Chapter 6

Literature Review

 Literature is research that has already been carried out and published
 The researcher undertakes a review of the literature in order to:
i. Develop his/her own expertise and scholarship on the topic or phenomena
ii. Establish what is known and what is not known in the field
iii. Highlight gaps in the knowledge base in the area or on the topic and the researcher may
decide to use their research project to try to fill in one or more of those gaps
iv. Create a theoretical framework for the research project
 This is the fourth stage of the research process