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How to Conduct an Effective Literature Review for Your EPQ: A Step-by-Step Guide

• backlinkworks
• Writing Articles & Reviews
• September 23, 2023

Introduction

A literature review is an important component of any Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) project. IT involves researching and analyzing existing literature and scholarly works relevant to your topic. A well-conducted literature review can provide a solid foundation for your EPQ, helping you to identify gaps in the research, establish the context for your study, and build a strong theoretical framework.

Why is a literature review important?

Conducting an effective literature review is crucial for several reasons:

• Identifying existing knowledge: A literature review enables you to familiarize yourself with the existing research and theories related to your topic. This helps you understand what is already known, what gaps exist in the literature, and how your project can contribute to the field.
• Guiding your research: A well-constructed literature review can help you determine the direction and scope of your EPQ project. IT serves as a roadmap, assisting you in identifying the key concepts, theories, and methodologies that are relevant to your research.
• Building a theoretical framework: A literature review allows you to identify and analyze different theories and perspectives related to your topic. This helps you establish a strong theoretical foundation for your project and provides a basis for your analysis and interpretation of the data.
• Supporting your arguments: By citing relevant literature, you can support your arguments and claims with evidence from authoritative sources. This enhances the credibility and reliability of your EPQ project.

Step-by-Step Guide to Conducting an Effective Literature Review

1. define your research question.

The first step in conducting a literature review is to clearly define your research question or objective. This will help you narrow down your search and focus on the most relevant sources.

2. Develop a search strategy

Once you have defined your research question, you need to develop a search strategy to identify relevant literature. Start by brainstorming keywords and phrases related to your topic. Use synonyms and variations of these terms to broaden your search.

Next, identify the most appropriate sources for your research. These may include academic databases, libraries, online journals, books, and relevant websites. Consider both primary and secondary sources to ensure comprehensive coverage of your topic.

3. Conduct a literature search

Using your search strategy, begin exploring the identified sources. Start with academic databases like PubMed, Google Scholar, or JSTOR, as they provide access to a wide range of scholarly articles and research papers.

Make use of advanced search tools and filters to refine your search results. Take note of the relevant sources, including the title, authors, and abstracts, for further evaluation and analysis.

4. Evaluate the literature

After conducting the initial search, IT is important to critically evaluate the literature to determine its relevance, reliability, and credibility. Consider the following criteria:

• Publication date: Ensure that the sources you use are up-to-date and relevant to your research. However, older articles can be included to provide historical context or trace the development of a particular theory.
• Author credentials: Evaluate the expertise, qualifications, and reputation of the authors. Look for authors who are recognized authorities in the field.
• Research design and methodology: Assess the rigor and validity of the research methods used in the studies. Consider whether the sample size, data collection techniques, and analysis methods are appropriate and reliable.
• Consistency and relevance: Look for common themes, findings, and arguments across the literature. Ensure that the sources you select directly address your research question and contribute to the overall understanding of your topic.

5. Organize and synthesize the literature

Once you have evaluated the literature, IT is important to organize and synthesize the information. Create a clear structure for your literature review, categorizing the sources according to themes, theories, or methodologies.

Identify the main arguments, theories, and findings from each source, and compare and contrast them. Look for patterns and connections that emerge across the literature. This will help you build a coherent narrative and identify any gaps or debates in the existing research.

6. Write your literature review

With a clear synthesis of the literature, you can now begin writing your literature review. Follow a logical structure, starting with an introduction that provides an overview of the topic and states your research question or objective.

Organize the body of your literature review according to the themes, theories, or methodologies you have identified. Present the key findings and arguments from each source, critically analyzing and synthesizing the information.

Finally, conclude your literature review by summarizing the main points and highlighting the gaps or areas for further research. Make sure to cite all the sources you have referenced in a consistent citation style, such as APA or MLA.

A well-conducted literature review is a crucial step in any EPQ project. IT helps you identify and analyze the existing knowledge related to your topic, guides your research, builds a theoretical framework, and supports your arguments with credible evidence. By following the step-by-step guide outlined in this article, you can conduct an effective literature review that enhances the quality and impact of your EPQ project.

