Patton (1990:347) declared that if one fails to capture the words of the interviewee everything comes to nothing despite the type of interview used or the questions used to interview since raw data in interviews are the actual quotations derived from the interviewee and there is no replacement for this data. This is critical in the process of conducting interviews. Hence the researcher, after explanations and chat ―backstage which are all the informal activity and chatting that happens before or after the interview‖ (Myers and Newman 2007:13) recorded the interviews. I had a voice recorder and the phone as a back-up in case the recorder failed in the middle of the interview. This is supported by Jacob and Furgerson (2012:7) who holds that when relying on a recording device instead of hand written notes, one should ensure that the equipment is in working order and make sure there is a backup plan if the equipment fails.
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A voice recorder is an indispensable gadget used in qualitative research because it does not change what has been said. It increases the accuracy of data collection and allows the researcher to pay special attention to the respondents. This is unlike taking verbatim notes during the interview that may seriously affect the interactive nature of in-depth interviews (Patton 1990:348). When recording is done, it validates and removes biases to the study conducted. As such, a recorded ―in-depth interview facilitates credibility and dependability of the data collection procedure‖ (Tuckett 2005:4). During the interviews conducted, all respondents allowed the researcher to record the proceedings of the interviews using the voice recorder and the phone as a back-up. After participants were informed of the purpose of the study, permission was sought to record the interviews. Participants indicated their consent by signing consent forms. As already stated, assurance of the anonymity of the interviewee was guaranteed in relation to the information they shared during the interviews. The interviewer was aware that the interviewee may share information that could jeopardise his or her position in a system; as such, that information should remain anonymous and protected from those whose interests conflict with those of the interviewee (DiCicco‐Bloom and Crabtree 2006:319).
The researcher did not encounter any challenges of failure of the equipment or running out of power in the interviewing process. The data in the voice recorder was then transferred to the Laptop and to the USB flash drive while the other recorded data was sent to my email for storage in different places as a back-up in case of failure of the gadget. After the interviews were recorded, they were then transcribed into readable manuscripts.
Wengraf (2001:221) defines transcribing as ―an instrumentation practice, examining sound data from audio tape to create visual data for printing out on paper.‖ This process is demanding and needs high degree of concentration in terms of listening skills. The researcher transcribed the interviews verbatim, save for some incidents where the interviewee had some breath or expressions such as ‗Mmmm, ummm‘, etc. This is in line with what scholars like Hill (2012:12) state, that ―data collected through interviews are transcribed verbatim except for minimal utterances.‖ In the process of transcribing, the researcher discovered that the verbatim conversation with interviewees are interesting in that sometimes the interviewee does not complete the sentence and rushes to give another view or goes back to what he or she says in the beginning.
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However, when transcribing it is not the duty of the transcribers to correct the conversational sequence, as demonstrated by Patton when he said, ―the grammar in natural conversations is atrocious, sentences begin and then are interrupted by new sentences before the first sentences are completed‖ (1990:380). The transcripts of all the interviewees were also copied to the flash drive and email as a back-up system. In the process of transcribing, the researcher should admit that there were challenges that were encountered such as background noises in some recordings, especially those that were conducted on Sunday at the church. However, the researcher was able to use the back-up device of the tablet phone which eliminates noises in the process of recording. DiCicco-Bloom and Crabtree (2006:318) admits that, there are challenges encountered by transcribers in the process of transcribing especially in capturing spoken word into text form due to several reasons that includes among others structure of sentence, use of quotations, omissions and mistakes in words or phrases for others. People in their nature speak in run-on sentences which forces transcribers to judge. Putting a full stop or comma alters the meaning of the sentence. Hence experienced researchers listen to audiotape whilst reading the transcription for accuracy during interpretation.
The above observation is true because those are some of the challenges encountered during transcribing, and the researcher had to constantly refer to the audio tape during the process of analysis to verify the authenticity of the quoted data. The method of analysis shall be explored later in this chapter.