a data scientist, machine learning engineer, and cybersecurity software developer based in the U.S. This outstanding data analyst portfolio is uniquely designed into a consistent three-column layout. 

The site's header texts are pinned to the left-hand side of the homepage, displaying links to other pages. 

A search icon stands out at the right-hand side of the homepage alongside tags and categories, making it easy for visitors to locate specific articles.

9. Vallabha Mohta

Vallabha Mohta is a contemplative analyst inspired by logic and meaning and uses data sets as a valuable tool for her data projects. This straightforward data analytics portfolio example sticks to one short web page for its entire content. 

The site's main content stands out on an extensive all-black background, displaying a centralized image of Vallabha alongside an interactive text feature. 

I love how the header texts blend well in the all-black black, revealing hidden texts as the site's primary navigation feature as users scroll.

10. Merv Adrian

Made with WordPress

Merv Adrian is an IT market strategy expert providing primary research, industry analysis, product marketing, and AR consulting services. This top data analyst website example is unique, sticking to a centralized, straightforward website design. 

Scattered pictures of Merv at various functions welcome visitors to the site, distinct over the all-black background. 

Quoted texts from notable industry experts serve as social proof, sticking to a consistent three-column display. 

11. Data Leadership Group

Data Leadership Group is headed by Dr. Kirk Borne, a data scientist offering mentoring, training, and consulting in data science, machine learning, and AI. This online portfolio is unique, sticking to a consistent, centralized layout. 

A list of Dr. Kirk Borne's areas of expertise boasts of the owner's technical skills, listed in a separate section on the homepage's plain white background.  

Links to its resources pages stand out in a three-column layout above the footer section, headlined by colorful animated video icons. 

12. Jen Stirrup

Made with Elementor

Jen Stirrup is an award-winning Artificial Intelligence, Business Intelligence, and Digital Transformation expert who mentors businesses to make their data work. This simple data analytics portfolio example sticks to a straightforward web design. 

Excerpts from its blog page stand out on the homepage's plain white background in a three-column display, with a massive search bar visible above. 

The logos of its clients serve as social proof on the online portfolio, sticking to a centralized three-column slideshow display.

13. Data Mania with Lilian Pierson

Data Mania with Lilian Pierson offers marketing and growth services on a fractional basis to deep tech companies of all shapes and sizes. One of the best data analytics portfolios, Data Mania with Lilian Pierson, is visually appealing with a captivating color gradient. 

Bold texts and colors are the site's consistent design elements, engaging visitors with their high-quality display. 

I love how the data analyst portfolio FAQ section stands out on the homepage, providing answers to questions on different data analysis projects.

14. Bernard Marr

Bernard Marr is a world-renowned futurist, influencer, and thought leader in business and technology, using technology for the good of humanity. 

One of the outstanding data analysts, Bernard Marr, has a professionally looking portfolio, displaying several well-arranged sections. 

Social media icons stand out in a black-and-white color scheme on the homepage, accessible by clicking the pinned plus icon. 

A chat feature that serves as the site's online communication channel stands out in a black-and-white color scheme pinned to the bottom right-hand corner of the homepage. 

15. Bobsled

Made with Webflow

Bobsled is built on each platform's sharing protocol to provide data providers with security and ease of modern sharing without the complexity of multi-cloud management. 

This data analyst portfolio is aesthetically pleasing, treating visitors to a consistent display of eye-catching design elements. 

Bobsled’s portfolio demonstrates his data analyzing skills at the core of its web design. Several CTA buttons stand out in the logo's Azul color, prompting visitors and prospective employers to get a demo. 

16. Claudia Ten Hoope

Claudia Ten Hoope is a freelance data scientist and analyst who translates data into valuable, understandable insights. This professionally-looking data analyst portfolio is unique, sticking to a soft color scheme for its web design. 

The site's header menu texts become visible as users scroll down the homepage, adding a unique touch to the website design. 

Project samples from Claudia's multimedia portfolio stand out in the portfolio section, scattered over an extensive Pale Aqua-colored background. 

17. Deloitte Australia

Deloitte Australia helps reinvent how its clients do business through new ideas, insights, and technologies. This top data analytics portfolio example is interactive and has a design that guarantees an immersive user experience. 

The consistent homepage background adds a unique touch to the website design, blending in with the site's content in an eye-catching display. A product carousel feature lists the company's services, sticking to a consistent three-column display. 

18. Vortex Analytics

Vortex Analytics transforms raw data from various sources into meaningful and actionable insights. One of the top data analysts' portfolios, the Vortex Analytics portfolio is modern, sticking to a soft color scheme to display its data visualization project. 

The logo's Dark Sky Blue color is one of the site's primary colors, visible as the background color for multiple CTA buttons. 

Success stories and voices of satisfaction from past clients stand out in separate homepage sections, serving as social proof to every potential employer. 

19. Abbott Analytics

Abbott Analytics utilizes its expertise to navigate the intricacies of imperfect data, turning complexities into informative opportunities and raw information into actionable insights. This beautiful data analytics portfolio example is modern and has a clean layout for its web design.

Logos of top partners and clients stand out on an extensive Surf crest background, sticking to a four-column layout and serving as social proof.