Q: How many sources should I include in my literature review?

The number of sources you include in your literature review largely depends on the scope of your research and the depth of existing literature on your topic. Aim for a balance between comprehensiveness and relevance. Include enough sources to demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the topic, but also focus on the most influential and recent works.

Q: How do I avoid plagiarism in my literature review?

To avoid plagiarism, IT is essential to properly attribute the ideas, opinions, and findings of other authors. Make sure to cite all the sources you have referenced in a consistent citation style, such as APA or MLA. Paraphrase and summarize the information in your own words, and use quotation marks for direct quotations. Always provide a clear citation whenever you use someone else’s work.

Q: Can I include non-academic sources in my literature review?

While academic sources are generally preferred for a literature review, IT might be relevant to include some non-academic sources, such as government reports, industry publications, or reputable websites. However, ensure that these sources are reliable, authoritative, and directly contribute to your research question.

Q: How do I determine the quality of a source?

When evaluating the quality of a source, consider the publication date, author credentials, research design and methodology, consistency and relevance to your research question. Look for peer-reviewed articles from reputable journals and books from renowned publishers. Assess the reliability and credibility of the sources by checking the reputation of the authors and the publication venues.

Q: Does the literature review come before or after the data collection?

The literature review usually comes before data collection in the research process. IT provides the theoretical and conceptual background for your study, helping you design your research methodology and data collection instruments. However, IT is important to continuously review and update the literature as your project progresses, as new studies and findings might emerge.

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EPQs: finding and using evidence

Finding the evidence that will help you understand a topic or answer a question is an important stage in the research process. And once you have found it, you will need to examine it closely and carefully, to judge how reliable it is and whether it is useful to help you answer your question.

The Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) is an opportunity for you to work independently on a topic that really interests you or that you think is important. It is equivalent to an A-level qualification. These articles are designed to help you if you are enrolled on an EPQ.

  See previous article in series: Designing your research question

Before working through this article, you should have settled on your research question .

This article will support you through the next steps in the research cycle (Figure 1): collecting evidence (or data) to help you answer your question and starting your analysis of that evidence.  First, let’s look at collecting data.

What is already known about your topic?

The first step in answering a research question is usually to do a ‘literature review’ or ‘research review’.

These articles focus on the ‘research review’ type of EPQ, in which collecting and analysing evidence from what other people have written will be a major part of what you do.

Researchers need to do research reviews for two reasons. First, they want to uncover what is already known. A lot is already known about some topics and they want to be sure that they are researching a novel question. Second, they want to get a balanced view of what is known, rather than jumping in and relying on the first pieces of information they find.

A literature review starts with focused and serious reading, to help you develop your knowledge and understanding of the topic, and begin to gather evidence that will help you answer your question.

Julia , a researcher in AstrobiologyOU, whose research explores the possibilities for habitable environments in the Solar System, demonstrates how she starts a literature review. As you read through, think about the process Julia describes and how you could apply the steps she takes to your EPQ research review.

• Starting a literature review.

When you’re starting a literature review, where do you look for evidence? 

Any literature review requires a well-defined topic. Let’s assume the topic is something in planetary science!

Find an exciting topic: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov provides a good overview of our Solar System.  Let’s pick Mars.

Define a specific question. How did Valles Marineris form? 

Learn about Valles Marineris. You can use Wikipedia as a starting point and look up the references given there.

Use Google Scholar to find specific literature (e.g. search words such as *formation of Valles Marineris*). Look up research cited in the papers you read if they are also relevant to your topic. Make sure you always cite your sources.

