what is verbatim quotes in qualitative research

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Providing English and native language quotes in qualitative research: A call to action

Ahtisham younas.

1 Swat College of Nursing, Swat Pakistan

2 Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's NL, Canada

Sergi Fàbregues

3 Department of Psychology and Education, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona Spain

Angela Durante

4 University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome Italy

Parveen Ali

5 University of Sheffield, Sheffield UK

Associated Data

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

When publishing qualitative research in international journals, researchers studying non‐English‐speaking participants provide quotes in English language. This is an issue of increasing concern given the need to be rigorous to represent a diversity of participants within their context, beyond how language (alone) situates them.

To argue for providing English and native language quotes in qualitative research reports.

Discussion.

This paper is based on the literature on use of quotes and translation in qualitative research and authors’ experiences of publishing qualitative research.

Provision of native and English language quotes may allow for greater transparency of findings, thereby reflecting that the researchers adequately captured the socially and culturally dependent experiences of participants.

Conclusions

Presentation of findings with eloquent quotes serves as the gateway into the sociocultural experiences of individuals. We argued against the norm of providing translated quotes in qualitative reports and build a case for the provision of native as well as English language quotes to promote cross‐cultural understanding.

1. INTRODUCTION

Qualitative research is invaluable to facilitate the exploration and understanding of the experiences of individuals about diverse phenomena across different cultures and contexts (Bhattacharya,  2017 ; Teherani et al.,  2015 ). Qualitative research is also context‐dependent and offers an emic viewpoint of the social and cultural reality of the participants (Azungah,  2018 ). Conducting rigorous qualitative research requires researchers to attend to the cultural and social nuances influencing the studied phenomena. Increasing globalization and diversity create a need for more cross‐cultural qualitative research, but language differences between researchers and participants can substantially affect the rigour of this type of research (Nasri et al.,  2020 ). The language of researchers and the participants, and the differences in language arising due to translations and different dialects, can significantly influence qualitative research since they affect conceptualization, data collection, analysis and reporting procedures (Nes et al.,  2010 ).

Researchers conducting cross‐cultural qualitative studies involving non‐English‐speaking participants often collect data in their native language (Santos et al.,  2015 ; Zeb et al.,  2021 ) and then, subsequently, with the help of translators/interpreters or bilingual researchers, they translate these data into English during the stages of data collection, transcription, analysis and reporting (Feldermann & Hiebl,  2019 ; Helmich et al.,  2017 ; Santos et al.,  2015 ). When writing and publishing qualitative research in international journals, researchers studying non‐English‐speaking participants are required to provide participants’ quotes in English. We argue that this is an issue of increasing concern given the need to be rigorous to represent a diversity of participants within their context, beyond how language (alone) situates them. Translating qualitative data into English is often considered a marker for expediting communication and interaction with a global audience (Abfalter et al.,  2020 ).

Nevertheless, translation of participants quotes can undermine the presentation of context and contextual meanings inherent to participants’ experiences when expressing themselves in a different language. Translation involves interpretation on the part of researchers (Nes et al.,  2010 ). Therefore, because language contains meanings rooted in more than the research context, the precise meaning of research findings may get lost or changed because audiences from different backgrounds may lack information on the specific contexts of the findings (Abfalter et al.,  2020 ; Nasri et al.,  2020 ). Consequently, to promote cultural and language transparency and describe the contextual meanings of participants, there is a greater need to represent the original voices of non‐English language speakers in research reports. Presenting original voices of participants can also enhance the rigour of qualitative research by supplementing knowledge of the researcher's positionality and how it affects the researchers’ interpretation of participants’ experiences. Providing both native and translated quotes has an added potential to enhance the symbolic and conceptual utility of qualitative research. Sandelowski ( 2004 ) explains this conceptual utility “as worlds are created with words, and words are the primary currency of qualitative research, to reword something is to remake the world” (p. 1373).

To present an argument for providing English and native language quotes in qualitative research reports by outlining the potential benefits of this practice. First, we briefly discuss existing guidance concerning translation in qualitative research. Second, we discuss the importance of providing quotes in qualitative research. Finally, we outline several benefits of providing English and native language quotes in qualitative research and propose recommendations for carrying out this task.

