"David Silverman is, without doubt, one of the most challenging, demanding writers on qualitative research. . . . For all nurses who are considering, planning, or currently working on qualitative research studies, this book will prove indispensable." --Nursing Times Agenda "The major interest of this book is the immediacy of its accounts of life in the field and how individual ethnographers responded to its demands and dilemmas. It will alert the apprentice researcher to the realities of day-to-day engagement in the research setting, and to the more worn practitioner it offers the comforting reassurance that one is not alone in one's field experiences of isolation, fear, hostility, harassment and confusion." --European Sociological Review "The book offers communication researchers some of the best, recent work on qualitative inquiry in the human disciplines. . . . Published by Sage, the leading publisher of qualitative research in the social sciences today. . . . David Silverman's elegantly written text, filled with worked-through examples and student exercises, argues for a rigorous postpositivist approach to the issues of observation, analysis, validity, reliability, and generalizability in qualitative research. . . . There is great value here, especially in Silverman's desire to bring new terms and new methods into the qualitative research tradition. . . . This work brings the communication scholar up-to-date on where qualitative methods are in current sociological and educational discourse." --Norman K. Denzin in Journal of Communication "This book is a milestone. At last a leading researcher has given us an authoritative account of ethnography as a way of doing social science, building a discipline and a body of theory. The standards set here will be benchmarks for years to come." --Robert Dingwall, University of Nottingham "This book, written by one of the master craftsmen of qualitative research, deals with the full gamut of problems and possibilities which routinely confront the researcher. It is absolutely brimming with ideas and suggestions for teachers, students, and professional researchers, and will undoubtedly serve as an indispensable resource for years to come. Indeed, for anyone even vaguely interested in getting their students to engage with everyday social life, this book will prove to be an incomparable starting point." --Lindsay Prior, University of Ulster "A very useful addition to the literature, covering aspects of qualitative research in an admirably lucid and well-illustrated way." --Paul Atkinson, University of Wales "An excellent text. Sliverman's earlier book set new standards for 'thinking about' qualitative sociology; the present text adds to this by demonstrating the practical relevance of qualitative research as a way of doing social science. I doubt it will be surpassed for many years." --Michael Emmison, University of Queensland "Readable and likely to be a big success with students. I use especially the chapter on quantifying observational data." --Maureen Cain, University of West Indies "Excellent book with its useful exercises, just what is needed in teaching research methods." --Helmi Jarvilouman, University of Tampere "Excellent. Both learned and concrete enough for the student." --Anssi Perakyla, University of Tampere This book is a broad-ranging critical introduction to and assessment of the central issues involved in qualitative research. David Silverman's text spans the range of different approaches within the qualitative tradition, the relations between qualitative and quantitative methods in social research, and the strengths of specific methodologies. Particular issues discussed include the theoretical underpinnings and methodological consequences of major traditions of qualitative research, including ethnography, symbolic interactionism, conversation analysis, and ethnomethodology; issues of observation, analysis, and validity in qualitative research; and the centrality of language as the medium of communication of the subjects of qualitative research and the different ways in which such communication can be studied--through interviews, texts, and transcripts. Interpreting Qualitative Data will be of interest to students, academics, and researchers doing qualitative research.