Three modes of collecting your data i.e. Questionnaire, Interviews, Observation.

Questionnaire, Demographic, Questionnaire, Interviews. This will depend on your study. Decide on what you want to do to collect your data and if observation is something you want to use.

Triangulation was originally developed as the comparison of two separate studies of the same research question using two different methods. The metaphor is two different directions of research intersecting at the point of a triangle.

Unfortunately, it has since acquired such a number of different meanings that it is no longer an accepted terminology in the filed of mixed methods. Within qualitative methods, it is still accepted as a way of increasing the trustworthiness of one method by comparing it to the results of another method.

This is a method most used in qualitative research. Triangulation suggests that you address a question using more than one method and then compare the results to, for lack of a better word, validate your findings. The original approach used at three methods before comparing the results, thus the word, triangulation. From a logical standpoint, you are trying to circle the answer by using multiple methods to find your results.

I hope this helps!

Jim McLean

Hopefully the illustrations as per the following publications may further help.

• Carter, N., Bryant-Lukosius, D., DiCenso, A., Blythe, J. and Neville, A. J. (2014) The Use of Triangulation in Qualitative Research, Oncology Nursing Forum, 41, 5, pp. 545-547.
• Flick, U. (2004) Triangulation in Qualitative Research, in Flick, U., von Kardorff, E. and Steinke, I. (eds.) A Companion to Qualitative Research. London: SAGE Publications Ltd, pp. 178-183.
• Morse, J. M. (2009) Editorial: Mixing Qualitative Methods, Qualitative Health Research, 19, 11, pp. 1523-1524.
• Patton, M. Q. (1999) Enhancing the quality and credibility of qualitative analysis, Health Services Research, 34, 5 Pt 2, pp. 1189-1208. (See: Triangulation, pp. 1192-1193).