Facilitators encouraged participants to raise issues as they arose during the course of the discussion instead of enforcing a more rigid structure. Consequently, there were some distinct aspects to the content and direction of each group. In formal content analysis, coders search for themes in the transcripts. Each transcript should be independently reviewed by two different analysts, who then compare their reviews for content and consistency. They must agree on the content and meaning of the transcripts and notes.
Analysts look for themes, key terms and concepts, and contrasts in the data.
Points that are not clear are then checked, and verified by reviewing tapes and notes, and through discussion with the facilitators. Formal content analysis can be very labor intensive. Evaluators should not rely solely on this type of data. The lack of representativeness in the samples can be misleading. On the other hand, focus groups can highlight issues that evaluators may have missed and can add richness to quantitative data that are collected.