3. TRANSLATION IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

To date, there has been extensive discussion in the literature about issues concerning the translation of data in qualitative research (Abfalter et al.,  2020 ; Chen & Boore,  2010 ; Hendrickson et al.,  2013 ; Nasri et al.,  2020 ; Santos et al.,  2015 ). Evidence suggests that translation‐related decisions have a direct impact on the validity of a study's findings and require the researcher to be aware of issues and concerns surrounding translation and interpretations (Chen & Boore,  2010 ; Squires,  2008 , 2009 ). Many authors have suggested strategies to ensure rigour in translation, and these include: transcribing verbatim in the original language in which data were collected, using two bilingual researchers, moving back and forth between raw and translated data to ensure consistency, choosing the appropriate time to do the translation, being mindful of the conceptual equivalence when translating, enabling sociocultural matching and ensuring that researchers are linguistically competent and culturally sensitive (Chen & Boore,  2010 ; Hendrickson et al.,  2013 ; Nasri et al.,  2020 ; Santos et al.,  2015 ). To enhance the transparency of translation decisions and improve the scientific rigour of translated qualitative studies, Abfalter et al. ( 2020 ) proposed a framework making use of the following generic queries:

3.1. WHY? The reason for translating

Researchers should clarify the reasons for translating the quotes. The common reasons are linguistic comfort, value for the academic community and academic career. Linguistic comfort refers to the idea that researchers and participants may feel at ease when interpreting and sharing their data in the native language. However, the researchers then need to translate the quotes, so the global academic community can benefit from the research. Translation of quotes may enable researchers to expand the epistemological spectrum by presenting distinct sociocultural phenomena and their variations concerning the characteristics of individuals in those contexts. This notion refers to the value for the academic community. Finally, researchers may translate their qualitative research and quotes into English because international publications are required for academic promotion in many countries (Abfalter et al.,  2020 ).

3.2. WHEN? The time for translating

Researchers should clearly note the timing for translation during the research process. Early‐stage translation of data can ensure homogeneity of concepts and language and may save the cost of translation. However, translation at a later stage can produce higher‐quality findings because researchers can discover new insights while analysing the data in their native language. Nevertheless, later stage translation can be costly and time consuming (Abfalter et al.,  2020 ).

3.3. WHAT? The data or content for translating

It is important to clarify what content is to be translated because limited complexity in translation can result in greater loss of meaning and context of the original data. Some researchers may only translate the verbal data, while others may be interested in verbal data and emotions, exclamatory remarks, humour, metaphors, traditional and cultural expressions, and other linguistic characteristics (Abfalter et al.,  2020 ).

3.4. WHO? The person(s) translating

The person responsible for translating the data has the authority and responsibility to make pertinent decisions about the translation process and the content. The research teams should clearly note who (eg research team, data analyst, research assistant, interpreter or any other person outside the research team) will be involved in translation (Abfalter et al.,  2020 ).

3.5. HOW? The mode of translating

Researchers should state the techniques used for translation because the diversity and heterogeneity of languages of the participants can affect the translation process. Abfalter et al. ( 2020 ) discussed two techniques. First, a contextualized hermeneutic approach ensures the accurate translation of the meaning and experiences of participants. Second, a technicist approach follows strict rules and methods to translate the data for enhancing its accuracy, validity, reliability and quality.

3.6. WHERE? The location for translating

The location for translation could be (i) “within the socio‐geographical environment of the source language, (ii) within the socio‐geographical environment of the target language and (iii) outside the socio‐geographical environment of both source and target language” (Abfalter et al. ( 2020 ), p. 12). Translation within the source language or native language in the specific subculture can preserve contextual information and meaning of participants’ experiences. Translation within the target language, that is, English, may affect the researcher's positionality, social identity and the contextual meaning of the data (Abfalter et al.,  2020 ).

3.7. BY WHAT MEANS? The means and tools for translating

Researchers should also explicitly describe the tools and methods used translating data from native to target language. The tools may include online software, glossaries, internet searches and IT tools (Abfalter et al.,  2020 ).

This framework is useful for qualitative researchers engaged in cross‐cultural research for appropriate translation and integration of language to capture participants’ experiences. We recommended utilizing this framework during the research process and tailoring the queries to the context of each study.

4. IMPORTANCE OF PROVIDING QUOTES IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Researchers must work consciously to ensure the rigour of the translation of qualitative data and the integrity of their decision‐making when presenting their findings. One quality criterion essential to the reporting of qualitative research is the inclusion of participants’ quotes in the findings section of the study (Malterud,  2001 ; Walsh & Downe,  2006 ). Quotes are presented as “evidence, explanation, illustration, impression, representation and/or to enhance the readability of qualitative research” (Eldh et al.,  2020 , p. 5). Using quotes allows researchers to provide strong evidence that the reported findings are credible and accurate representations of the participants’ views and experiences (Eldh et al.,  2020 ; Fitzpatrick & Boulton,  1996 ). Embedding participants quotes within paragraphs of theme description adds additional richness to the study findings (Eldh et al.,  2020 ), allows the reader to see the issue from the participants’ perspective in their own words and helps strengthen the reporting of participants’ experiences when interpreting results, particularly when authors are dealing with a community, they are not a part of.

