This new edition of Lyn Richards' popular book provides an accessible introduction to qualitative research for students and practitioners. Recognizing that for many novice researchers, data ' rather than methods and their philosophical underpinnings ' are the starting point, the book helps the reader to acquire the skills and understanding of methodological issues that they need as they work through their research project. This enables the student to handle, reflect on, and get results from small amounts of data right from the start.The book also covers using software, when this is necessary, and the challenges that researchers might encounter. For those who wish to work with computer software, resource pages, and tutorials covering the issues and techniques in each chapter are available on the book's companion website.