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SOCW 4362 Social Research

This guide is intended to help students learn basic research skills for the SOCW 4362 Social Research Course.

What is a Literature Review?

A literature review is the process of analyzing and summarizing existing published research on a specific topic. The purpose of a literature review is to review and summarize the existing research in a field and create a justification for your research question or thesis. 

When done correctly, a literature review can provide an overall summary, give critical analyses, and identify gaps within the existing research.

Here is a short YouTube video from Scribbr (2020) on what a literature review is.