Grounded Theory

Writing Memos

To ensure that a study is both systematic and flexible, the researcher is responsible for keeping detailed notes in the form of memos in which the researcher documents observations in the field, methodological ideas and arrangements, analytical thinking and decisions, and personal reflections. Memo writing begins at the time of conceptualization of the study with the identification of the phenomenon of interest and continues throughout the study. These memos become part of the study data. When a researcher persists in meticulously recording memos, writing the first draft of the study report becomes a simple matter of sorting the memos into a logical sequence.

Reviewing the Literature

Whether to review the literature before data collection may depend on the circumstances of the individual researcher. Methodological purists follow the originators’ advice to delay reading related literature to avoid developing preconceived ideas that could be imposed during data analysis, thus ensuring that the conceptualization emerges from the data. Instead, they recommend reading broadly in other disciplines early in the study to develop “sensitizing concepts” that may trigger useful ideas and analogies during the latter stages of theoretical construction and elaboration. For them, the actual literature review is more appropriately begun once the theory has started to take shape, at which time previous writing about those concepts that has already emerged from the data can be helpful for developing theoretical relationships and relating the emerging theory to previous knowledge about the topic. Others, however, recognize pragmatically that for a research proposal to be approved by current funding agencies and thesis committees, knowledge of past research must be demonstrated and then followed up with further reading as the theory develops in order to show where it is congruent (or not) with previous academic work.

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