PSY1023 Chap.10 Reporting Qualitative Results as a Narrative
Reporting Qualitative Results as a Narrative
This chapter covers Weeks 10 and 11 of Introduction to Psychological Inquiry at Monash, the stage where the group research project turns from coding interviews into writing them up. Its target is the Qualitative Results Report, the third assessment task, worth 40% of the unit and made up of a 32% group report and an 8% individual statement.
Most of the report rubric rewards the Analysis section, so the chapter concentrates on how a theme is written, not on how codes are sorted in a table.
The analytic process, the thematic analysis table with transcripts, and the analytical outcomes together carry 55% of that rubric, which makes the writing of themes the single largest lever on the group grade.
You will see how the report is budgeted: a 2,000-word ceiling with no leeway, roughly 300 words of introduction, 700 of method split into design, participants, materials and procedure, and about 1,000 for the analysis.
The unit recommends four themes inside a range of three to five, and every submission carries four appendices: the interview guide, the explanatory statement and consent form, edited transcripts, and the reflexive thematic analysis table.
Qualitative reporting conventions are set beside quantitative ones, so it is clear which duties belong in your Method and which belong to a different kind of study.
The central skill is analytic narrative. Following Braun and Clarke (2006), a strong theme write-up cycles through a claim, a short participant extract, an interpretation of what that extract means, and a link back to the research question.
The chapter explains how to name themes so they carry information, why one-word labels and names like “Barriers to…” lose marks, and why researchers actively generate themes rather than watching them appear.
It also covers how a discussion interprets findings and weighs trustworthiness, what a closing conclusion contains, and why plain writing helps research reach the people who could use it.
Inside the full chapter you will find a worked rewrite of a weak theme paragraph, practice tasks on renaming themes and simplifying dense sentences, and a clear statement of the rule that separates quoting your own participants, which the template expects, from quoting published authors, which the assessment guide does not accept.
A final reminder covers the submission basics that cost groups marks every semester: counting headings and citations toward the limit, citing every appendix in the body, and doing all drafting and editing without generative AI.
What this chapter covers
- 01
The Analysis section as the argument of the Qualitative Results Report
- 02
Word budget: 2,000 words with about 300 introduction, 700 method and 1,000 analysis
- 03
Qualitative versus quantitative conventions in the Method and Results
- 04
Claim, extract, interpretation and link: the rhythm of a theme
- 05
Naming themes without one-word or domain-summary labels
- 06
Discussion, conclusions and trustworthiness
- 07
Plain-language writing and the research-to-practice gap
Worked example · free
Plan one theme subsection before drafting it
- 1Name the theme as a claim, for example “Everyday routines, not organised events, turn acquaintances into friends”, instead of a label such as “Friendship” or “Experiences of clubs”.
- 1Define the boundary in one sentence: the theme covers friendships built through repeated, low-stakes contact, and leaves loneliness in general to another theme.
- 1Order the points so they build: clubs offered contact but little continuity; shared chores supplied repetition; cooking together made cultural exchange feel ordinary.
- 2Give each point one brief extract that shows it plainly, introduced by your claim and followed by a sentence on what it means beyond the participant's words.
- 1Close by answering the research question: for these students, friendship grew from routine rather than from events designed for socialising.
Key terms
- Analytic Narrative
- The researcher's own explanatory writing around data extracts, stating what each extract shows and how it bears on the research question.
- Semantic Code
- A code that captures the surface, explicit meaning of what a participant said, staying close to their own words.
- Latent Code
- An interpretive label for the idea or assumption beneath what participants say, the meaning that lets the explicit content hang together.
- Domain Summary Theme
- A weak theme organised around a topic area, such as Barriers to or Experiences of, that lists what was said instead of stating a shared meaning.
- Data Extract
- A short passage taken from an interview transcript and placed inside a theme to illustrate one analytic claim.
- Research-to-Practice Gap
- The distance between published findings and practitioners such as teachers or nurses who could use them but rarely encounter them.
Reporting Qualitative Results as a Narrative FAQ
Can I quote published authors directly in the Qualitative Results Report?
No. The assessment guide states that direct quotations from articles are not accepted, even for definitions of key terms, so paraphrase in your own words and cite in APA 7 style. Short extracts from your own interview transcripts are a different matter and are expected inside each theme.
How many themes should our group report?
Generate between three and five themes; the unit recommends four. The rubric marks down reports with too many or too few themes and themes that lack distinction, and the analysis table guidance reminds you that a report tells one story rather than representing everything participants said.
Do headings and the reference list count toward the 2,000-word limit?
Headings and in-text citations count. The title page, the reference list and the appendices do not. There is no 10% leeway: the marker stops reading at the limit, so anything past it is neither read nor assessed, while running short carries no penalty.
What goes in the appendices of the report?
Four appendices are required, each on a new page: A, the interview guide; B, the explanatory statement and consent form; C, edited transcripts of all interviews; and D, the completed reflexive thematic analysis table. Cite each one in the body where relevant, for example (see Appendix A).
Does the report need a separate Discussion section?
The annotated template moves from Introduction to Method, Analysis, References and Appendices, with no Discussion heading. Weeks 10 and 11 still teach discussion conventions, such as comparing findings with literature and writing conclusions without citations, because they shape how markers read your themes and appear in later units.
Assessment move
Start from your completed reflexive thematic analysis table, not from a blank page. For each theme, write one sentence stating its central claim and check that the name says the same thing; if the name could be a chapter heading in a textbook, it is still a topic and needs reworking.
Agree on word budgets before anyone drafts: about 300 words for the introduction, 700 for the method across its four subsections, and 1,000 for the analysis, which leaves a modest share for each of your themes once the analytic process is described. Draft one theme in full as a group model, then divide the rest.
Read every theme subsection with a highlighter: mark participant extracts in one colour and your interpretation in another, and make sure no extract stands without a sentence after it explaining what it means for the research question. Replace any phrase saying a theme emerged with wording that shows what your group decided.
Read the draft aloud to catch long, abstract sentences and rewrite them with people as the subjects and actions as verbs. Before submission, count words including headings and in-text citations, confirm all four appendices are present and cited, remove every direct quotation from published sources, replace the template's red placeholder text and remove its blue guidance notes.
Generative AI is not permitted for any part of the task, including editing, so plan time for the group to proofread together.
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