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Geography, GIS, & Sustainability

Supporting students and faculty in UNC's DoGGS

The resources linked on this page cover a wide range of types of use.  

Easy starting points are found under Start Here.

The Government Documents, for example, might inform an examination of historical trends, contemporary policy matters, regulation in various regions, as well as hearings, and fundamental statistical analyses of just about anything you can imagine. 

The Literature Review support is very helpful for the beginning researcher. 

On the left, you'll see TABs that take you to additional resources. 

Start Here

Government Documents

This Literature Review guide will help you become familiar with the essentials of this important step in the research process. 

Writing a literature review - follow these steps!

  1. Decide on a topic / thesis.
  2. Find articles on that topic.
  3. Write a paragraph for each article summarizing and reviewing the content.  Be sure to include research methods, author credentials and possible bias.  Click here to review evaluation criteria and get some tips for writing these paragraphs. 
  4. Decide on the organization for the literature review – you can use the paragraphs you wrote for each article, but paragraphs of the literature review should follow one of the following structures - chronological, thematic or methodological.  For more information on organizing a literature review, click here. 
  5. Add introductory and concluding sentences to paragraphs, and any transitional sentences to help the flow of the paper. 
  6. Write an introductory paragraph and a concluding paragraph.  The introduction should begin broad and narrow down to your thesis statement while the conclusion should begin with your thesis statement, discuss research methods and offer insight into where further research is needed.

Click here for a helpful guide with more details on how to write a literature review.

Click below for an example of a literature review:

The Literature Review Cycle

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