My colleague Julia is a research fellow in AstrobiologyOU. She uses computer modelling to understand geological processes on planets such as Venus and Mars. For her, the process of starting a literature review is all about starting broad and gradually narrowing down. So, assuming that the topic is something in planetary science, start with something that gives you an overview. In this case, it’s the whole solar system. Then gradually coming in a step, first of all, focusing on one planet: Mars. Coming down to something on that planet; how did Valles Marineris form? And then having decided on the specific topic, learning more about it, Julia suggests using Wikipedia as a starting point, but looking up references given from it, and then using Google Scholar or other research engines to find specific literature, to look up research, and to find papers that are relevant to your topic.

Comments on Julia’s approach 

You’ll notice that Julia starts from the ‘big picture’ and gradually focuses down to more specific material. This is very similar to the process you followed in article 1 ( Designing your research question ) to move from ‘this is a topic I’m interested in’ to ‘this is the question I want to ask’.

You’ll also notice that Julia moves from a quite open, broad source of evidence (Wikipedia) to using more serious sources (Google Scholar). There’s more on where and how to look for evidence in Section 4.

You will know that Wikipedia, despite having information about hundreds of thousands of topics, is not a 100% reliable source. Wikipedia can be a good place to start your research, get your ideas moving and find places where you can look for more information, but you should always cross-check any information you find there against another source.

Finding keywords.

With so much information available online, how do you begin finding relevant material? Most researchers start by assembling a collection of keywords that relate to the topic and can be used to search for more information. But how do you find those all-important keywords?

In some ways, deciding on your keywords is like the ‘ten words’ activity you used in Article 1 to help you move from topic to question.

• Watch how Devyani creates a mind map
• Ann’s summary

Photo of mind map

But how do you come up with those all-important keywords? Devyani, who is a PhD student in AstrobiologyOU, gave me a few thoughts. As a PhD student, she’s just been through this process herself. 

She suggested looking for key concepts and words in the main topic, perhaps splitting your question up and looking at separate elements of it. So for her, space technologies, sustainable development, SDGs, would be good keywords. Perhaps writing down similar words to the keywords that you've identified, using a thesaurus to help you find alternatives. 

Once you start searching, using things like Google Scholar or the Web of Science, you can use advanced search options such as ‘and’ and ‘or’ functions to help you link topics that you need to look for. 

We’ll come on to different places you can actually do your searches in a couple of minutes.

You might want to try Devyani’s method, or you could try  this quick activity  from The Open University to get started on finding good keywords. 

Going back to the example research question we used in Article 1:  ‘ How did young people use social media for activism?: comparing the content of Instagram posts on #blacklivesmatter and #FridaysForFuture during 2020’

What keywords might you use to search for relevant material to help answer this question?  Perhaps you’d come up with ideas like “social media”, “activism”, “black lives matter”, “Fridays for future”.

As you can see, keywords can sometimes be more than one word!

Searching for evidence.

Having identified your keywords, the next step is to use them to start searching for evidence that will help you answer your research question.

Evidence can come from many sources: books; academic articles (often called ‘papers’); reports from businesses, charities and other organisations; newspaper articles; radio and television; websites; social media … the list could go on!

With so much material out there, it’s helpful to make a plan before you start your search. Think about:

• the keywords you will use
• the most useful places to search
• the time you have available for searching.

Keeping track .

You will gather a lot of information, so you should keep good records. Knowing what you’ve looked for, where you looked and what you found there will help you avoid repeating something you’ve already done. You’ll also be able to fully acknowledge the sources you have used in your research (this will be discussed further in Article 3 ). Make notes of:

• what keywords and combinations of keywords you used (your ‘search terms’)
• where you looked
• what documents you downloaded or read online
• notes you made about what you read.

You could keep a record in a simple table, perhaps on a spreadsheet (you can download  an example here ).

For any documents you find, you’ll also find it useful to keep records of:

• the name of the author(s)
• when it was published
• the title of the article, report, book or chapter
• where it was published – i.e., the title of the journal, book or website
• a link to the document or its DOI (digital object identifier)
• (for books) the name of the publishing company and where it’s based.

