A Literature Review is the first major portion of a research study paper.
Frequently a review of the literature is a standalone paper, and it will be until it is incorporated into the final research paper. A review of the literature details what is known about a particular subject. There is a bias toward new information and the newest studies in the field being examined. After collecting and reviewing the available articles and studies on a subject, a review of the literature will typically summarize that literature in a manner that sets up the Problem Statement.
The Problem Statement section of a research study paper identifies and discusses what is not known in the academic or professional literature. These are not necessarily huge or difficult questions. For example:
1) A national company with a store in your community may have a Webpage that discusses all it does for communities, or the environment, or keeping prices low. A research study might question people in your community to identify whether the people in your community, based on the sample studied, recognize what that company claims to do.
2) A company might know that college towns are good for the movie theater business, but not know if a specific college town can support one more theater, so will actually count how many people walk into a potential competitor's theater in that town to gauge customer demand.
3) People may know that paper, plastic, and metal can be recycled. People may even know how to recycle those materials. But do people know that computers can be recycled? Do they know how or where to recycle computers in your community?
Procedure:
1. Develop a working bibliography. This short paper will require a list of at least five references using APA citation style. Some of these sources will need to come from academic or professional journals.
Others may include company Web pages, newspaper articles, and trade journals.
2. Summarize the research for the review of the literature. As much as possible. You do not need to engage in much synthesis of this material. Quite literally, you can summarize one article in a paragraph or two and then move on to the next article. Make certain to cite your sources using APA citation style both in-text/parenthetically and in a list of references.
3. Create the Problem Statement. Consider why this area of study is important to business or you personally. The Literature Review detailed what is known about this area of study based on other studies, but not specific to your needs, your community, your school, your place of business, or your interests. Identify what you are going to study, why it is important, and why it needs to be known or, at least, why it is worth your time to study it for this paper!
4. Develop an introduction and conclusion.
5. Finalize the references.