5. CHALLENGES WITH THE PRESENTATION OF QUOTES IN ENGLISH AND THE NEED FOR CHANGING THIS PRACTICE

As previously discussed, authors have mainly argued for ensuring transparency and rigour during the translation of qualitative data (Chen & Boore,  2010 ; Nasri et al.,  2020 ; Santos et al.,  2015 ). Such arguments are presented with the underlying assumption that English readers can understand and attest to the accuracy and rigour of data analysis and reporting (Al‐Amer et al.,  2015 ). However, attention needs to be paid when information is translated from one language to another and the nuances of the message conveyed via words—not to mention accent, dialect and ways of speaking—are lost. This practice can supress the culturally flavoured meanings of individuals’ experiences and views (Helmich et al.,  2017 ).

To adequately and rigorously present results, researchers working with non‐English participants often provide participants’ quotes in English when writing and publishing qualitative research for international journals. The quotes are provided as if the participants shared their experiences and views in fluent English, assuming that readers will be able to adequately capture the underlying meanings (Al‐Amer et al.,  2015 ; Helmich et al.,  2017 ). Even when the original data are in English, researchers often produce a corrected version of the participants’ quotes by tidying up any mispronunciations and removing common colloquial expressions such as “humms” and “aahs” (King et al.,  2019 ). While this practice can help make the quotes more comprehensible and readable, it can also affect transcription accuracy and reduce the authenticity of the reported data. These two problems can be still more significant when quotes are translated since researchers might then need to do further editing to make the text more comprehensible. Esposito ( 2001 ) argued that some types of translations might lead researchers to lose the “emic quality” of the original dialogue between the participants and the researchers. Translating quotes might make it difficult to preserve the original meaning of the qualitative data when reporting the study findings.

Sandelowski ( 1994 ) proposed two approaches to the reporting of the participants’ quotes: the “preservationist” approach and the “standardized” approach. While in the preservationist approach, researchers try to preserve every element of the participants’ verbal quote, in the standardized approach, researchers clean up every textual element that might be distracting to the readers. An example of the latter approach is provided by Morse (1996), who argues that researchers should edit the participants’ quotes because, in her own words, unedited quotes “will distract the reader, and the message that the researcher is trying to convey will be obscured by the irrelevant material.” In this article, we argue that the time has come that, in cross‐cultural qualitative reports, a preservationist approach is prioritized over a standardized approach. Nevertheless, it is also important that the choice of the preservationist approach aligns with the study purpose and researchers’ paradigmatic and methodological stance. The preservationist approach can be adhered to by encouraging researchers to provide participants’ quotes in both English as well as the original language of the data collection. While providing both native and English language quotes, the researchers should also discuss the reasoning for choosing and presenting quotes. It is also important that journal editors encourage and support the presentation of English language quotes alongside translated quotes. The inclusion of bilingual quotes can help highlight the voices of participants living in non‐English‐speaking countries. Since those participants might be less prevalent than English native speakers in studies published internationally, the inclusion of bilingual quotes could be understood as a way of democratizing research (ie reducing imbalances of power within the research process).

6. POTENTIAL BENEFITS OF PROVIDING ENGLISH AND NATIVE LANGUAGE QUOTES’

6.1. contribution to rigour in data analysis.

Qualitative data analysis is a daunting task that requires researchers to practice creativity, innovation, intuition and abductive reasoning. In cross‐cultural qualitative research, it is essential that the participants’ experiences are adequately interpreted within their contexts (Pelzang & Hutchinson,  2017 ; Saldaña, 2021 ) and, as a result, participants’ experiences are converted into meaningful themes to inform practice. The presentation of qualitative findings needs to be done in descriptive and interpretive ways so that the meanings of the studied phenomena are illuminated in the light of the social and cultural contexts of the phenomena (Munhall,  2012 ).

Describing the themes in qualitative research, the provision of direct quotations enables researchers to grasp the data in an authentic way, however, assuming that the readers’ evaluation of the rigour and plausibility of the study is largely contingent on the presented data (Feldermann & Hiebl,  2019 ). Therefore, the provision of both native and English language quotes in the qualitative report may allow multilingual readers to assess the consistency and adequacy of the translation and the extent to which the quotes accurately represent the themes. Consequently, readers may develop greater confidence in the study findings. For example, a reader who is proficient in both Italian and English languages may find a qualitative report with Italian and English language quotes more relevant than a similar study that only provided quotes in English. This could be due to various reasons: (i) readers can better relate to the former qualitative report than the later, (ii) readers can better evaluate the consistency between the actual experience of participants and the presented account of the participants’ experience, and (iii) readers can better relate to and contextualize the views and experiences of the participants in the broader social and cultural context.

