This introductory manual offers practical advice to students and researchers in social work on how to use qualitative research methods, as and when they are most useful and appropriate. The author introduces and then dispels commonly held misconceptions about qualitative methods, discusses the origins and basic components of methods and presents a four-phase approach to conducting a study, including: formulating the problem, collecting data, analyzing and interpreting data and writing the report. The book concludes with a discussion of the challenges and rewards of using qualitative methods.