Qualitative Methods
Writing Qualitative
Research Papers
Writing Qualitative Research Papers
Literature Review
The purpose of the literature review is to situate your paper within the substantive literature on the topic, and the conceptual literature that will be used to frame the topic. The literature review is a key part of the manuscript, because it sets your analysis in the context of the relevant and current published work.
Of course, before you can develop and frame this section, you must be familiar with the substantive and relevant conceptual literature on your topic. You will have needed to search the Sociological Abstracts or other journal data bases for important articles. Doing a thorough literature is an important part of writing well. It takes time to search data bases and journal table of contents, obtain copies of all the important articles, read them carefully, and then organize them conceptually as they relate to your paper. A well written literature review will demonstrate that you, the author, are aware of the main issues in the field, know how your work fits with the previous work, and leads the reader to the conclusion that your research is the logical "next step" to add to the discipline's knowledge base.
The literature that you include should be organized conceptually--by topic, not by author! A listing such as “Wright said….; then Hagan added ….; later Lee elaborated” is very, very boring to read. Moreover, it does not offer the reader any clues as to why you have included the materials you have and how the research relates to your current project. In the literature review, you should discuss any debates or controversies in the topic area, as well as any limitations of previous research. The literature review section then concludes with a strong restatement of the central research purpose of your paper.
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