How do I know my coding will be screwed up? Because no matter how carefully I plan, no matter how carefully I structure my conceptual framework, no matter how much I discuss the project ahead of time, my first run through with coding is always screwed up. This isn’t even what I call “drift” or lack of consistency among codes. This is just straight up “I selected the wrong codes” AND because they are the wrong ones, I am using them inconsistently.

If past performance is any indicator, I will go through and code and recode at least three times before I have a coding scheme that I believe, and then I will have to go through at least twice more to get it consistent enough that it passes consistency tests.

Research is harrrrrrrrrrd.