A few words, not a sentence. What is going on in this extract?
Research Methods · Simplified
Thematic Analysis Coding Laboratory
Code one extract in your own words. Then see three other analysts do the same thing and arrive somewhere else.
Your code
One extract, coded by you
Read it, then write a short code: a few words saying what you notice going on here. There is no right answer and nothing you write is marked, stored or compared with anyone.
Three analysts, the same words
What coding is
Three readings, none of them the key
The three passes are not three attempts at one answer. They are three positions, and each brings something forward by pushing something else out of view.
Key idea: In reflexive thematic analysis a code is an analytic act: a short account of what this analyst noticed, written in this analyst's words, from a position this analyst occupies. It is not an extraction of something already sitting in the transcript. Two competent analysts producing different codes for the same extract is the expected case rather than a reliability failure, which is why agreement between coders is not the criterion for this method and is not computed anywhere here.
Three passes is a teaching device. Semantic, latent and critical are three positions on a continuum chosen to make the range visible; a narrative, psychosocial or feminist reading would produce others again. Nothing here says which to use, because that follows from the research question and the analyst's commitments rather than from the extract. The extract is invented for teaching, and no participant, interview, institution or study is represented.
The longer version has six extracts, a bank of six candidate codes with a note on what each one commits you to, a reflexive prompt after every extract and a select-all challenge. It is at Thematic Analysis Coding Laboratory in the main collection.