SOME BRIEF NOTES ON THE UNFINISHED BUSINESS OF QUALITATIVE INQUIRY

The paper argues that there are a variety of ''implicit'' issues in qu alitative inquiry that need to be addressed if the area is to develop in some ''normal science'' sense. This ''unfinished business'' is conc erned with a deeper investigation of basic terms that are now simply t aken for granted, such as ''theme'' and ''pattern''. It also includes the need to develop ''rules'' which will assist in making and justifyi ng how qualitative interpretations are made from the implicit processe s of inference. Specific suggestions are made for accomplishing these issues.