Verbatim quotations in applied social research: theory, practice and impact

Including verbatim quotations from research participants has become effectively standard practice in much of the written output from qualitative applied social research. Support for this approach is being strengthened in the development of formal methods for critical appraisal and evaluation of policy-related qualitative studies. However, until fairly recently it was hard to find detailed discussion about the relationship between theorisation and quotations, or any detailed explanation of the process of selection or presentation of verbatim words, both within methodological texts and research reports themselves. There were few examples of investigation of the impact on readers of quotations, or the views of those who spoke the words.