According to Burgess, the main writing formats in qualitative research are the descriptive, the analytic and the dogmatic.
When the ‘narrative of the self’ is chosen as the writing style, the writer is allowed to ‘exaggerate, swagger, entertain, make a point without tedious documentation, relive the experiences, and say what might be unsayable in other circumstances’.
When the writing style ‘ethnographic fictional presentations’ is employed, field experiences are recorded and presented in a form of drama.
In case-study reports, and in qualitative research, the writing structure where the central findings of the study are presented first, and the details, plus the methodological explanations, follow later is termed analytic structure.
In stepwise conversion, studies produce either one qualitative report with some references to quantitative data, or one qualitative and one quantitative report.
Publishing is more than putting words in print; it entails excessive political and ideological manoeuvring and negotiation.