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ECY 689: Beginners Guide to a Lit Review: Home

Welcome!

The Literature Review

Definition:

A literature review assesses a body of research that is connected to your research question.

Purpose:

A literature review

  • Identifies what is already known about an area of study
  • Includes all the facets that might touch the topic
  • Helps identify questions a body of research has yet to answer
  • Makes a case for why further study of research questions is important

Process:

It is a journey that is cyclical rather than linear.  Expect to return to and refine earlier efforts as your understanding of the research changes and grows.  

  • Framing a research question
  • Searching through the existing work
  • Managing your search results
  • Synthesizing the content from the research literature you've selected
  • Writing an assessment of the existing literature

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