Selecting a Research Topic
The first step in the process involves exploring and selecting a topic. You may revise the topic/scope of your research as you learn more from the literature. Be sure to select a topic that you are willing to work with for a considerable amount of time.
When thinking about a topic, it is important to consider the following:
Does the topic interest you?
Working on something that doesn’t excite you will make the process tedious. The research content should reflect your passion for research so it is essential to research in your area of interest rather than choosing a topic that interests someone else. While developing your research topic, broaden your thinking and creativity to determine what works best for you. Consider an area of high importance to your profession, or identify a gap in the research. It may take some time to narrow down on a topic and get started, but it’s worth the effort.
Is the Topic Relevant?
Be sure your subject meets the assignment/research requirements. When in doubt, review the guidelines and seek clarification from your professor.
What is the Scope and Purpose?
Sometimes your chosen topic may be too broad. To find direction, try limiting the scope and purpose of the research by identifying the concepts you wish to explore. Once this is accomplished, you can fine-tune your topic by experimenting with keyword searches our A-Z Databases until you are satisfied with your retrieval results.
Are there Enough Resources to Support Your Research?
If the topic is too narrow, you may not be able to provide the depth of results needed. When selecting a topic make sure you have adequate material to help with the research. Explore a variety of resources: journals, books, and online information.
Adapted from https://jgateplus.com/home/2018/10/11/the-dos-of-choosing-a-research-topic-part-1/
Why use keywords to search?
Now its time to decide whether or not to incorporate what you have found into your literature review. Evaluate your resources to make sure they contain information that is authoritative, reliable, relevant and the most useful in supporting your research.
Remember to be:
Criteria for Evaluating Research Publications
Significance and Contribution to the Field
• What is the author’s aim?
• To what extent has this aim been achieved?
• What does this text add to the body of knowledge? (theory, data and/or practical application)
• What relationship does it bear to other works in the field?
• What is missing/not stated?
• Is this a problem?
Methodology or Approach (Formal, research-based texts)
• What approach was used for the research? (eg; quantitative or qualitative, analysis/review of theory or current practice, comparative, case study, personal reflection etc…)
• How objective/biased is the approach?
• Are the results valid and reliable?
• What analytical framework is used to discuss the results?
Argument and Use of Evidence
• Is there a clear problem, statement or hypothesis?
• What claims are made?
• Is the argument consistent?
• What kinds of evidence does the text rely on?
• How valid and reliable is the evidence?
• How effective is the evidence in supporting the argument?
• What conclusions are drawn?
• Are these conclusions justified?
Writing Style and Text Structure
• Does the writing style suit the intended audience? (eg; expert/non-expert, academic/non- academic)
• What is the organizing principle of the text?
Prepared by Pam Mort, Lyn Hallion and Tracey Lee Downey, The Learning Centre © April 2005 The University of New South Wales.
Analysis: the Starting Point for Further Analysis & Inquiry
After evaluating your retrieved sources you will be ready to explore both what has been found and what is missing. Analysis involves breaking the study into parts, understanding each part, assessing the strength of evidence, and drawing conclusions about its relationship to your topic.
Read through the information sources you have selected and try to analyze, understand and critique what you read. Critically review each source's methods, procedures, data validity/reliability, and other themes of interest. Consider how each source approaches your topic in addition to their collective points of intersection and separation. Offer an appraisal of past and current thinking, ideas, policies, and practices, identify gaps within the research, and place your current work and research within this wider discussion by considering how your research supports, contradicts, or departs from other scholars’ research and offer recommendations for future research.
Top 10 Tips for Analyzing the Research
Prepared by the fine librarians at California State University Sacramento.
Synthesis vs Summary
Your literature review should not simply be a summary of the articles, books, and other scholarly writings you find on your topic. It should synthesize the various ideas from your sources with your own observations to create a map of the scholarly conversation taking place about your research topics along with gaps or areas for further research.
Bringing together your review results is called synthesis. Synthesis relies heavily on pattern recognition and relationships or similarities between different phenomena. Recognizing these patterns and relatedness helps you make creative connections between previously unrelated research and identify any gaps.
As you read, you'll encounter various ideas, disagreements, methods, and perspectives which can be hard to organize in a meaningful way. A synthesis matrix also known as a Literature Review Matrix is an effective and efficient method to organize your literature by recording the main points of each source and documenting how sources relate to each other. If you know how to make an Excel spreadsheet, you can create your own synthesis matrix, or use one of the templates below.
Because a literature review is NOT a summary of these different sources, it can be very difficult to keep your research organized. It is especially difficult to organize the information in a way that makes the writing process simpler. One way that seems particularly helpful in organizing literature reviews is the synthesis matrix. Click on the link below for a short tutorial and synthesis matrix spreadsheet.
Prepared by the fine librarians at California State University Sacramento.
A literature review must include a thesis statement, which is your perception of the information found in the literature.
A literature review:
https://custom-writing.org/blog/best-literature-review
Organizing Your Literature Review
The structure of the review is divided into three main parts—an introduction, body, and the conclusion.
https://custom-writing.org/blog/best-literature-review
Introduction
Discuss what is already known about your topic and what readers need to know in order to understand your literature review.
Body
The discussion of your research and its importance to the literature should be presented in a logical structure.
Conclusion
Provide a concise summary of your review and provide suggestions for future research.
Writing for Your Audience
Writing within your discipline means learning:
Learn how to write in your discipline by familiarizing yourself with the journals and trade publications professionals, researchers, and scholars use.
Use our Databases by Title to access: