Getting to an excellent IPA write up

By Qual Academy partner Elly Phillips

June 4, 2026

I've written before about seeing so much work that isn't really IPA, but how can you check and improve your own work? I have three suggestions below.

Ask yourself "what about" the examples achieve the goals

The aim isn't to take the text and replace the words with those relevant to your project, but to think about how each sentence helps build to the final result; what the authors are 'doing'. 

In the first example in Nizza et al. (p. 372), you might note in the first 20 lines or so how the authors explain the concept of the theme, use short quotes as part of their narrative, incorporate longer quotes, and highlight how and where the language exhibited in the quote helps support the overall theme idea. To apply that to your work, can you sum up the main thread of your theme (or sub-theme)? Which quotes are most 'interesting', give you something to talk about, and convey something about your participants?

I suggest you look at the example in the paper and try to think for yourself what is going on before looking at the authors' own explanation. 

As a side note: you're often better off starting with more material in your initial draft and cutting down later, particularly as you think about your overarching analysis and how to best represent each participant within that. We talk about how to do this in our 'Developing GETs and writing up' workshop.

You might look at the larger 'rhythm' of the example, how and where quotes are used, what is said about them, and the types of topics covered within the theme.

I've always found it useful to print these examples on paper and write my ideas about what the authors are 'doing' in each section onto the page (it's one of the few times I actually prefer to make notes on paper rather than electronically!).

Asking yourself "what about" can often be a useful question - when analysing data, developing your writing or reading what others have written.

Use the four indicators of good IPA

Box 1 on page 371 of Nizza et al. contains the four quality indicators and a description. Here are a couple of suggestions:

• For a "compelling, unfolding narrative": can you explain the overall 'story' of your paper and themes in a few sentences? Being able to distil your main ideas clearly to that core storyline is a valuable way to interrogate your developing analytic ideas.

• To encourage "close analytic reading": do you have something to say about the quotes you want to include beyond restating them in different words? What about the language, ideas or patterns in your data stands out to you? I often leave out quotes where I really have nothing more to say than they do. Hopefully, you have other data about a theme or concept that might be richer. 

Discuss your ideas

I can't emphasise enough how my analytic work benefits from discussing it with other people. It forces you to explain your ideas (linking to the concept of the core storyline above), but someone else can ask questions, provide a critical and alternative perspective, perhaps bring in ideas you didn't think of, expanding your analytic horizons. It's also a fun part of analysis: making sense of the topic together, testing explanations and ideas, sparking inspiration off another person.

Hopefully, this will be your supervisor. While IPA expertise is important, other valuable characteristics are someone with the time and interest to sit with you and your work, ask thoughtful questions, and be committed to helping you make progress. Sometimes, it's possible to find other groups, e.g., students, qualitative meet-ups, etc.. These can be really useful for motivation and inspiration, and you can typically find something to take away and apply to your work.

Final thoughts

I encourage you to think of writing as a journey and a tool. It's not 'writing up' your work in the same way you would with a quantitative project, but it's part of the process of thinking and refining. Think about the narrative you're telling in your work. Look at examples of 'good' research (e.g., from Nizza et al., or other recommended work) and think critically about what is said, how and the overall message, and how the authors achieve that. 

How we can help

Of course, we'd also love to work with you on your analysis. If you can't find a critical friend with the time to dedicate to your work, we're here for you, through our 1:1 service. There are links on that page for you to book a convenient time directly. 

References

Nizza, I. E., Farr, J., & Smith, J. A. (2021). Achieving excellence in interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA): Four markers of high quality. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 18(3), 369–386. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2020.1854404

Smith, J. A., Flowers, P., & Larkin, M. (2009). Interpretative phenomenological analysis: Theory, method and research. Sage Publications.