CODING, EDITING, TABULATION

BY, MEKHA P S

Editing is to detect errors and irregulations in collected data and correcting, checking and modifying them. Editing of data can be done in two stage; Field editing Office editig

 Field editing While interviewing the respondents it is not possible to record each and every detail in the questions. So the intervieweruses the various symbols, breif notes to record the question. Office editing When all forms of data are collected & recorded they are brought in to the central place and put down collectively. This editing is done for all interview schedules, questionnaire, mail, & telephone survey.

ADVANTAGES
Editing helps to detect the errors & omissions so that they can be corrected wherever it is possible. Data provided after editing must be accurate & reliable In this method time is provided to the editer to edit the data. In the case of incomplete answer the respodent is again contactedfor the information.

DIFFICULTIES IN EDITING
Fake data Contradicting data Incorrect answers Incomplete answers Illegibility of the respondents Don t know & no answers

CODING
Coding is the process of giving numbers or symbols to the answers to prepare them for tabulation. Coding enables transferring data in a computer readable form.

Principles of coding
Category codes should be mutually exclusive & collectively exhaustive. Convenient no; of categories should be there so as to reveal differences in data. Coding should reflect inter class homogeneity & intra class heterogeneity.

MERITS
Time & cost may be saved. Interviewer can easily categorized similar type of data under one category. Coding helps to have many catergaries than too few which will be helpful in the later stage. All possible answers should be included in the catergaries.

demerits
There maybe a possibility of having basic element like inconsistency & errors in coding answers. The problem that official is to assign the code of the response bze of inadequate knowledge of the field. There may be a cases when interviewer might have misunderstood the instruments 7 may not have recorded adequate information.

TABULATING
Tabulation of combining & totalling of the collected data in various rows & columns. There are different methods of tabulation they are; Manual tabulation Mechanical tabulation

General principles of tabulation

Every table should have clear, concise & appropriate title which should be placed just above the table. The heading of the column & rows should be clear & brief. Miscellaneous items should be given at the last row of the table.

Advantages
It may be used for periodic studies. It helps the interviewer by giving clear picture of the data in the form of table. Mechanical tabulation can avoid the error of sorting & counting. Mechanical tabulation also facilitates to speed up the work.

Disadvantages
The cost of mechanical tabulation is high bze the cost of purchasing the computer for tabulation is quite high. Tabulation of information with the computer may not give the correct result as the person may not be trained enough to operate the computer