6.2. Greater transparency in research reporting

Transparency in qualitative research entails comprehensive reporting of study methods, researchers’ assumptions and biases, cultural context and study findings (Tuval‐Mashiach,  2017 ). In reporting study findings, participants’ quotes are crucial to support the themes, their interpretation and explanation, and to convey the explicit meaning of the generated themes (Yin,  2011 ). Put simply, the presentation of the participants’ quotes gives voice to the generated themes (Sutton & Austin,  2015 ) and provides vividness to the text (Eldh et al.,  2020 ). Participants’ words and phrases demonstrate the depth of their views and the intensity and underlying emotions of their feelings and experiences. Although researchers may use emotional labels such as anger, distrust, disgust and surprise to adequately describe participants’ experiences, quotes are better illustrative of the participants’ true feelings (Corden & Sainsbury,  2006 ). Therefore, if the participants shared their experiences in their native language, it seems reasonable that the quotes are presented as such.

Relevant and meaningful participants’ quotes can potentially enhance the representation of their experiences, the evocation of readers’ emotions and the process of generating responses (Bradshaw et al.,  2017 ; Sandelowski, 1994 ). Sometimes, participants’ actual words can better impact on readers compared to researchers’ descriptions of those experiences (Corden & Sainsbury,  2006 ). No matter how accurate the translation can be, there is always a possibility of losing the true essence and cultural and social favour in a translated quote. An inaccurate and inadequate translation may take away the essential flavour of the quote that makes it appealing and interesting to the readers. Therefore, if both native and English language quotes are provided, it adds transparency to language reporting for the readers. As discussed previously, multilingual and native readers can assess the adequacy of translation and the relevance of the quotes to the themes.

6.3. Ensuring adequate capture of participants’ views

Quotes presented in qualitative research need to illustrate the essence of the participants’ experiences and “bring the text to life—or bring life to the text” (Eldh et al.,  2020 , p. 4). Relevant and relatively succinct quotes demonstrate points that researchers make about the data and provide insights into the global and contextual patterns in the data (Lingard,  2019 ). When quotes are translated, errors of omission and translation and differences in translated texts can substantially affect the interpretation of the data, the generation of meanings and the final representation of the participants’ experiences (Wong & Poon,  2010 ).

The above‐listed translation errors could make researchers fail to adequately capture participants’ views in studies conducted in settings with ingrained cultural values and norms related to race, gender, stigma and marginalization (Nasri et al.,  2020 ). In those types of studies, readers may expect greater awareness of the inherent cultural norms and values, and such awareness is often reflected in the quotations presented in the published qualitative findings. Publishing quotes in the original language may offer the opportunity for the readers to gather insights into the essence of the participants’ experiences. It might also allow researchers to retain an insider's perspective and ensure that the participants’ views are accurately captured and represented in their own words (Manning,  1997 ; Patton,  2002 ). Finally, reporting quotes bilingually might give readers a chance to immerse themselves in the situations that the quotes relate to and develop accurate insights about the participants’ social and cultural contexts.

6.4. Promoting cross‐cultural understanding

One of the aims of cross‐cultural research is to offer readers an understanding of the complexities of culturally and socially dependent phenomena and recognize the differences in phenomena across contexts (Karasz & Singelis,  2009 ). Greater consideration must be given to research methods in cross‐cultural research conducted in collectivistic cultural settings entailing greater sense of participants’ socio‐political dynamics (Pelzang & Hutchinson,  2017 ). Language differences are integral to understanding collectivist diversity across contexts and cultures. Language is not just words, but also a symbolic system of communication shaped by the customs, beliefs, identities, and world views of a given social group (Angel,  2013 ).

Each language has its own metaphors, and analogies and embodies figures of speech that are filtered through the social consciousness of the speakers. For example, the word “solicitor” means salesperson in the USA, but lawyer in the UK (Cambridge Dictionary,  2020 ). If an English word has different meanings across English‐speaking countries, it also has greater variations in meaning in other languages. The word “acha” could have several meanings within Urdu and Hindi languages based on the connotation and context. The sentence “Ye acha hai” (acha used in a positive connotation) means “this is good” in English, but “Acha, ab tum mujhe samjhogy kai ye kam kese hota hai” means “OK, are you going to teach me how to do this now/ do I have to learn this from you now?” (Acha used in an aggressive connotation). Or the same sentence “Ye acha hai?” can be used in a sarcastic way (sarcastically saying this is great!). Similarly, Nes et al. ( 2010 ) exemplified that the “ gezellig ” is used in Dutch language by late‐life couples, while expressing the feeling they had when doing things together. The meaning expressed with this Dutch word entails “experiencing togetherness in doing everyday activities together, often at specific times of the day and in the own home. Translating the word gezellig, only as ‘cosy’ would reduce the meaning” (Nes et al.,  2010 , p. 315). Many of these differences can be found in other languages, as illustrated in Table  1 . Therefore, reporting participants’ quotes in English and their native language can help address the problem of words’ multiplicity of meanings across languages while offering readers the opportunity to develop cross‐cultural understanding of participants’ accounts. Readers who are only proficient in English may develop an interest in learning more about the native language of the participants. When the native language is made available along with the translated text, readers have a greater opportunity to appreciate the described cultural phenomenon and apprehend the richness embedded in the study findings.