The latest post from the Abbott Insights page provides insights into case studies. I love the display of the latest blog post on the homepage, each linked to the page in a three-column display.

20. Viraj Patel

Viraj Patel is a knowledgeable and tech-savvy specialist instrumental in numerous domains and tools of engineering management. This visually appealing top data analyst portfolio example sticks to a soft color scheme for its web design. 

A list of data visualization tools, development languages, and key skills stands out in the About Me section, speaking to the analyst's expertise. Logos of top skillsets stand out in a five-column layout, displaying eye-catching colors on a consistent Catskill White background.  

21. Analytics Vidhya

Analytics Vidhya unlocks knowledge, skills, and opportunities through in-depth blogs, world-class courses, exciting hackathons, and a thriving community. This top analytics portfolio website is unique and built on a predominantly black-and-white color scheme. 

The logos of top enterprises stand out in an interactive slideshow, catching visitors' attention with their colorful display. 

Several interactive visualizations stand out on the homepage's all-black background, adding an aesthetic touch to the website design.

22. Natassha Selvaraj

Made with Ghost

Natassha Selvaraj is a data scientist, creator, and writer with an extensive academic background in coding and data science. 

This beautiful data analyst portfolio example welcomes visitors to an eye-catching color gradient serving as background for the hero section. 

Several posts from her blog, including tutorials and her data analysis projects, are visible in multiple-column layouts. 

A subscribe CTA button catches attention at the right-hand corner of the homepage, easily recognizable in its ArtyClick Crimson-colored background. 

23. DG Analysis

DG Analysis is Gerard Duggan's data analytics portfolio, showcasing his interest in data analysis, data visualization, and design. This stand-out data analytics portfolio is minimalistic, sticking to a straightforward website design. 

The header menu serves as the site's primary navigation feature, displaying texts that display content on a consistent Porcelain-colored background. 

Search and social media icons stand out at the header menu's right-hand side, each linked to respective pages.

Data Analyst Portfolio Examples FAQ

Regression analysis, cluster analysis, descriptive analysis, predictive analysis, and predictive analysis are the top data analysis techniques. Other top data analysis techniques to analyze data include factor analysis, Monte Carlo simulation, sentiment analysis, hypothesis testing, and content analysis. 

Creating a data analyst portfolio is essential in launching your data analysis career, as it shows your work to potential employers. A portfolio helps you showcase your key data analytics skills and experience, highlighting your ability to clean, analyze, and visualize data. The ideal portfolio should show your best data analytics projects.  

Generally, four types of data analysis lead to a better understanding of a company's previous performance and guarantee better decision-making. Descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and predictive are the four types of data analysts, all linked together and offer different insights and value to a business. 

A data analyst portfolio website tells employers everything they need about your projects, skills, and expertise. If data visualization is not your strong point, use tools like Jupyter Notebook and R Notebook to create portfolio projects and include them on your website.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the data analyst job market is predicted to grow by 23% between 2022 and 2032. Securing a job as a data analyst holds significant career prospects as the services of a data analyst are steadily on the rise.

Explore Further

• The Ultimate List of Big Data Statistics
• Types of Data Analytics
• Best Data Visualization Tools
• How to Design a Website
• How to Create a Website
• How to Host a Website
• Great Internet Website Examples
• Excellent Website Redesign Examples

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Available downloads, related records.

File(s) under embargo

Reason: Preparing and submitting manuscript for publication.

until file(s) become available

A Machine Learning Model of Perturb-Seq Data for use in Space Flight Gene Expression Profile Analysis

The genetic perturbations caused by spaceflight on biological systems tend to have a system-wide effect which is often difficult to deconvolute into individual signals with specific points of origin. Single cell multi-omic data can provide a profile of the perturbational effects but does not necessarily indicate the initial point of interference within a network. The objective of this project is to take advantage of large scale and genome-wide perturbational or Perturb-Seq datasets by using them to pre-train a generalist machine learning model that is capable of predicting the effects of unseen perturbations in new data. Perturb-Seq datasets are large libraries of single cell RNA sequencing data collected from CRISPR knock out screens in cell culture. The advent of generative machine learning algorithms, particularly transformers, make it an ideal time to re-assess large scale data libraries in order to grasp cell and even organism-wide genomic expression motifs. By tailoring an algorithm to learn the downstream effects of the genetic perturbations, we present a pre-trained generalist model capable of predicting the effects of multiple perturbations in combination, locating points of origin for perturbation in new datasets, predicting the effects of known perturbations in new datasets, and annotation of large-scale network motifs. We demonstrate the utility of this model by identifying key perturbational signatures in RNA sequencing data from spaceflown biological samples from the NASA Open Science Data Repository.

Degree Type

• Master of Science
• Agricultural and Biological Engineering

Campus location

• West Lafayette

Advisor/Supervisor/Committee Chair

Advisor/supervisor/committee co-chair, additional committee member 2, additional committee member 3, usage metrics.

• Genomics and transcriptomics
• Bioinformatic methods development
• Modelling and simulation
• Neural networks
• Machine learning not elsewhere classified
• Other biological sciences not elsewhere classified