Week 1 – Assignment: Define a Literature Review

Understanding the literature review is the foundation of academic inquiry (Xiao and Watson, 2017). The literature review grounds your topic of interest with academic historical research from previous authors. This is where the saying of ‘Stand on the shoulders of giants’ comes into your research. Standing on the shoulders of giants could be as far back as Socrates and his philosophies or Newton and his determination of the universe. Every area of study has giants or ‘thinkers’ that have come to be accepted as reliable sources to follow. In this assignment, you will delve into the sea of knowledge to uncover the complexity and understanding of reviewing the literature and developing your knowledge in writing.

The assignment is to conduct your own research first with the resources provided, and then any additional research you add and determine the following:

• What is a literature review?
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• Why is a certain type of literature used?
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• What must you include in a literature review?
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• How do you find the information for a literature review?

Use the items above as headings in an APA formatted paper with a title page and reference page, plus a minimum of three pages and maximum five pages of content.

Length: 3-5 pages