Examples of lost meaning during translation

7. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Presenting participants’ quotes in qualitative research reports is critical for enhancing the rigor, interpretation and explanation of research findings. In cross‐cultural qualitative research, the presentation of comprehensive findings with eloquent quotes essentially serves as the gateway into the culturally and socially dependent experiences of individuals. In this article, we argue against the common practice of providing translated quotes in qualitative research reports. We build a case that the provision of native and English language quotes may allow for greater transparency, rigor and cross‐cultural understanding of research findings.

We are also conscious of the fact that sometimes journals do not have adequate space to publish qualitative studies with a long list of quotes. Therefore, we offer three recommendations to overcome this limitation. First, the translated and original quotes could be presented in a supplementary online file, only if the journal restricts the word count. If the journal space permits, the authors should provide both English and original language quotes under each theme or sub‐theme in the research report. Second, as Bazeley ( 2013 ) suggested, researchers working in a second language can “use occasional phrases (or brief quotes) from the original language in the final report as needed, accompanied by a parenthesized translation or an explanation where you can't directly translate” (p. 77). Such publishing practices are already common in the field sociolinguistics. For example, the Journal of Sociolinguistics and Journal of Applied Linguistics (published by Wiley) requires authors to provide English and non‐English quotes and encourages adding a second abstract in the authors’ native language to avoid losing the context of findings. Therefore, it seems reasonable to provide both English and native quotes when reporting qualitative studies in the fields of nursing and the health sciences. Finally, the authors of cross‐cultural qualitative studies should explicitly discuss any potential challenges and issues encountered during the translation and analysis of native language quotes in their manuscripts. It is important that readers are aware of the issues that may have affected the transparent reporting of qualitative quotes and their underlying contextual meanings.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Dr. Parveen Ali is an Associate Editor for Nursing Open.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to acknowledge Katelyn Jardine a sociolinguist for offering valuable and critical comments to improve this manuscript.

Younas, A. , Fàbregues, S. , Durante, A. , & Ali, P. (2022). Providing English and native language quotes in qualitative research: A call to action . Nursing Open , 9 , 168–174. 10.1002/nop2.1115 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]

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Research Design Review

A discussion of qualitative & quantitative research design, the use of quotes & bringing transparency to qualitative analysis.

“An overemphasis on the researcher’s interpretations at the cost of participant quotes will leave the reader in doubt as to just where the interpretations came from [however] an excess of quotes will cause the reader to become lost in the morass of stories.” (Morrow, 2005, p. 256)

By embedding carefully chosen extracts from participants’ words in the final document, the researcher uniquely gives participants a voice in the outcomes while contributing to the credibility – and transparency – of the research. In essence, the use of verbatims gives the users of the research a peek into the analyst’s codebook by illustrating how codes associated with particular categories or themes in the data were defined during the analysis process.

As an example, the analysis of data from a recent in-depth interview study among business decision makers determined that the broad concept of “relationships” was a critical factor to driving certain types of decisions. That alone is not a useful finding; however, the analysis of data within this category uncovered themes that effectively gave definition to the “relationships” concept. As shown below, the definitional themes, in conjunction with illustrative quotes from participants, give the reader a concise and useful understanding of “relationships.”

In this way, quotes contribute much-needed transparency to the analytical process. As discussed elsewhere in Research Design Review (e.g., see this April 2017 article ), transparency in the final document is built around “thick description,” defined as “a complete account…of the phenomena under investigation as well as the rich details of the data collection and analysis processes and interpretations of the findings” (Roller & Lavrakas, 2015, p. 363). One of the ingredients in a thick description of the analytical process is the details of code development and the coding procedures. The utilization of verbatims from participants in the final report adds to the researcher’s thick description (and transparency) by helping to convey the researcher’s thinking during data analysis and how that thinking steered the creation and application of codes.

Morrow, S. L. (2005). Quality and trustworthiness in qualitative research in counseling psychology. Journal of Counseling Psychology , 52 (2), 250–260. http://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.52.2.250

Roller, M. R., & Lavrakas, P. J. (2015). Applied qualitative research design: A total quality framework approach . New York: Guilford Press.

Image captured from: https://cdmginc.com/testing-corner-quotation-marks-add-power/

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A good reference, as well as making a good point about the integration and grounding of the participant’s voice with the researcher’s/ evaluator’s interpretations and recommendations. This exemplfies the strentgh of a qualitative approach!

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Beyond the default colon: Effective use of quotes in qualitative research

• The Writer's Craft
• Open access
• Published: 22 November 2019
• Volume 8 , pages 360–364, ( 2019 )

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• Lorelei Lingard 1  

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Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

In the Writer’s Craft section we offer simple tips to improve your writing in one of three areas: Energy, Clarity and Persuasiveness. Each entry focuses on a key writing feature or strategy, illustrates how it commonly goes wrong, teaches the grammatical underpinnings necessary to understand it and offers suggestions to wield it effectively. We encourage readers to share comments on or suggestions for this section on Twitter, using the hashtag: #how’syourwriting?

