A literature review will help the student to formulate the problem that s/he is tackling, to know what research has already been carried out on your subject and what aspects are under-researched. Moreover, it will also tell you about the relevant theories, important variables etc.

A good starting place to find further relevant literature is to look at the articles and books your textbooks refer to. A better review can be done using the academic databases and search engines like EBSCO, Scopus and Google Scholar. Often, you will find a large amount of literature relevant to your topic. References in articles can be used to find older literature and the option 'cited by' can be used as well. The advantages of using 'cited by' is to find newer literature.

Make sure to keep a good record of where you get your information from. You are advised to use a programme like EndNote which will help you to manage your references and bibliography. Most of the well-known databases and search engines allow direct and automatic importation of citations into EndNote (and similar programs).

When creating a list of references at the end (bibliography) of the paper, use one single style. At the University of Zakho, we suggest using the APA style.