Why should you conduct a literature review before starting a research project?

1 Define your topic

Before you can conduct a literature review, you need to have a clear and focused topic for your research project. A topic is a general area of interest that you want to explore or investigate. For example, if you are interested in the effects of social media on mental health, that is your topic. However, a topic is usually too broad and vague to be the basis of a research project. You need to narrow it down and specify it by formulating a research question or problem. A research question or problem is a specific and answerable inquiry that guides your research process and objectives. For example, you can ask: How does social media use affect the self-esteem of adolescents? This is a research question that you can address with a literature review and a research method.

2 Find relevant sources

Once you have a research question or problem, you need to find relevant sources that can help you answer it or solve it. Sources are the materials that provide information, data, evidence, or arguments related to your topic and question. Sources can be primary or secondary, depending on whether they are original or derived from other sources. For example, a primary source for your topic could be a survey or an interview that you conduct with social media users, while a secondary source could be a journal article or a book that analyzes previous studies on social media and mental health. To find relevant sources, you need to use appropriate keywords, databases, search engines, and criteria to locate and select the most suitable and reliable ones for your research project.

3 Analyze and evaluate sources

After you have found relevant sources, you need to analyze and evaluate them to understand their content, quality, and relevance. Analyzing sources means examining their main arguments, claims, evidence, methods, and results, and identifying their strengths, weaknesses, gaps, and limitations. Evaluating sources means assessing their credibility, validity, reliability, accuracy, and bias, and determining how they contribute to your research question or problem. To analyze and evaluate sources, you need to use critical thinking skills, such as questioning, comparing, contrasting, synthesizing, and interpreting. You also need to use appropriate tools and strategies, such as citation styles, note-taking techniques, and summary writing.

4 Synthesize and organize sources

After you have analyzed and evaluated sources, you need to synthesize and organize them to create a coherent and comprehensive overview of the existing literature on your topic and question. Synthesizing sources means integrating and combining their main ideas, findings, and implications, and identifying the patterns, themes, trends, and gaps in the literature. Organizing sources means arranging and presenting them in a logical and consistent way, and using headings, subheadings, tables, charts, and diagrams to structure and illustrate your literature review. To synthesize and organize sources, you need to use writing skills, such as paraphrasing, quoting, referencing, and outlining. You also need to use appropriate formats and styles, such as APA, MLA, or Chicago.

5 Communicate your findings

After you have synthesized and organized sources, you need to communicate your findings to your audience, whether it is your instructor, your peers, your employer, or your clients. Communicating your findings means writing and presenting your literature review in a clear, concise, and convincing way, and showing how it relates to your research question or problem. You also need to explain how your literature review informs and supports your research method, design, and plan, and how it fills the gaps or addresses the limitations in the literature. To communicate your findings, you need to use rhetorical skills, such as persuasion, argumentation, and narration. You also need to use appropriate language and tone, such as formal, academic, or professional.

6 Benefit from your literature review

Conducting a literature review before beginning a research project can be highly beneficial. It can help define and refine your topic and question, find and select reliable sources, analyze and evaluate sources, synthesize and organize sources coherently, communicate your findings clearly, inform and support your research method, design, and plan, fill the gaps in the literature, demonstrate your knowledge of the topic, contribute to the existing body of knowledge, and enhance your research skills and confidence.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?