Last week the ‘e’ key died on my laptop. It’s a first-world problem, I’ll admit, but it really threw my writing for a loop—a lot of words require an ‘e’ key. Reflecting on what other keys I could not do without, I made a quick shortlist: comma, ‘ly’ and colon. The comma because its absence would consign me to the sort of breathy, adolescent writing that fills social media. The ‘ly’ because without that duo I can’t make most of the adverbs that prop up my first drafts. And the colon because I’m a qualitative researcher. How would I introduce quotes if the colon key were out of order?

I’m only partly joking. Every qualitative researcher confronts the challenge of selecting the right quotes and integrating them effectively into their manuscripts. As writers, we are all guilty of resorting to the default colon as an easy way to tuck quotes into our sentences; as readers, we have all suffered through papers that read like a laundry list of quotes rather than a story about what the writer learned. This Writer’s Craft instalment offers suggestions to help you choose the right quotes and integrate them with coherence and style, following the principles of authenticity and argument.

Authenticity

At the point of manuscript writing, a qualitative researcher is swimming in a sea of data. Innumerable transcript excerpts have been copied and pasted into data analysis software or (for the more tactile among us) onto multi-coloured sticky notes. Some of these excerpts we like very much. However, very few of them will make it into the final manuscript, particularly if we are writing for publication in a health research or medical education journal, with their 3000–4000 word limits.

Selecting the best quotes from among these cherished excerpts is harder than it looks. We should be guided by the principle of authenticity: does the quote offer readers first hand access to dominant patterns in the data? There are three parts to selecting a good, authentic quote: the quote is illustrative of the point the writer is making about the data, it is reasonably succinct, and it is representative of the patterns in data. Consider this quote, introduced with a short phrase to orient the reader:

Rather than feeling they were changing identities as they went through their training, medical students described the experience of accumulating and reconciling multiple identities: ‘the “life me”, who I was when I started this, is still here, but now there’s also, like, a “scientific me” as well as a sort of “doctor me”. And I’m trying to be all of that’ (S15) .

This quote is illustrative, providing an explicit example of the point that student identity is multiplying as training unfolds. It is succinct, expressing efficiently what other participants took pages to describe. And it is representative, remaining faithful to the overall sentiments of the many participants reporting this idea.

We have all read—and written!—drafts in which the quoted material does not reflect these characteristics. The remainder of this section addresses these recurring problems.

Is the quote illustrative?

A common challenge is the quote that illustrates the writer’s point implicitly, but not explicitly. Consider this example:

Medical students are undergoing a process of identity-negotiation: we’re ‘learning so much all the time, and some of it is the science stuff and some of it is professional or, like, practical ethical things, and we have to figure all that out’ (S2).

For this quote to serve as evidence for the point of identity-negotiation, the reader must infer that ‘figure all that out’ is a reference to this process. But readers may read their own meaning into decontextualized transcript extracts. Explicit is better, even if it sacrifices succinctness. In fact, this is the right quote, but we had trimmed away the first three sentences where ‘figuring out identity’ got explicit mention. The quote could be lengthened to include these sentences, or, to preserve succinctness, just that quoted phrase can be inserted into the introduction to the quote:

Medical students are ‘figuring out identity’, a process of negotiation in which they are ‘learning so much all the time, and some of it is the science stuff and some of it is professional or, like, practical ethical things, and we have to figure all that out’ (S2).

Is the quote succinct?

Interview transcripts are characterized by meandering and elliptical or incomplete speech. Therefore, you can search diligently and still come up with a 200-word quote to illustrate your 10-word point. Sometimes the long quote is perfect and you should include it. Often, however, you need to tighten it up. By including succinctness as part of the authenticity principle, my aim is to remind writers to explicitly consider whether their tightening up retains the gist of the quote.

The previous example illustrates one tightening technique: extract key phrases and integrate them into your own, introductory sentence to the quote. Another solution is to use the ellipsis to signal that you have cut part of the quote out:

Identity formation in the clinical environment is also influenced by materials and tools, ‘all this stuff you’ve never used before … you don’t know where it is or how to use it, and don’t even get me started on the computerized record. … So many hours and I’m still confused, am I ever going to know where to enter things?’ (S7) .

The first ellipsis signals that something mid-sentence has been removed. In this case, this missing material was an elaboration of ‘all this stuff’ that mentioned other details not relevant to the point being made. The second ellipsis follows a period, and therefore signals that at least one sentence has been removed and perhaps more. When using an ellipsis, only remove material that is irrelevant to the meaning of the quote, not relevant material that importantly nuances the meaning of the quote. The goal is not a bricolage which cuts and pastes tiny bits so that participants say what you want them to; it is a succinct-enough representation that remains faithful to the participant’s intended meaning.

