Exercise 1: Discerning the qualities of excellent writing
Read one or both of the research articles selected by Mick Finlay.
- What do you think it is about the way those articles are written that led Mick to select them as noteworthy?
Search for research articles by Michael Billig, Susan Condor, Rosalind Gill, Nick Hopkins or Carla Willig. Read one article by each of two selected authors (articles where the selected authors are the sole or first-named author). Choose articles where the abstract appeals to you. Those writers mostly come from a particular tradition in psychology so if none of the articles appeals to you, select articles from two authors whom you consider to be excellent writers of qualitative research studies in psychology.
- What do you think it is about the way those articles are written that led the authors to be nominated as ‘an excellent writer of qualitative research studies in psychology’? If you selected your own preferred authors, what is it about their writing that led you to consider them as excellent writers of qualitative research studies in psychology? Be as specific as you can, illustrating your answers with examples from the articles that you read.
- From your reading in both parts of this exercise, what conclusions can you draw about the features that characterize high quality write-ups of qualitative research studies in psychology?
Consult the evaluative criteria for qualitative research presented in Chapter 2 of the book.
- Do any of them help you to expand or refine your list of features of high quality write-ups of qualitative research studies in psychology?