Data Displays for Analysis

"Our experience tells us that extended, unreduced text alone is a weak and cumbersome form of display. It is hard on analysts because it is dispersed over many pages and is not easy to see as a whole. It is sequential rather than simultaneous, making it difficult to look at two or three variables at once. It is usually poorly ordered, and it can get very bulky, monotonously overloading. Comparing several extended texts carefully is very difficult.
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The argument of this book is, You know what you display. Valid analysis requires, and is driven by, displays that are focused enough to permit a viewing of a full data set in the same location, and are arranged systematically to answer the research questions at hand.  A"full data set" does not, of course, mean the complete field notes. Rather the condensed, distilled data presented are drawn from the full range of persons, events, and processes under study...
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Although such displays may sometimes be busy, they will never be monotonous. Most important, the chances of drawing and verifying valid conclusions are much greater than for extended text, because the display is arranged coherently to permit careful comparisons, detection of differences, noting of patterns and themes, seeing trends, and so on.
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Good displays permit the researcher to absorb large amounts of information quickly (Cleveland, 1985). But the qualitative analyst has to handcraft appropriate data displays." (p. 91-93)

Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1994), Qualitative data analysis Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.