The digital object identifier (DOI):  You might not have come across a DOI before. Most academic articles have a DOI – a unique string of numbers and letters that is permanently attached to an article. If you paste a DOI into a browser, it will take you straight to that article. Try this one: https://doi.org/10.14324/RFA.05.2.14

When it comes to writing up your dissertation, these notes can be good evidence in themselves, showing how you carried out your review, so it’s sensible to get your record-keeping method set up before you begin searching.

Where should I search?

It’s very likely that you will carry out your search using online resources. But there are so many to choose from that it can be difficult to know where to start.

• Search engines
• University repositories
• Social media
• Researchers’ websites
• Scholarly databases
• Collections
• Journal websites

You can use the well-known search engines, such as Google, Bing or Yahoo, but you will get more reliable results if you use a specialised search engine such as  Google Scholar , which returns links to articles and academic papers produced by researchers in universities and research institutions.

Many of the papers, articles, newspaper pieces and other items that you will find in your searching – but not all – will be  open access,  which means they are free to view and you can download them. 

Many universities have repositories that store the work of researchers at that university. The Open University’s repository is called  Open Research Online (ORO) . Most UK and international universities have something similar. Universities maintain these repositories because they want to make the work of their researchers available for others to use.

Repositories are often looked after by the university’s library team, so if you can’t find the repository easily, try looking on the library pages on the university website.

Online repositories usually allow you to search by a topic, or by the name of the author if you are trying to get hold of a particular resource.

If you’re interested in the work of a particular research group (such as  AstrobiologyOU ) or a specific researcher, you’ll often find them on social media. Most research groups keep copies of work published by their researchers; it’s always worth contacting them. Explain that you want to use the research for your EPQ.

Researchers often have their own websites ( here’s an example ), which you can find using a search engine. If you can’t get hold of an article that you need for your work, email the researcher. Researchers are often willing to share copies of their work to help other researchers, so explain that you want to use it for your EPQ.

Many researchers keep copies of their papers and articles on networking sites such as  ResearchGate , which also allow you to search by topic. However, these records are kept up to date by the researchers themselves, so you should always check against another source if you can.

Professional databases, such as Web of Science and EBSCO , bring together research from thousands of researchers across the world.

However, you will have to create an account, or pay a subscription to make full use of sites like this, which might not be practical for you.

If you find the researcher on the database but the paper you want isn’t there, use the database’s facilities to contact the researcher. Again, tell them why you want to read the article.

Universities and research institutions are increasingly bringing their resources together into large collections.

CORE  is the world’s largest collection of open access research papers and articles.

ARXIV.org  has more than a million articles, mainly in physics, mathematics and engineering.

Journals are the places where researchers publish the articles that discuss their research. There are many thousands of academic journals in existence, covering every topic imaginable.

For example, try typing the phrase "ecology journal" (complete with speech marks) into a search engine. You will find a long list of possible titles is returned.

On the journals’ websites, you can search by topic to find relevant articles. If you are searching for a specific paper, and know the journal it was published in, you can use the journal’s search function to find it. However, many journals are commercial organisations and keep articles behind a ‘paywall’, meaning they are only available to people or institutions that subscribe to them.

Fortunately, more and more journals (for example PLoS – Public Library of Science ) are fully open access and many journals make some articles freely available.

Print media: If you’re looking for material published in newspapers or magazines, first try the website of the newspaper or search for their digital archive. If you can’t find it online, try your local public library; they often have access to hard-copy archives or can advise you where to find them.

Book publishers:  There are many academic publishers, such as  Ubiquity Press , that produce open access books you can download.

Organisations:  research funders, such as the  Wellcome Trust , make available copies of papers and reports written by their researchers. Other organisations’ websites, such as those from the government or charities, often have copies of project reports or annual reports available.

Public libraries: Finally, don’t forget your local public library. Even if they don't have the exact article or book you’re looking for on the premises, they have trained librarians who can help you find it or suggest alternative routes to get the information you need.

Refining your search.

Even if you use very specific keywords, an online search might return hundreds, if not thousands of results. How can you cut hundreds of results down to a sensible level?

