conducting research
What is the cost of not conducting your research? I.e., Why is your research question important?
Why is answering this question so important? What could it improve? Where applicable- could the results of your study be used to help improve the social problem in question?
Will the study give us a better understanding of social phenomena (pure research)? And/or can the results be applied to a social problem to help fix it (applied research)?

PART II: LITERATURE REVIEW (4-5 pages)
Note: literature review should be 4-5 pages long and address the following questions: (note €“ you need not address these questions in the order in which they are presented.)
1) Which theoretical paradigm does your research topic/question fit into?
2) Within that paradigm, is there a particular theory or theories (perhaps competing theories) that would help answer your research question(s)? What does existing literature say about this theory? (Note- if you will be doing inductive research, this will not apply and points will be equally distributed to the other requirements).
3) What is already known about your research topic (especially as it relates to the specific research question)? What has NOT been addressed by existing research?
4) What are the principal weaknesses of existing research on your topic? In this section, you could address the following types of weaknesses:
a. Are there discrepancies in the research that need to be addressed?
b. Is this social phenomenon understudied? In need of replication?
c. If your topic is not understudied, are authors of the current literature neglecting to study a particular aspect of the social phenomenon?
d. Is there an improper application of methodology or lack of transparency about methods?
e. Are authors making inappropriate inferences from the results (e.g., ecological fallacy?)
f. Are authors neglecting to mention important alternative explanations of findings?
g. Did authors not pay attention to existing theory and research?
h. Did you find any instances in which research was unethical?
5) Again, why is your research question important?
a. Here you will build off of what you should have already stated in the introduction. You can elaborate by putting the significance of your research problem in the context of existing theory and research that you’ve just read about.
b. Explain how your research will contribute to the existing body of research on your topic. Could the knowledge gained from your proposed study be applied to make a positive difference in society?
c. Are there any policy implications?
General rules:
I. Some questions you can ask yourself (and write about) about each article are:
a) What is the study’s basic topic and question?
b) How did the authors define and measure their major ideas?
c) What is the study’s basic design?
d) What/who is the sample?
e) What are the findings in the study?
II. Try to us the most current literature €“ some older studies withstand the test of time, but many are superseded by more current research.
III. Refer to specific articles in your summary using the in APA style, which looks like this:
a. According to Pearlin (1989), stress is socially structured. OR
b. Stress is socially structured (Pearlin, 1989).
IV. Avoid quotes as much as possible. Unless you can’t find any way to express what someone has said, paraphrase in your own words.
V. Don’t be too critical: there is an unwritten code among researchers that they generally do not sharply criticize each other’s work in print. When you find a weakness, point it out in a neutral, rather than hostile, way. Don’t be too praiseworthy either €“ keep the tone somewhat neutral.
Try to end your literature review in a way that leads naturally to the next section, which will include how you conceptualize and operationalize your variables of interest, and what exactly you will be asking/hypothesizing.