Writing introductions and literature reviews
1. The purpose of an introduction in an empirical research report is to introduce the problem area, establish its importance and indicate the author’s perspectives on the problem.
2. Introductions usually conclude with an explicit statement of the research hypotheses, purposes, or questions to be explored in the study.
3. Start long introductions and literature reviews with a paragraph that describes their organization, and use subheadings to guide readers.
Example:
This chapter describes literature relevant to the research purposes of this study. It is organized into four sections: 1) the importance of question asking by children; 2) an introduction to two basic types of questions; 3) the relationship between parents’ and children’s verbal behavior, and 4) the relationship between culture and verbal behavior. At the end of each section, the relevance of the literatue to the research reported in this study is discussed.
4. The importance of a topic should be explicitly stated in the introduction of a paper.
Example:
The need to investigate the training needs of counselors who work with persons with AIDS is important because 1) AIDS continues to be a public health crisis; 2) AIDS tends to occur more frequently in certain minority groups, which may have unique psychological needs; and 3) information on the disease and its treatment continues to emerge at a rapid rate, creating the need for ongoing training of counselors.
5. The literature review should be presented in the form of an essay—not in the form of an annotated list.
Example:
Inadequate social support has been associated with less optimal birth outcomes, including the delivery of low birthweight infants (Norbeck & Anderson, 1989; Seguin Potvin, St. Denis & Loiselle, 1995). Other dtudies have documented poor birthoutcomes following prenatal depression (Steer, School, Hediger & Fishers, 1992; Wadhwa, Sandan, Parto, Dunkel-Schetter & Garite, 1993). Steer and colleagues found that severely depressed women were three times more likely to deliver babies that were low birthweight, preterm, or small-for-gestational age.
6. The literature review should emphasize the findings of previous research—not just the research methodologies and names of variables studied.
Example:
Smith (1998) found that respect for authority among this group declined significantly after the imposition of censorship. Smith’s study is important because, being based on a two-year case study, it is the most intensive study to date of the effects of censorship on college students.
7. Point out the trends and themes in the literature. After reviewing a considerable amount of literature, take a pause to make generalizations about the literature.
Example:
The literature on the social influences on the process of establishing equality in marriages suggests that the social context both supports and inhibits the development of marital equality. The factors supporting equality are strong. Today in most families both partners are in the workforce, and men are much more likely to be involved in child care than they were in the past. Yet, the factors that continue to inhibit marital equality are numerous and potent. The power differential between men and women in the larger social context… spills into marriages, often in the form of unexamined gender expectations that reinforce and maintain male power.
8. Point out gaps in the literature and indicate your study is designed to fill this gap.
Example:
Most theories designed to better understand the determinants of success and failure among college students have focused on social and curricular elements of the immediate college environment (Astin, Tsui, & Avalos, 1996). Attention to students’ family background tends to be limited to consideration of such factors as race and ethnicity, socioeconomic background, and level of parents’ or other family members educational attainment. These studies do not consider characteristics of the students’ relationships with their parents or the sorts of parenting practices the students may have experienced during their formative years. This present study will address this gap… it proposes to examine….
9. Consider pointing out the number or percentage of people who are affected by the problem you are studying.
Example:
During the past quarter century, the number of children ages 18 and under who live in households headed by grandparents has increased by more than 50 percent, from 2. million in 1970 to 3.9 million in 1997 (Lugaila, 1998).
10. Point out how your study differs from previous studies.
Example:
This present study extends previous research by focusing directly on counseling as psychotherapy (as opposed to counseling as tutoring or academic advising) and by investigating the dose-response relationship between amount of counseling and student persistence.