Most researchers can name their themes long before they can define them. The name arrives early, often as a phrase that feels right, and the definition is left for later. Then later comes, usually in a supervision meeting or in the first draft of a findings chapter, and the theme turns out to be harder to pin down than its name suggested.
Defining themes is part of phase 5 of reflexive thematic analysis, refining, defining and naming themes. But a working definition is useful long before then. Writing one for each theme and code is one of the quickest ways to find out whether the analysis holds together. This article sets out how to write definitions that survive that test.
What a working definition is for
Braun and Clarke describe a theme as a pattern of shared meaning, organised around a central idea or concept (Braun & Clarke, 2019, 2022). They distinguish this from a topic summary, which gathers together everything participants said about a subject without saying what holds it together. A topic summary can look like a theme on a map. A definition is where the difference shows.
A working definition does three jobs. It names the central idea that makes the theme a theme. It sets the edges, so that you, and anyone reading your work, could decide whether a new quote belongs. And it gives you something to read the coded data against, which is what reviewing themes means in practice.
It is called a working definition because it will change. The point is not to get it right first time but to have something definite enough to be wrong about.
Start with the central idea
The Working Well sample data has a theme called Boundaries and Overwork. Its working definition reads: "How participants experience the loss of a clear edge between work and home, and the strategies they use to reinstate one."
That sentence is built around one idea, the edge between work and home. It covers two movements, losing the edge and trying to restore it, but both turn on the same concept. That is what lets five codes sit under it: Blurred Work Hours and Weekend Creep describe the edge eroding, Always on Expectations and Meeting Overload describe pressures that erode it, and Protecting Personal Time describes the work of putting it back.
When you write a definition, try finishing the sentence "This theme is about..." with a single concept rather than a list. If you find yourself writing "and" between two unrelated ideas, you may have two themes.
Set the edges
A definition that includes everything excludes nothing, and so cannot help you decide anything. Good definitions say, at least implicitly, what is out.
Working Well shows why this matters. Boundaries and Overwork holds the code Blurred Work Hours, defined as "the working day extending without a clear start or finish". Wellbeing and Burnout holds Blurring of Rest, defined as "rest that stays partial because work remains psychologically present". The two are close enough that the sample data records a connection between them, with the note "The same erosion of edges, felt in rest."
So where does a quote about checking email on a day off belong? The definitions decide. If it is about time, it sits with Blurred Work Hours. If it is about rest that never quite counts, it sits with Blurring of Rest. Without definitions that decision is made by feel, and made differently on different days.
Read the definition against its quotes
Once a theme has a definition, read every quote under it with the definition beside it. For each quote, ask whether it fits the central idea, or only the topic. Quotes that fit only by topic are the first sign that a theme is drifting towards a topic summary.
Three other signs are worth watching for. A definition that needs constant qualification may be covering two patterns. A definition that no quote quite matches may be describing what you expected rather than what you found. And a definition so broad that every quote fits it easily may not be saying much.
In Themescape, selecting a theme or code shows its working definition at the top of the reader with its quotes beneath, favourites first. In Work mode you can rewrite the definition there and then, while the quotes it has to account for are in front of you.
Define codes as well as themes
Codes need definitions too, though shorter ones. In Working Well, Weekend Creep is defined as "work quietly spreading into the weekend", and Meeting Overload as "a schedule so full of meetings that focused work is squeezed out". One line is usually enough.
Code definitions earn their place during review. When two codes have definitions that could swap without anyone noticing, they may be one code. When a code's definition sits awkwardly under its theme's definition, the code may belong elsewhere, or the theme's definition may need widening.
Keep the earlier versions
Definitions change as the analysis develops, and the changes are part of the analysis. Keeping earlier versions gives you a record of how your thinking moved, which supports the reflexive practice at the heart of the method and makes the method section easier to write.
The simplest way to keep versions is to keep your saved files. Themescape writes definitions into the Framework file when you save your progress, and each save is named with the date and time, so a folder of saves is a dated history of your definitions. A line in the notes column of the spreadsheet, or in a reflexive journal, saying why a definition changed is worth the minute it takes.
From definition to findings chapter
By the time you write up, a working definition that has survived review is often close to the opening sentences of that theme's section in the findings chapter. It tells the reader what the theme is about before the quotes show it. Supervisors and examiners tend to read those sentences closely, and a definition that has been tested against every quote is much easier to defend than one written the night before.
A short checklist for each theme:
- Can it be stated as one central idea?
- Would someone else know whether a new quote belongs?
- Does every quote under it fit the idea, not only the topic?
- Do its code definitions sit comfortably beneath it?
- Have you kept the earlier versions?
Further reading
- Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2019). Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 11(4), 589–597.
- Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2022). Thematic analysis: A practical guide. SAGE.
Charlotte Price is the founder of Themescape.
