I am doing a qualitative research and I found/proposed three categories from my interview data. When I reported my findings/results, I wrote like this: "It was found that ....". But my supervisor recommended "it was proposed that..". The categories were constructed from my data and if i said 'proposed', does it mean that I did not have the evidence?

Perhpas my supervisor was right in that these categories were built/constructed/proposed, but I was wondering if it was wrong to say "it was found...". How do qualitative researchers report their findings? They do not use the word "find" or "it was found"?

Thank you very much for any comments.

I used a lot "it seems that", "data shows that", "the participants appear to construct this in this way" etc.

It depends on the theoretical framework that you are using

I agree with emmaki that a lot depends on the theory and methodology of your study. From my own experience of doing qualitative research, I'd tend to use phrases like, 'the data appeared to support three distinct categories' or 'three categories emerged/were identified'. I wouldn't say anything as definite as 'found', because in qualitative research you have a lot of things to take into account, such as your own approach to the data.

Thank Emmaki and Chickpea for your great answers.