title: Virtual text and the growth of meaning in qualitative analysis.
abstract: Qualitative researchers frequently analyze data in the form of narrative, such as responses to open-ended interview questions. Researchers acknowledge the validity of more than one interpretation of the same narrative but, to date, have offered little justification for multiple valid interpretations. A concept for literary theory, "the virtual text" is presented to help explain the mechanism of multiple interpretations and provide a justification for their validity. An example from the first author's research is provided.
authors.affiliation: College of Nursing, University of Illinois, Chicago 60612, USA.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ayres
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Poirier
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D015399:Nursing Research / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014481:United States