Data Collection: Reviewing

Documents
AP Dr. Khuan Wai Bing
Faculty of Management and Documents
NATURE OF DOCUMENTS
• Generic ‘written’ (novels, newspapers, diaries, psychiatric interviews,
love songs)
• Secondary data
• Available materials (autobiographies)
• Some include documents as part of artifacts
TYPES OF DOCUMENTS
• Public records
• Personal documents (diaries, personal letters, etc)
• Organizational/company’s records
• Physical materials
• Artifacts
• Physical traces
Public records

• Internal documents
• External communication
• Student records and personnel files
Photography
• Provides descriptive data
• Often used to understand the
subjective
• Products analysed inductively
• Some say that photography is
useless, others claim that it
illuminates as it allows researchers
to understand and study aspects of
life that cannot be researched
through other approaches
• Images are more telling than words
Photography
2 categories:
• Those that others have taken (found photographs from year books,
newspapers, etc)
• Those produced by the researcher
(Important to understand the purpose and the frame of mind of the
photographer – need to place it in proper context)
PHYSICAL TRACES
• Two types of physical traces
• Erosion (degree of wear and tear)
• e.g. Wear and tear of floor tiles
• Accretion (degree of accumulation)
• e.g. the accumulation of books

• Useful for information on incidence and frequency of behavior

CHARACTERISTICS OF PHYSICAL TRACES
• Records results of actual behavior
• Usually non-reactive and unobtrusive
• Ubiquitous (present everywhere) and readily available
• Inanimate (not alive) object, therefore minimal ‘cooperation’ needed
• Not dependent on informant’s patience – can study a variety of
interrelated behavior at once
• Suitable as longitudinal monitoring devices
USING DOCUMENTS IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
• Generally the same as in interviews and observations
• Challenges
• Finding relevant materials – researcher’s creativity is helpful
• Need to determine authenticity and accuracy of documents
AUTHENTICITY AND ACCURACY OF DOCUMENTS
Questions to ask to determine authenticity and accuracy of documents:
• What is the history?
• How did it come to my hands?
• Is it what it appears to be?
• Is it complete as in the original?
• Has it been tempered/edited?
• If genuine, what are the circumstances and purposes for their
production?
AUTHENTICITY AND ACCURACY OF DOCUMENTS…
• What was the author trying to accomplish?
• Who are the audience?
• The author’s sources?
• Eyewitness account
• Second hand account
• interpretation
• What was the author’s bias?
• Likelihood of it being true?
• Are there other documents to shed additional light?