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92 V Braun and V Clarke

satisfactory thematic map. In so doing, it is you do not just paraphrase the content of
possible that you will identify potential the data extracts presented, but identify
new themes, and you will need to start what is of interest about them and why.
coding for these as well, if they are of For each individual theme, you need to
interest and relevent. However, a word conduct and write a detailed analysis. As
of warning: as coding data and generating well as identifying the ‘story’ that each
themes could go on ad infinitum,itis theme tells, it is important to consider
important not to get over-enthusiastic with how it fits into the broader overall ‘story’
endless re-coding. It is impossible to pro- that you are telling about your data, in
vide clear guidelines on when to stop, but relation to the research question or ques-
when your refinements are not adding any- tions, to ensure there is not too much
thing substantial, stop! If the process of overlap between themes. So it is necessary
recoding is only fine-tuning and making to consider the themes themselves, and
more nuanced a coding frame that already each theme in relation to the others. As
works / ie, it fits the data well / recognize part of the refinement, you will need to
this and stop. Consider it as similar to identify whether or not a theme contains
editing written work / you could endlessly any sub-themes. Sub-themes are essentially
edit your sentences and paragraphs, but themes-within-a-theme. They can be useful
after a few editing turns, any further work for giving structure to a particularly large
is usually unnecessary refinement / similar and complex theme, and also for demon-
to rearranging the hundreds and thousands strating the hierarchy of meaning within the
on an already nicely decorated cake. data. For instance, in one of Virginia’s
At the end of this phase, you should have analyses of women’s talk about the vagina,
a fairly good idea of what your different she identified two overarching themes in
themes are, how they fit together, and the women’s talk: the vagina as liability, and the
overall story they tell about the data.
vagina as asset (Braun and Wilkinson,
Phase 5: defining and naming themes 2003). Within each theme, three sub-themes
Phase 5 begins when you have a satisfactory were identified: for liability the sub-themes
thematic map of your data / see Figure 4 for were ‘nastiness and dirtiness’, ‘anxieties’
the final refinements of Virginia’s thematic and ‘vulnerability’; for asset the sub-themes
map. At this point, you then define and were ‘satisfaction’, ‘power’ and ‘pleasure’.
further refine the themes you will present However, these eventual final themes and
for your analysis, and analyse the data sub-themes resulted from a process of re-
within them. By ‘define and refine’, we finement of initial themes and sub-themes,
mean identifying the ‘essence’ of what as shown in Figures 2 /4.
each theme is about (as well as the themes It is important that by the end of this phase
overall), and determining what aspect of the you can clearly define what your themes are
data each theme captures. It is important and what they are not. One test for this is to
not to try and get a theme to do too much, or see whether you can describe the scope and
to be too diverse and complex. You do this content of each theme in a couple of sen-
by going back to collated data extracts for tences. If not, further refinement of that
each theme, and organizing them into a theme may be needed. Although you will
coherent and internally consistent account, already have given your themes working
with accompanying narrative. It is vital that titles, this is also the point to start thinking