Focusing and refining the keywords you use for your search will help you be realistic, making the best possible use of the limited time you have available for the EPQ, and cutting down your results to an amount that you can realistically deal with.

• Thoughts from Michael

Here are Michael’s key tactics for refining your searches:

• Linking several search terms to narrow down your search.
• Starting broad and then refining – he used a personal example where he started by looking for ‘bacteria associated with plants’ and narrowed down to ‘bacteria associated with peas’.
• Keeping track of your topics and sub-topics with a list, spreadsheet or mind map.
• Remembering you don’t have to read every single resource you find.

My colleague Michael, who’s a microbiologist, is particularly interested in looking at life in extreme environments on Earth that might be similar to places such as Mars. 

He had some useful ideas on how to start refining your searches. He suggests linking search terms, so when searching online you can use symbols such as the plus sign and quotation marks that are incredibly helpful. Typing in ‘this’ plus ‘ that’ will return results that have both of those elements. Conversely, typing ‘this’  minus ‘ that’ will mean you only get results that include the phrase ‘this’. You can use quote marks to make phrases stick together, so quote marks "this stuff" and plus quote marks "that thing", will enable you to find papers that refer to both of those topics. 

Michael also suggested it’s good to start broad and then refine searches. For example, for his PhD, he had to write several chapters for his thesis about bacteria that are associated with plants. The first searches were in the obvious place ‘plant-associated bacteria’, which he then refined to think about specific types of plant, such as ‘pea-associated bacteria’ or ‘legume-associated bacteria’. Those initial searches and papers allowed him to identify other useful terms that then meant he could be even more specific with his searches. For example, searching for ‘nitrogen’ plus ‘ plant-associated bacteria’ or ‘legumes’ minus ‘ disease’.

When searching, he also suggested it’s really helpful to keep track of topics and subtopics with a list, spreadsheet or a mind map. Whatever works for you. He found this helped him keep his notes organised and meant he didn’t have to repeat searches, because he had a record of what he had looked for.

But the most important point, he felt, was not to feel overwhelmed when doing a literature review. It’s possible to turn up hundreds of papers on any topic, but you don’t have to read all of them. As a start, he suggested that you look for review papers. These are papers in which the authors have pulled together material from several other sources. They give a really good introduction and overview of a topic, and can give you some clues on where to look next.

Practising searching using Google Scholar.

Google Scholar is a freely-available search engine that only returns links to scholarly literature, so it’s a good place to practise your searching techniques.

Imagine  that you have decided to research this question:

What are the health benefits of people spending time in nature?

What are the keywords you could use in your search? You might think of:

• health               
• nature therapy              
• green health                 
• forest bathing

Experiment with entering the search terms into Google Scholar . For example, type the words ‘ green health ’ into the search box and press enter. 

Using a simple search term like this can generate a long list of articles. In this example (Figure 10) it was somewhere around five million, which is  far too many for you to review meaningfully!

Combining search terms and using punctuation to keep two or more words together can help you focus your search and return fewer results to look through. Try typing “forest bathing” + health + ”open access” into the search bar:

Quote marks (“…”) keep words together. With quote marks (“forest bathing”) the search will return articles about forest bathing. Without them (forest bathing), you’d get articles on woodland and swimming pools (among other things!).

Using the + symbol combines “ forest bathing”  AND  health.  Adding + “ open access ” means you will only see results where you have free access to the full article.

This cuts down the number of results to around 1600 (Figure 12):

You can then click on the search results to access the articles. Clicking the  top link   brings up an article about forest bathing (at time of writing – the top result may well have changed since then).

To refine your search even further, Google Scholar has filters you can use to tweak your search. For example, if you are only interested in very recent material, you could filter so that only material published after 2021 is shown. This is useful if you want to access material published in a particular time range.

Most search engines or search facilities on repositories, collections or websites have an  advanced search  function that allows you to refine your search to cut down the number of results to something more useful. You can search for material published before or since a specific date, include or exclude specific words, or look for articles by a specific author.

To access advanced search on Google Scholar, click on the menu hamburger in the top left.

