Further Readings

The original article in which Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke outlined their approach to thematic analysis (TA) remains the obvious starting point for anyone wishing to become familiar with the method (Braun and Clarke, 2006). Their reflection on the assumptions they made when first outlining their approach is also an essential read to get a sense of how their thinking around TA has developed in the intervening years (Braun and Clarke, 2019); see also their interview with Nikki Hayfield (Braun et al, 2019). Their 2013 textbook, Successful Qualitative Research, provides an extensive discussion and demonstration of TA (and other aspects of qualitative research). The companion website for that book includes data sets for practising TA.  Their thematic analysis website includes an extensive reading list, links to YouTube lectures, and frequently-asked questions about the method.

A detailed worked example of a TA of interview data is provided by Terry et al (2017). Anderson and Clarke (2019) present an experiential, descriptive TA of accounts of problematic skin-picking posted in an online support forum. Another example of a ‘straightforward’ TA can be found in Terry and Braun (2011). For more complex examples of the possibilities offered by TA, see Terry and Braun (2012) and Hayfield et al (2019), which start with TA but also draw on discourse analysis. See also Whitaker et al (2019) who offer a critical, discursively-informed TA of young men’s accounts of body dissatisfaction posted anonymously online.

Anyone who is interested in contexts of transition in military life (the topic of the data set analysed in Chapters 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 in the book) will find an excellent TA of data on one particular context in Verey and Smith’s (2012) research on ‘post-combat adjustment.’