When you are doing research for a paper, project or post on a particular subject, you have to decide how you will look at them subject and the information you gather and from there the conclusions you draw. What you draw in your mind compared to what your reader interprets in a matter of your writing style and their comprehension of the subject matter. Explain a complex theory in simple terms and anyone can understand it. Will an expert on the material gain any benefit or insight? No, and that is why you also need to keep your target reader, your audience, in mind.
When we look at a subject, for example – wedding day parties – and we want to do qualitative research, we would focus on the how and why of wedding days.
Why do people have a wedding day? Do they do it for moral, religious, spiritual or family reasons? Is their wedding day one of obligation, service or duty, or something they want to do to carry on traditions, share the moment with friends and family?
Is it a custom to have the brides family for breakfast and then more for lunch and a larger party for dinner? The custom is the why and the actual activities are the how, the second part of our qualitative analysis.
How do people have a wedding day? Do they spend it at home with family and friends, go to a church and then a small cake and punch at the church reception room? A church, then limo to the 1st National Bank for awesome portrait pictures they will cherish the rest of their lives, then take the limo to a hall where they have a wine and cheese hour followed by a wonderful reception with music and a string band, that their friends and family will remember for years? Do they get on an airplane and go to Las Vegas and get married at the Little White Wedding Chapel? How to they make their wedding day?