Writing Research: Transforming Data into Text

AORN Journal, Nov, 2004 by Sonya Osborne

Writing Research: Transforming Data into Text Judith Clare and Helen Hamilton, eds 2003, 222 pp $29.95, paperback

There is increasing appreciation for the value of the interpretive and reconstructive processes qualitative researchers use to understand the complex world of research participants. Understanding and conducting qualitative research using particular theoretical and methodological frameworks is challenging in itself. Presenting the findings in such a way that the research perspective is clearly maintained and articulated is equally challenging. The purpose of this book is not only to teach researchers about a variety of research paradigms, predominantly in the qualitative research arena, but also to assist researchers "to write credible and rigorous research."

This book will serve as a valuable resource for qualitative researchers, from novice to experienced. Although its focus is on qualitative methods, the general concepts of writing research are transferable to those writing from a quantitative framework. The easy-to-read and navigate format allows the book to serve as a quick reference for professionals on the other end of writing, such as supervisors, examiners, reviewers, and editors.

The book is organized into three sections. Section one focuses on the business of writing research and includes chapters devoted to content, organization, and the nature of research writing, such as how to develop an argument and present it in a cohesive manner. One chapter discusses the process for writing for publication and includes useful information on such topics as deciding on your audience, where to publish, and dealing with procrastination and writer's block.

Another chapter is devoted entirely to writing a doctoral thesis. Section two covers the art of transforming data into text within specific paradigmatic frameworks and contains individual chapters devoted to such approaches as feminism, hermeneutics and phenomenology, historical biography, critical theory and critical social science, and postmodernism and post-structuralism. Section three discuss two broad practical issues that research writers need to be familiar with and understand, one being the importance of building relationships in the writing process, such as the student-supervisor relationship and the writer-editor relationship. The final chapter discusses rights and responsibilities of the writer from moral, ethical, and legal standpoints, covering such topics as fair dealings with editors, plagiarism, research misconduct, and copyright and permissions.

This book contains contributions from leading researchers who are experts in their respective paradigmatic fields, each providing a brief overview of the paradigm and an explanation about how to transform data gathered within the paradigmatic framework into written text. The editors bring together a manual that will help research writers write within their chosen research paradigm and research readers assess the quality of writing about qualitative research.

This book is available from Churchill Livingstone, Inc, 1560 Broadway, New York, NY 10036.

SONYA OSBORNE

RN, BSN, MN, CNOR

NURSE RESEARCHER

CENTRE FOR CLINICAL NURSING, ROYAL BRISBANE AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL

HERSTON, QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA