Nine modules of mental processing for the qualitative researcher are profiled: thinking analytically, realistically, symbolically, ethically, multidisciplinarily, artistically, summarily, interpretively, and narratively. The book also explores how qualitative research designs, data collection, data analyses, and write-ups can be enriched through over sixty different lenses, filters, and angles on social life.

Thinking Qualitatively first explains the often used but sometimes misused terms for inquiry, followed by a review of traditional analytic basics. The book then ventures into more evocative and multidimensional ways to examine the complex patterns of daily living. Research genres such as grounded theory, phenomenology, ethnography, case study, narrative inquiry, mixed methods, and arts based research in education, the social sciences, and health care are addressed. Recent research is also cited on how the brain works and how cognitive methods harmonize with the goals of qualitative inquiry.

Written in Saldaña's elegant and accessible style, Thinking Qualitatively reveals how the researcher's mind thinks heuristically to transcend the descriptive and develop "highdeep" insights about the human condition.