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*from Luke Conlin*

here is a basic TEMPLATE I use to create new analytic memos, just so I don't have to re-type all the identifying info each time, I can just get right to writing the memo. 

Here is one for literature memos: literatureMemo_TEMPLATE copy.dotx

*from Ann Edwards*

Joe recently asked me to add a page on writing and using analytic memos in qualitative research. This is based on my own training and experience in research employing qualitative methods such as grounded theory, case study methods, and discourse analysis. I know that other folks construct and employ analytic memos differently--this is just my take.

Analytic memos are essentially conversations with yourself about some aspect of your analysis. Well, any aspect of your analysis. Use them to write through your hunches about what you are learning, thoughts on your analytic methods, ideas about where to go from here, etc. Or whatever is useful for you to articulate to yourself and to have documented. In my experience, they are generally relatively short (a few to several pages), and because you are writing them largely to yourself (though not always, see below) they can be written as informally or formally as works for you.

The most useful kinds of analytic memos in my experience have been data analysis memos and methods memos. Data analysis memos are simply that--memos to yourself about analysis of data. I tend to focus my memos on small segments or sets of data and write through the analysis of these data to help me work out a hunch/conjecture about something. For example, let's say I have video+transcript of a small group of students working on proofs together. I'm interested in understanding how they figure out what the proof problem means and how they co-construct an argument that they believe is rigorous. I have a hunch that they are relying a great deal on coordinated inscriptions to work out what the problem is asking them to prove. So, I might take an interesting chunk of transcript--something considerably smaller than a whole problem-solving episode--that I think might demonstrate what my hunch is about. Then I 'do' my analysis of this chunk (I usually do this through dense annotation of transcript). I then write an analytic memo that describes my hunch, states why I chose this chunk to try out, presents the analysis of the chunk, and then reflects on what I learned about my hunch, methodological issues/troubles, and where to go from here. I then stow it away someplace where I can find it and use it later on (best is to keep a running record of your memos in a kind of index of writing, but I never manage to do this well).

Another kind of data analysis memo is useful when you're coding (or developing codes) over a larger corpus of data, like you might do using nVivo (nVivo has a built-in 'notes' feature where you can do your note-writing directly attached to some piece of data). For example, let's say that I have video+transcript of a bunch of math teacher PD group meetings, and I'm working on trying to understand the kinds of problems of practice they raise and how they pursue them in those meetings. After an initial pass, I have some number of candidate categories for issues of practice raised in the meetings. At this point, I will write a data analysis memo to try and write definitions of these categories, illustrations from the data, issues/problems with the categories and any further issues that need to be worked out. Also, if it is relevant at the time, I might write a related memo on what I preliminarily guess are some relationships between the categories, again illustrating with data snippets.

A similar kind of memo is the methods memo, essentially a note-to-self about what you are doing, what you think about what you are doing, and where you think you should be going in your analysis. This is especially helpful for larger scale interpretative analyses. I know people who keep a kind of 'methods journal' for big projects in which you write entries every few days or weeks. (This kind of journal can be very helpful when writing the methods section of a dissertation.) Methods memos are useful as a tool for critically reflecting on how you are making your claims, your evidence, accounting for mutliple sources of data in your analysis, etc. etc.

Finally, a few words on how you can use your memos. First, I think memos are useful exercises in and of themselves--forcing yourself to write things down can be a clarifying and insight-provoking experience. Second, think of these memos as potential bits of analysis or methods description or whatever that you can use when you are writing your 'real' manuscript. Third, they are valuable documentation of your thinking at a particular time. Especially if you end up having to 'leave' an analysis or project for a little while, these memos will save you lots of time and energy. Lastly, they are really useful bits of your ongoing work to share with others and get feedback on. When I was in graduate school, we would often bring analytic memos with data to our research groups to get help with ongoing analyses.

Hope this helps!

Ann Edwards