However, they are less useful where the study requires detailed personal accounts, or exploration of complex procedures and organisational systems. The composition of the group will be carefully controlled to ensure that there is sufficient homogeneity for respondents to be open about their views and experiences, but also some heterogeneity to generate diversity and debate. The moderator will use a topic guide, which lists the key themes to be explored and the sub-themes within each. The group discussion will be tape-recorded so that the moderator can pay full attention to the discussion, so that the detail and language of the discussion is captured, and to provide a verbatim transcript for analysis. It is a content analysis method which involves summarising and classifying data within a thematic framework.
Framework involves a number of stages.
First, the key themes which emerge from the data are identified through familiarisation with transcripts. An 'index' of numbered themes and sub-themes is drawn up. A series of thematic charts or matrices are then devised. The indexed data from each transcript are summarised and entered within the appropriate cell. The context of the information is retained, and the page of the transcript from which it is drawn is noted so that it is possible to return to the transcript to explore the point in more detail or to extract text for verbatim quotation.