Are you thinking about doing a qualitative study, or currently in the middle of one? If so, Joseph A. Maxwell's Qualitative Research Design is the reliable guide for you. Taking a hands-on, innovative approach to qualitative design, it emphasizes the components of a design and how these interact with each other and the environment in which the study is situated. Maxwell provides a clear strategy for creating coherent and workable relationships among these design components, highlighting the key design issues to deal with and describing the main considerations that inform your decisions about these issues. These design issues include clarifying the purpose of your study; creating a theoretical context for the research; formulating research questions; developing a relationship with the people you are studying; making decisions about sampling, data collection, and analysis; and, assessing validity threats and alternative explanations to your study's conclusions. The author also explains how to make the transition from your research design to your research proposal, providing an explicit model for the structure of a qualitative proposal that is based on the design of your study.