Research

• Review of related literature

  Systematic identification, location, and analysis of documents containing information related to the research problem
• Documents in a review of related literature

  • Articles
  • Abstracts
  • Reviews
  • Monographs
  • Dissertations
  • Other research reports
  • Electronic media
• Purpose of reviewing the literature

  • Determine what has already been done that relates to your topic
  • Collect relevant, timely research on your chosen topic
  • Synthesize it into a cohesive summary of existing knowledge in the field
• Reviews must not be 10 years back
• All paragraphs must be cited with authors and date
• There should be 10 related reviews and literature for each variable
• In writing your synthesis


  1. Establish your purpose to shape the way you want to argue and form your thesis

  2. Select your sources and become familiar with them so that you can discuss them in relationship to your thesis and supporting argument(s)

  3. Summary of the reviews with the analysis of the author about the reviews
• Synthesis should be a minimum of 3 to 4 paragraphs in 2 pages
• Research writing should emphasize the relevance and comprehension of the literature