How do we Talk to Each other? Writing Qualitative Research for Quantitative Readers

The growth of qualitative research holds the potential for vastly enriching our understanding of phenomena in the health sciences. However, the potential of this trend is hampered by a widespread inability of quantitative and qualitative researchers to talk to each other. The authors' concern in this area grows out of our experience reviewing small grant applications for the National Institute on Aging, where they frequently find qualitative research proposals scoring worse than do those using quantitative approaches. This article addresses practical problems in communicating qualitative research to readers whose training and experience is primarily quantitative. Two themes running through the discussion are the need for detail and the explicit tying of methodological strategies to research goals.