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Extended Essay : Literature Review

A guide to ASW's research tools and supports to help you with the Extended Essay.

Literature Review

A Literature Review...

  • surveys books, scholarly articles, and any other sources relevant to an area of research
  • provides a description, summary, and critical evaluation of these works in relation to the research
  • provides an overview of sources explored while researching the topic
  • demonstrates to your readers how your research fits within a larger field of study

Useful Sources

Purpose of Literature Review

  1. Place each work in the context of its contribution to understanding the research being studies.
  2. Describe the relationship of each work to the others under consideration.
  3. Identify new ways to interpret prior research.
  4. Reveal any gaps that exist in the literature. 
  5. Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous studies.
  6. Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent duplication of effort. 
  7. Point the way in fulfilling a need for additional research. 
  8. Locate your own research within the context of existing literature.

Useful Phrases for a Lit Review

Conducted research on ...

Investigated why ... 

Noted that ...

Correctly observed that ...

Examined the role of ...

Considered the implications of ...

Recognized the importance of ...

Sought to problematize ... 

Pointed out that ... 

Suggested that ... 

Attempted to identify ...

Proposed theories to explain ... 

Found evidence that ... 

Sought to understand phenomena such as ... 

Offered explanations for ... 

Argued that ... 

Contended that ... 

Argued in favor of / against ... 

Voiced concern about ... 

Taken issue with ... 

Grappled with the issue of ... 

Openly quesstioned whether ... 

Raised doubts regarding ... 

Stressed the importance of ... 

Carried out empirical studies on ... 

Drawn parallels between ... and ... 

Turned their attention to ... 

Written extensively about ... 

Made the claim that ... 

Acknowledged the fact that ... 

It is generally agreed that ... 

Most of the research on ... suggests ... 

Current research seems to indicate that ... 

Current studies appear to support the notion that ... 

Recent research has tended to show ... 

In the literature review on ... , there seems to be general agreement that ... 

It is generally accepted wisdom that ... 

Sources for this page:

Fink, Arlene. Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper. Fourth edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2014.

Hart, Chris. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998.

Jesson, Jill. Doing Your Literature Review: Traditional and Systematic Techniques. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2011.

Knopf, Jeffrey W. "Doing a Literature Review." PS: Political Science and Politics 39 (January 2006): 127-132.

Ridley, Diana. The Literature Review: A Step-by-Step Guide for Students. 2nd ed. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2012.