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Dear Qual and Quant

January 2003
David Kennedy and Lance Gravlee



Copyright ©2003 Chris Suddick. Reprinted with permission.


This column first appeared in Anthropology News 44(1):56 and is reprinted here with permission. Do you have a question you'd like to have answered in future columns? Write Qual and Quant at help@qualquant.net.

This fall, we completed our graduate training and entered the real world. When we think back on our graduate-school years, we recognize that we never could have completed our dissertations without advice from those who had been through it already. This is especially true regarding many practical aspects of graduate school, including fieldwork, conferences, grants, and learning and applying research methods. Now that we have experienced life after the dissertation, we hope to help graduate students overcome similar challenges in completing a degree. Printed here are some examples of advice we have given. We invite AN readers to submit requests for advice to: help@qualquant.net.

Dear Qual and Quant,

I’m trying to plan ahead for my dissertation. When do you suggest that I start thinking about the methods I’ll use in my fieldwork?
—Methodologically Challenged in Massachusetts

Dear Challenged,

Try waiting until a few weeks before you leave for the field and then contact someone in your department who knows something about methods. Ask them what you should do. This time-tested strategy has enabled many anthropology graduate students to finish their research degrees without wasting time taking courses in research methods.

Dear Qual and Quant,

I’m an advanced graduate student in cultural anthropology. I’m somewhat mathphobic and have avoided quantitative methods so far. When I asked my adviser if I had to take a statistics course, he said wait until I get back from the field. Is this good advice?
—Mathphobe in Minnesota

Dear Phoby,

We suggest that all social-science graduate students take statistics, even if they don’t use it themselves and just want to understand or criticize quantitative research. Waiting to take statistics until after you have completed your fieldwork is great advice. You’ll begin to think about research in a different way and will start to see all the possibilities for data collection that you didn’t take advantage of during your fieldwork because you didn’t know anything about statistics.

Dear Qual and Quant,

I “have” this (pro)blem when eve/r I “write.” Punct-u-ation mark(s) like “quotes,” (par)enthesis and hy-phens keep show-ing (u)p in in(a)propri-ate pl(ace)s, espec/i/ally in the “middle” of word<s>. What “is” go-ing (o)(n)?
—Con-fuse(d) in C/a/m/b/r/i/d/g/e

Dear Confused,

You were probably drinking a soda at your computer and spilled a little of it on the keyboard. Now some of your keys are stuck together. Go buy a new keyboard and the problem will go away.

Dear Qual and Quant,

I’m getting to the point in my anthropology graduate program where I have to start deciding on a project for my dissertation. I have some interesting theoretical questions that I’m eager to investigate, but I don’t really want to live in a foreign country, learn a foreign language, live with strange people, eat strange foods, etc. In fact, I don’t really like talking to strange people and would probably hate doing fieldwork. I would be much happier working on my computer analyzing data. Is there a solution to my dilemma?
—Fearful in Philadelphia

Dear Fieldphobe,

Yes, there’s a solution. It’s called sociology.

Dear Qual and Quant,

I have to present at a conference, and I have a problem. I plan to read my paper word-for-word from a hard copy that I will hold in my hands. I have lots of words in quotations, and I hear a good visual technique during presentations is to hold up your hands and make little quotation marks in the air with two fingers while saying these words. Since my hands will be busy holding my paper, how can I do the quote thingies?
—Perplexed in Princeton

Dear Perplexed,

There are two solutions to this dilemma. First, you can hold your paper with one hand and use the other hand to make one quote in front of the beginning of the imaginary word and then, with lightning speed, put the quote on the end of the word fast enough so that no one notices. Second, you can ask a friend to stand next to the podium during your presentation. As you read your paper, you can nod to this friend when you get to the words in quotations to do the quote thingies for you.

Dear Qual and Quant,

I can’t stand computers. I’d rather do all my work using pens and paper, and I don’t understand why people keep pushing me to use computers. However, there is one thing about computers that intrigues me. I’m a qualitative researcher and I’ve been hearing about computer software that can analyze data for you. I spend lots of time analyzing my interviews and I would love to have a computer do this for me. Imagine how much time this will save! It will give me time to collect more qualitative data. Do you have any recommendations on the type of software that will analyze qualitative data the best?
—Software Searcher in Seattle

Dear Soft Search,

If you like the idea of qualitative data analysis software, you’ll love the latest tool called “Ethnographer 2.0.” This software actually goes into your field site, learns the local language, builds rapport with native people, writes field notes, participates in rites-of-passage ceremonies and marries a local. This new version is a big improvement over “Ethnographer 1.0,” which was only capable of going into a Third-World country and catching malaria.

Send your “Dear Qual and Quant” questions and comments to: help@qualquant.net.


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