Memos and Memoing

Memoing is the act of recording reflective notes about what the researcher (fieldworker, data coder, and/or analyst) is learning from the data. Memos accumulate as written ideas or records about concepts and their relationships. They are notes by the researcher to herself or himself about some hypothesis regarding a category or property and especially relationships between categories. These memos add to the credibility and trustworthiness of qualitative research and provide a record of the meanings derived from the data. There are no rules pertaining to memoing; however, each memo should contain one idea and should be dated and referenced. Memos evolve as the research proceeds and may differ substantially in style and manner.

Unfortunately, the human mind tends to forget much that has been experienced or observed at quite a rapid rate. When doing research, some method is needed to overcome this tendency, as recalling details is an extremely important contributor to the qualitative research process and its credibility. Credibility can be defined as the confidence that can be placed in both the data and the analysis. Credibility is synonymous with validity in quantitative research. One of the means to enhance credibility is to jot notes. As the researcher cannot rely on memorization, jotting notes adds to the defensibility of the results. However, the research setting does not always allow for jotting notes, and memoing can even compromise the credibility in certain situations, in which case mental notes must be made. Unfortunately, these electrical traces in the brain have an even higher rate of decay. By jotting down cursory phrases, quotes, key words, and the like, during inconspicuous moments, the researcher can jog her or his memory when comprehensive fieldnotes are later compiled.

Another important use of memoing is for qualitative data analysis purposes, such as in ethnography and grounded theory. Ethnography is a form of qualitative research that focuses on the discovery and/or comprehensive description of the culture of a group of people. Grounded theory is another form of qualitative research that aims at generating and developing a theory from data that are systematically gathered and analyzed. In both ethnography and grounded theory, data analysis happens at two levels: textual and conceptual. The first entails reading the complete corpus of field data and memoing throughout. Barney Glaser has emphasized that memoing is prioritized, or stated differently, when an idea occurs and the researcher pauses and records it. This process is often referred to as open-ended coding. It is as if the researcher must build a puzzle without a picture and starts sorting through the pieces of data. As the researcher forms ideas, they are written down as memos. Theoretical memoing is about attempts to derive meaning from the data. Methodological or operational memoing comprises reminders, instructions, or critiques that the researcher writes to herself or himself as the analysis unfolds. The conceptual level entails theorizing about concepts, categories, properties, and themes and the relationships between these. This theorizing is often referred to as axial coding, and integrative memos are used. The researcher begins to fit the [Page 506]pieces of the puzzle together. Sometimes a piece that initially appeared to fit is discovered not to fit. As the researcher becomes more theoretically sensitive, the fit between conceptual pointers and categories becomes easier. It is quite feasible that initial memos later appear rather naive and erroneous as the researcher gains a better understanding and interpretation. However, the two levels mentioned are never clearly demarcated. The analysis is mostly simultaneous or parallel and often entails recurring phases of data collection, coding, memoing, and sorting. Memos help the researcher to achieve an analytical distance from the raw data and force the researcher to conceptualize.

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