Kim Woods Only

Running head: RESEARCH PLAN

Writing Literature Reviews

Research Plan

Gale R. Mazur

Submitted to the faculty of

Brandman University

In partial fulfillment of the requirements of

OLCU 501: Organizational Research

January 7, 2013

RESEARCH PLAN 2

Research Plan

This research plan includes (a) a statement of the research purpose for the literature review, (b)

three specific research questions, (c) an outline that includes a statement of the need for the

research and how the research questions will be answered, and (d) a preliminary list of references

that will be used to write the literature review.

Research Purpose

The purpose of this research is to examine current research on writing literature reviews,

and to model a well-written and comprehensive literature review

Research Questions

The literature review will answer three research questions:

1. What is a literature review?

2. What is the purpose of writing a review of the literature?

3. What is the process of researching and writing a literature review?

Literature Review Outline

I. Need for This Research

A. A frequent academic assignment is to write a literature review because examining,

critically analyzing, and discussing published research is foundational to graduate-

level work and important to professional success (Jesson & Lacey, 2006).

B. Bitchener and Turner (2011) research found that providing graduate students with an

understanding of the requirements of how to write literature reviews significantly

enhanced students’ success in completing the assignment.

RESEARCH PLAN 3

II. Research Question One: Literature Review Defined

A. A literature review is “a form of research that reviews, critiques, and synthesizes

representative literature on a topic in an integrated way such that new frameworks

and perspectives on the topic are generated” (Torraco, 2005, p. 356).

B. As the writers of literature reviews begin to read sources (i.e. journal articles and

books) about a topic, they must critically examine and analyze the strengths and

weaknesses of the articles (Torraco, 2005).

C. A literature review synthesizes and integrates the literature so that new insights and

knowledge emerge (Torraco, 2005).

III. Research Question Two: Literature Review Purpose

A. In academia, there are two reasons why a literature review is written; it is either

stand-alone assignment or the foundation for a thesis or dissertation (Creswell, 2009;

Salkind, 2009).

B. Beyond academic research, researching the literature is valuable to practitioners in all

professions; it enables them to remain current in their fields, recognize new ideas, and

find new solutions to complex problems. (Rhoades, 2011; Zorn, 2006).

IV. Research Question Three: Literature Review Process

A. The first step in writing a literature review is identifying a topic that fits with the

writer’s interests and/or addresses a problem that needs solving (Timmons &

McCabe, 2005).

B. The writers of literature reviews need a thoughtful research strategy that includes a

systemic approach to identifying and assessing relevant data (Armitage & Keeble-

Allen, 2008).

RESEARCH PLAN 4

C. Researchers review and integrate different types of literature including theoretical,

research, and experiential sources (Price, 2009).

a. Quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods are valid but different research

methods (Creswell, 2009).

b. Experiential data often comes from actual case studies (Zorn, 2006).

D. A well-crafted literature review is organized, clearly written, and easily understood

by readers (Torraco, 2005). A literature review begins with an introduction that

explains the purpose and objectives; content is organized into clearly labeled themes;

and the conclusion summarizes the findings of the literature review (Jesson & Lacey,

2006).

RESEARCH PLAN 5

Preliminary References

Armitage, A., & Keeble-Allen, D. (2008). Undertaking a structured literature review or

structuring a literature review: Tales from the field. The Electronic Journal of Business

Research Methods 6(2), 103 – 114. Retrieved from http://www.ejbrm.com

Birchener, J., & Turner, E. (2011). Assessing the effectiveness of one approach to teaching of

thematic unit construction of literature reviews. Assessing Writing, 16, 123 – 136. doi:

10.1016/j.asw.2011.02.002

Creswell, J. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches

(3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Galvan, J. (2009). Writing literature reviews (4th ed.). Glendale, CA: Pyrczak Publishing

Jesson, J., & Lacey, F. (2006). How to do (or not to do) a critical review. Pharmacy Education

6(2), 139 – 148. doi: 10.1080/15602210600616218.

Price, B. (2009). Guidance on conducting a literature search and reviewing mixed literature.

Nursing Standard, 23(24), 43 – 49. Retrieved from www.nursing-standard.co.uk

Rhoades, E. (2011). Literature reviews. The Volta Review 111(3), 353 – 368. Retrieved from

http://nc.agbell.org

Salkind, N. (2009). Exploring research (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Smythe, E. & Spence, D. (2012). Reviewing literature in hermeneutic research. International

Institute for Qualitative Methodology. Retrieved from http://creativecommons.org

Timmons, F., & McCabe, T. (2005). How to conduct an effective literature search. Nursing

Standard, 20(11), 41 – 47. Retrieved from www.nursing-standard.co.uk

Torraco, R. (2005). Writing integrative literature reviews: Guidelines and examples. Human

Resource Development Review, 4(3), 356 – 367, doi: 10.1177/1534484305278283

RESEARCH PLAN 6

Zorn, T. (2006). Improving the writing of literature review through a literature integration

exercise. Business Communication Quarterly 69(2), 172 – 183. doi:

10.1177/1080569906287960