1. Grounded theorists refer to it as local terms (Strauss & Corbin; 1990) ethnographer call this typologies
(Bodgan & Taylor ; 1975) or cultural domain.
Metaphors and analogies
Lakoff and Johnson (1980) observed that people often represent their thoughts, behaviors and
experiences with analogies and metaphors.
Transition
Naturally occurring shifts in content may be the identification of theme. In text new paragraphs may
indicate shifts in topics. In speech pause changes in voice tones or the presence of particular phrases
may indicate transitions.
Similarities and differences
It involves comparisons of similarities and differences in a systematic way across units of data.
Linguistic connectors
Looking carefully at the words and phrases such as “because “since” and “as a result’” which are the
indicators of causal relationship among concepts also helps in identifying themes.
Missing data
This is the reverses of identification of themes. Researchers agree that much can be learned from
qualitative data by what is not mentioned in the data.
Theory related material
Themes that characterized the experience of informants are theory related material. Researchers are
interested in understanding haw qualitative data illuminate questions of importance to social sciences .

2. Processing techniques
Cutting and sorting
After searching and marking of text, cutting and sorting involves identifying quotes or expressions that
seems important and arranging them into piles of thing that go together.
MDS (multi dimensional scaling)
John and Doucet(1997) interpreted these dimensions as (1) open versus resistance to change (2)
situational causes versus individual traits (3) high versus low resolution potential based on trust and
finally (4) high versus low resolution potential based on patience
In scaling the interacultural similarity data identified four different dimensions (1) high versus low
cooperation (2) high versus low confrontation (3) problem solving versus accepting (4) resolved versus
ongoing
Words and key words in context (KWIC)
This technique draws on a simple observation; if you want to understand what people are talking about
look closely at the words they use. To generate word lists researchers first identify all the unique words
in a text and counts the number of times each occur .