Changing the wording of a quotation always risks violating the authenticity principle, so writers must do it thoughtfully. Two other situations, however, may call for this approach: to maintain the grammatical integrity of your sentence and to tidy up oral speech Footnote 1 . The first is usually not problematic, particularly if you are altering for consistent tense or for agreement of verb and subject or pronoun and antecedent, or replacing a pronoun with its referent. Square brackets signal such changes:

Participants from the community hospital setting, however, ‘[challenged] the assumption of anonymity when evaluating teachers’. (verb tense changed from present to past)

The second situation can be trickier: when should you tidy up the messiness of conversational discourse? Interview transcripts are replete with what linguists refer to as ‘fillers’ or ‘hesitation markers’, sounds and words such as ‘ah/uh/um/like/you know/right’ [ 1 ]. There is general agreement among qualitative scholars that quotes should be presented verbatim as much as possible, and those engaged in discourse and narrative analysis will necessarily analyze such hesitations as part of the meaning. In other applied social research methodologies, however, writers might do some ‘light tidying up’ both for readability and for ethical reasons, as long as they do not undermine authenticity in doing so [ 2 ]. Ethical issues include the desire not to do a disservice to participants by representing the um’s and ah’s of their natural speech, and the concern to protect participant anonymity by removing identifiable linguistic features such as regional or accented speech.

Finally, an emerging strategy for succinctness is to put the quotes into a table. Many qualitative researchers resent the constraints of the table format as an incursion from the quantitative realm. However, used thoughtfully, it can offer a means of presenting complex results efficiently. In this example, Goldszmidt et al. name, define and illustrate five main types of supervisor interruptions that they observed during their study of case review on internal medicine teaching teams (Tab.  1 ; [ 3 ]).

This is a nice example of how ‘Tab.  1 ’, conventionally used in quantitative research papers for demographic details of the research sample, can be re-conceptualized to feature the key findings from a qualitative analysis. Tables should be supplemented, however, with narrative explanation in which the writer contextualizes and interprets the quoted material. More on this in the section on Argument.

Is the quote representative?

We have all been tempted to include the highly provocative quote (that thing we cannot believe someone said on tape), only to realize by the third draft that it misrepresents the data and must be relinquished. Quote selection should reflect strong patterns in the data; while discrepant examples serve an important purpose, their use should be purposeful and explicit. Your quote selection should also be distributed across participants, in order that you represent the data set. This may mean using the second- or third-best example rather than continuing to quote the same one or two highly articulate individuals.

You must provide sufficient context that readers can accurately infer the meaning of the quote. Sometimes this means including the interviewer’s question as well as the participant’s answer. In focus group research, where the emphasis is on the group discussion, it might be necessary to quote an exchange among participants rather than extracting individual comments. This example illustrates this technique:

Interviewer: And, in your experience, how do the students respond to your feedback about how well they communicated? SP1: Oh, really well, it’s really important to the students, they listen to what we say about their performance— Interruption with overlapping talk SP4: Well, yeah, on a good day maybe, sure. But not every time. Lots of sessions I feel like we’re probably more like props to them, so how well we think they did, I’m not sure that matters. SP3: Don’t you find it depends on the student? (FG2)

Of course, such a long excerpt threatens the goal of succinctness. Alternatively, you could use multiple quotes from this excerpt in a single sentence of your own:

Some standardized patients in the group believed that their assessor role was ‘really important to the students, they listen to what we say about their performance’, while others argued that ‘we’re probably more like props to them, so how well we think they did, I’m not sure that matters’. (FG2)

Sometimes a quote is representative but also, therefore, identifiable, jeopardizing confidentiality:

One participant explained that, ‘as chair of the competency committee, I prioritize how we spend our time. So that we can pay sufficient attention to this 2nd year resident. She’s supposed to be back from maternity leave but she had complications so her rotations need some altering for her to manage.’ (CCC4, P2)

In this case, the convention of using a legend (Clinical Competency Committee 4, participant 2) to attribute the quote may be insufficient to protect anonymity. If the study involves few programs and the methods identify them (e.g., Paediatrics and Medicine) and name the institution (e.g., Western University), the speaker may be identifiable to some readers, as may the resident.

Quoted material does not stand on its own: we must incorporate it into our texts, both grammatically and rhetorically. Grammatical incorporation is relatively straightforward, with one main rule to keep in mind: quoted material is subject to the same sentence-level conventions for grammar and punctuation as non-quoted material. Read this example aloud:

Arts and humanities teaching offers an opportunity for faculty to connect with medical students on a different level, ‘we can share how we feel about the work of caring, what it costs us, how it rewards us, as human beings’ (F9).

