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94 V Braun and V Clarke

is relate the patterns of meaning in men’s does not require the same detailed theore-
responses to an academic analysis of how tical and technical knowledge that ap-
gender operates. In so doing, they de- proaches such as DA or CA do. It is
monstrate the dual position that analysts relatively easy to conduct a good thematic
need to take: as both cultural members analysis on qualitative data, even when you
and cultural commentators. Their ‘discus- are still learning qualitative techniques.
sion’ section makes broader analytic However, there are a number of things that
statements about the overall story that can result in a poor analysis. In this section
the themes tell us about men’s relation- we identify these potential pitfalls, in the
ship with clothing. This story reveals hope that they can be avoided.
that men ‘deliberately and strategically The first of these is a failure to actually
use clothing to manipulate their appear- analyse the data at all! Thematic analysis is
ance to meet cultural ideals of masculi- not just a collection of extracts strung
nity’ (Frith and Gleeson, 2004: 45), in a together with little or no analytic narrative.
way more traditionally associated with Nor is it a selection of extracts with analytic
women. This analysis makes an impor- comment that simply or primarily para-
tant contribution in that it challenges phrases their content. The extracts in the-
perceived wisdom about clothing/appear- matic analysis are illustrative of the analytic
ance and masculinity. points the researcher makes about the data,
As this example demonstrates, your ana- and should be used to illustrate/support an
lytic claims need to be grounded in, but go analysis that goes beyond their specific
beyond, the ‘surface’ of the data, even for a content, to make sense of the data, and tell
‘semantic’ level analysis. The sort of ques- the reader what it does or might mean / as
tions you need to be asking, towards the end discussed above. A second, associated pit-
phases of your analysis, include: ‘What does fall is the using of the data collection
this theme mean?’ ‘What are the assump- questions (such as from an interview sche-
tions underpinning it?’ ‘What are the im- dule) as the ‘themes’ that are reported. In
plications of this theme?’ ‘What conditions such a case, no analytic work has been
are likely to have given rise to it?’ ‘Why carried out to identify themes across the
do people talk about this thing in this entire data set, or make sense of the pattern-
particular way (as opposed to other
ing of responses.
ways)?’ and ‘What is the overall story the
The third is a weak or unconvincing
different themes reveal about the topic?’.
analysis, where the themes do not appear
These sorts of questions should guide the
to work, where there is too much overlap
analysis once you have a clear sense of your
between themes, or where the themes are
thematic map.
not internally coherent and consistent. All
aspects of the theme should cohere around a
central idea or concept. This pitfall has
Potential pitfalls to avoid when doing occurred if, depending on what the analysis
thematic analysis is trying to do, it fails adequately to capture
the majority of the data, or fails to provide a
Thematic analysis is a relatively straight- rich description/interpretation of one or
forward form of qualitative analysis, which more aspects of the data. A weak or un-