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.