Research Basics
The Research Steps
The Research Steps
The Literature Review
Once you have decided your research question, you will need to review the scholarly work that has been conducted on your topic. This review is essential because it will:
- Establish what others have said about your topic.
- Serve as a guide to shape your arguments or hypotheses.
- Serve as a guide to design your data collection.
- Situate your research question and its contribution to the field.
You have numerous sources from which to draw upon for your literature review, with the world wide web being one of your last resources. A scholarly literature review requires that you are familiar with research that is published in academic outlets, primarily academic journals and books. Certainly, newspaper articles, magazines, and some internet sources are also useful to supplement the review – but these should not be your primary sources.
So where to start? At your university library or its website.
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