Your ear likely hears that this should be two sentences. But quotation marks seem to distract us from this, and we create a run-on sentence by putting a comma between the sentences. An easy correction is to replace the comma with a colon.

Arts and humanities teaching offers an opportunity for faculty to connect with medical students on a different level: ‘we can share how we feel about the work of caring, what it costs us, how it rewards us, as human beings’ (F9).

Many writers rely on the colon as their default mechanism for integrating quoted material. However, while it is often grammatically accurate, it is not always rhetorically sufficient. That is, the colon doesn’t contextualize, it doesn’t interpret. Instead, it ‘drops’ the quote in and leaves the reader to infer how the quoted material illustrates or advances the argument. This is problematic because it does not fulfil the requirement for adequacy of interpretation in presenting qualitative results. As Morrow argues, writers should aim for a balance of their interpretations and supporting quotations: ‘an overemphasis on the researcher’s interpretations at the cost of participant quotes will leave the reader in doubt as to just where the interpretations came from; an excess of quotes will cause the reader to become lost in the morass of stories’ [ 4 ]. (p. 256).

There are many techniques for achieving this balance between researcher interpretations and supporting quotations. Some techniques retain the default colon but attend carefully to the material that precedes it. Consider the following examples:

One clinician said: ‘Entrustment isn’t a decision, it’s a relationship’. (F21) One clinician argued: ‘Entrustment isn’t a decision, it’s a relationship’. (F21) One clinician in the focus group disagreed with the idea that entrustment was about deciding trainee progress: ‘Entrustment isn’t a decision, it’s a relationship’. (F21) Focus group participants debated the meaning of entrustment. Many described it matter-of-factly as ‘the process we use to decide whether the trainee should progress’, while a few argued that ‘entrustment isn’t a decision, it’s a relationship’. (F21)

These examples offer progressively more contextualization for the quote. The first example simply drops the quote in following the nondescript verb, ‘said’, offering no interpretive gloss and therefore exerting minimal rhetorical control over the reader. The second offers some context via the verb ‘argued’, which interprets the participant’s positioning or tone. The third interprets the meaning of the quote even more by situating it in the context of a focus group debate. And the fourth eschews the default colon entirely, integrating two quotes into the narrative structure of the author’s sentence to illustrate the dominant and the discrepant positions on entrustment in this focus group debate.

Integrating quotes into the narrative structure of your sentence, like the last example, offers two advantages to the writer. First, it interprets the quote for the reader and therefore exerts strong rhetorical control over the quote’s meaning. Second, it offers variety and style. If your goal is compelling prose, variety and style should not be underestimated. We have all had the experience of reading Results sections that proceed robotically: point-colon-quote, point-colon-quote, point-colon-quote …. If only to make the reader’s experience more enjoyable, your revision process should involve converting some of these to integrated narration.

Notwithstanding the goal of succinctness, sometimes you will include a longer quote because it beautifully illustrates the point. However, a long quote may offer opportunities for readers to focus on images or phrases other than those you intended, therefore creating incoherence in the argument you are making about your results. To guard against this, you might try the ‘quotation sandwich’ technique [ 5 ] of both an introductory phrase that sets up the context of the quote and a summary statement following it emphasizing why you consider it important and what you are using it to illustrate.

Finally, how many quotes do you need to support your point? More is not necessarily better. One quote should be sufficient to illustrate your point. Some points in your argument may not require a quoted excerpt at all. Consider this example, in which the first sentence presents a finding that is not illustrated with a quotation:

Residents described themselves as being always tired. However, their perceptions of the impact of their fatigue varied, from ‘not a factor in the care I provide’ (R8) to ‘absolutely killing me … I’m falling asleep at the bedside’ (R15).

The finding that residents are always tired does not require illustration. It is readily understandable and will not surprise anyone; therefore, following it with the quote ‘I’m tired all the time’ (R2) will feel redundant. The second part of the finding, however, benefits from illustration to show the variety of perception regarding impact.

If you do use multiple quotes to illustrate a point in your argument, then you must establish the relations between them for the reader. You can do this between the quoted excerpts or after them, as modelled above with the four examples used to illustrate progressively stronger quote contextualization.

In conclusion, quotes can be the life’s blood of your qualitative research paper. However, they are the evidence, not the argument. They do not speak for themselves and readers cannot infer what you intend them to illustrate. The authenticity principle can help you select a quote that is illustrative, succinct and representative, while the argument principle can remind you to attend to the grammatical and the rhetorical aspects of integrating the quote into the story you are telling about your research.

A third situation is beyond the scope of this piece: translating quoted material from another language into English. For careful consideration of this issue, please see Helmich et al. [ 6 ].

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Lingard, L. Beyond the default colon: Effective use of quotes in qualitative research. Perspect Med Educ 8 , 360–364 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40037-019-00550-7

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s40037-019-00550-7

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