What is a literature review? What purpose does it serve in research? What should you expect when writing one?
Literature reviews: An overview for graduate students is published under a CC 3.0 BY-NC-SA US license.
You may not know right away what your research question is. Gather information on the broader topic to explore new possibilities and to help narrow your topic.
Reference sources
Reference sources are a great place to begin your research. They provide:
After choosing a topic and gathering background information, add focus with a research question.
Explore questions
Determine and evaluate your research question
Hypothesize. After you've come up with a question, consider the path your answer might take.