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Chapter 4
Evaluating Introductions
and Literature Reviews1
Research reports in academic journals almost always begin with an introduction in which literature is cited.2 This integrated introduction and literature review has these five pur- poses:
• introduce the problem area,
• establish its importance,
• provide an overview of the relevant literature,
• show how the current study will advance knowledge in the area, and
• describe the researcher’s specific research questions, purposes, or hypotheses,
which are usually stated in the last paragraph of the introduction.
This chapter presents evaluation questions regarding the introduction. In the next chap- ter, the selection and presentation of the literature will be examined more closely.
Does the researcher begin by identifying a specific problem area?
