🗃️Literature Reviews

Lekanides defines a literature review as "a summative evaluation of what has already been written (or said) about a given topic" (58).

Introduction

Before starting to research it in depth, it is important that you carry out some some general reading about your topic early in the research process to evaluate the feasibility of your topic. Once you are certain that there's enough material available to support your inquiry and have a good idea of what your topic is a basic research question, you can start to explore your topic in depth; this is known as a literature review.

The purpose of the literature review, according to the IB Extended Essay Guide is to:

• help contextualize their own area of research within the wider discipline/issue

• provide a stimulus to refining their proposed research topic/question

• provide evidence of why their research is worthy of investigation

• provide material they can use when they analyse and evaluate their own data.

A literature review (or secondary research) involves reading as much as possible that's been written on your chosen topic to refine your research question and start gathering relvant sources that you can use to help you write your extended essay. Your focus will be on finding academic articles, but you may also use anything that's relevant to your topic: books, website, reports and any other media. As you research you will need to conside how relevant the sources are to to your topic, how current they are (is this important for your topic) , and whether they are credible. This literature review will help you to identify important methodologies, key terminology that you help you understand your topic, and each sources may lead you on to other relevant sources or even inspire to you take a fresh approach to your research.

The IB Extended Essay Guide suggests that you ask yourself these 5 questions:

• What has already been written about this topic?

• Was it easy to find sources of information?

• Is there a range of different sources available?

• Is there a range of views or perspectives on the topic?

• What interesting questions have started to emerge from this reading?

A literature review significantly develops your understanding of the chosen topic. And by understanding what's already known, you can identify gaps and areas for further investigation. This prevents you from "reinventing the wheel" and allows you to build upon existing knowledge

Do I need to include a literature review in my EE?

Discuss this with your supervisor, as it varies by subject. You may choose to include this as a section in your EE titled "Literature Review", or it may form part of your introduction.

If you do include it in your final EE, remember that the literature review is not about introducing your own original ideas, however you will need to critically evaluate these sources if you discuss them in the argument section of your EE.

Do I still need conduct a literature review if I'm carrying out my own research?

If you're carrying out your own primary research e.g conducting your chemistry experiment, it's still important to conduct a literature review to see what research has been done in this area and what methodologies have been used by other researchers.

How does the literature review relate to the assessment criteria?

Conducting a literature review demonstrates your knowledge and understanding of your topic which is part of criterion B. If you go on to evaluate these sources in your essay, this will demonstrate critical thinking (Criterion C). It will also allow you to demosntrate why your topic is worthy of investigation().

Can I use AI to help me conduct my literature review?

See Using AI to help you conduct a literature review

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Works Cited

Lekanides, Kosta. Extended Essay: Course Companion. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2016.