Learning Outcome: Students will be able to analyze their findings to better understand
communication phenomena by using interview data to make claims that correspond to
the research question(s).
Instructions: Analytic memos are essentially mini-analyses about what you learned from
the interviews that relate back to your research question. Your analytic memo should
identify a pattern that repeats itself in the data that helps you answer the research
question. Begin by reviewing your interview transcript(s) and listing examples of
responses that you think are connected.
Steps in Creating an Analytic Memo
1. Open a Word document and put your guiding research question(s) at the top
of the page.
2. Review the data, copying and pasting at least 5 quotations that provide some
insight into the research question. For example, choose one of your codes,
and compile a list of at least 5 coded references.
3. Write a short analysis that begins to answer the research question using the
quotations from the interviews you identified. Try to reference the quotations
or use the participants’ language whenever you can.
4. The analysis should end with a claim about the data that (at least partially)
answers the research question.
Analytic Memo
Research Question: What communication practices contribute to
entrepreneurial success?
1. “Actually sort of both. I actually started out doing it as a favor for
a friend who I have known forever. We’re a lot a like.”
2. “He… I didn’t really know what I was doing at the time but at some
point I found out I was having some success with that, and so I
actually started doing it for local businesses and restaurants and so
then it took off from there”
3. “Nah, but I was pretty under resourced when I started out. So,
scraping up the capital to invest in long-term infrastructure was..”
4. “It required a lot of networking, handshaking, and schmoozing.”
5. “They were all friends of friends. People we knew.”
Theoretical Memo
According to Rivera (2011), homosocial reproduction refers to the
“tendency of people to select incumbents who are socially similar to
themselves” (p. 359). This research finds that the selection on social
similarity plays a crucial role in shaping the demographic composition
of organizations. I think this helps answer my research question in a
significant way. Janae points to her networks, “schmoozing” and
similarity to friends as being a crucial way she overcame the first few
months of challenges while starting her business. Homophily is another
communication concepts that appears throughout my background search
of existing studies on entrepreneurship. Homophily has to do with the
attractiveness of familiarity and perception of similarity. Janae’s
comments, such as, “We’re a lot alike” when explaining how she got
started, point to the role of homosocial reproduction in accounting for
entrepreneurial communication strategies that contribute to success.
[Insert 2-3 more paragraphs of elaboration]
References
Rivera, J. (2011). Sociology of work. SAGE Publishing. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781452276199

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