Approaches to Analyzing Data

I plan to begin my data analysis by coding the data I have collected. I will read over all of the data and look for patterns, themes, similarities, and differences. I expect that I will find patterns in Mr. Manchin’s tone and formality of writing. Although I reviewed three different types of persuasive documents, they were each written for a specific court, either the Circuit Court of Marion County, or the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia. Therefore, Mr. Manchin used similar diction and syntax throughout his writing. I believe that I will also find patterns and similarities among the formats of the three documents. Despite their differing content, the documents were all organized with bolded headings and spacing between sections. Mr. Manchin frequently used numbering and alphabetic lettering to organize the points of his argument and to separate the supporting facts of a case. In order to accommodate the differing content among the documents, Manchin used different section headings. Therefore, I will examine his heading choices and how certain headings were more suitable for different documents.