What spin?

What spin do I put on my interview data?

When you write up qualitative interviews, you have a perspective on the people who you talked with, but if you have a negative perspective how do you write it? One of my colleagues has interviewed around 30 people and I remember a discussion on how people could put themselves across in a bad light, arrogant for example. In my interviews, because of the nature of the research, people inevitably talk not only about themselves but also of others in the project. So how do I write it?

Colleague suggested writing so that an interviewee would feel comfortable if they should read the dissertation and recognise their anonymous selves, i.e. not write about them in a bad light. So that's what I'll do.

If I can write nice things on my students' assignments, even when they get a low mark, then I can write about people in a positive way too.