What is the right number of resources to include in your EPQ research?

It’s difficult to give an exact number of resources you should aim to use in your EPQ research. You could keep going for ever – new articles come from researchers in a constant stream! A rule of thumb is to stop reading when you sense you are no longer finding new ideas.

Credibility.

Even a refined search is likely to throw up lots of material from a range of sources. Wherever your material comes from, you should always scrutinise it carefully. But how do you decide what you can trust (therefore making it useful), and what you can’t?

Assessing a source’s credibility is a good place to start. Making sure you draw your evidence from credible, believable, trustworthy sources is very important for your research.

Quiz: judging credibility.

Comments on credibility of sources.

In order of least to most credible, below we explain why each source is credible or not:

• Tabloid newspaper article:  this kind of reporting puts a priority on the sensational and doesn't always give a full and balanced story.
• Podcast:  podcasts often present the podcaster’s personal opinion, and it’s not always obvious whether that’s based on research.
• Popular science books:  authors usually draw material from a range of sources, and sometimes interview the researchers to get a first-hand view.
• New Scientist article:  this magazine has a good reputation for serious science journalism, and the articles usually have links to the original research so the reader can investigate further for themselves.
• Original research paper:  research papers usually give the reader the evidence that the researchers gathered, so the reader can review it for themselves.

Judging credibility – Thomas’ thoughts.

Thomas, who is a lecturer in space governance, discusses the credibility of materials. As you watch his video, listen out for the ways in which he judges credibility.

‘How do you judge the credibility of a source? That is, what questions do you ask yourself when you read or review a source?’

So this is one of the more important questions for any researcher, particularly one in the humanities such as myself. It’s also one of the hardest, especially when you’re just starting out because the honest answer is: it’s experience. I’ve learned enough about my field that I can differentiate between ‘I don’t agree with this’ and ‘this is nonsense’ but obviously that wasn’t always the case. So in the early days, in high school and undergraduate, there are a few things you can look at to get an understanding of what makes a good source. First port of call is always what your teachers and lecturers recommend, they’ve got that experience that you don’t have, so they’ll be pushing you in the right direction. Pay attention to how those sources are written, that’ll give you clues as to what makes a good source.

But how to find them on your own? Well again, when just starting out, it’s best to be conservative, to err on the side of caution, so there are a few things you can look to. First is publisher. Academic presses (like Oxford University Press) specialise in publishing scholarly work, so that acts as a form of quality filter. Author is another one. Who is this person, why are they qualified to write an article or a book on this topic? There are other indicators you can use. For example: are there footnotes, references, a bibliography? What sort of sources do they use? How up-to-date are they?

Then there’s the work itself. Is it well-structured and thought out? Do they actually make an argument? Do they explain their reasoning to you, or do they just declare things to be true? ("Well of course it’s true, I said it" – it happens more often than you would think it does!)

Finally, you need to read widely and broadly. You need to read authors you agree with, and authors that you disagree with, and then work out what you think. Gradually you’ll be able to work out what constitutes a good source without being dependent upon some of these indicators – which is good, they’re not ironclad rules; some excellent works of history have been written by people without history degrees. And more importantly, you’ll be able to discern the difference between ‘I don’t agree with this’ and ‘this is nonsense’.

Thomas’ main points

Thomas’ main points were:

• Ask people you trust, such as teachers, what they recommend.
• Look at the quality of the writing – good sources are well-written and well-structured, with evidence to back up the arguments they present.
• Go to reputable sources such as academic publishers.
• Look at the writer’s qualifications on the topic.
• Look at the sources the writer has used.
• Read lots for yourself and build your ability to judge gradually.

Judging credibility – Charlotte's thoughts.

Charlotte, who is a researcher in geochemistry, also has some thoughts about how she judges credibility.

• Thoughts from Charlotte

Figure 16 Charlotte, a researcher in geochemistry Show description A photograph of Charlotte

• the data support the conclusion the authors have come to
• the methods are appropriate and up-to-date
• they haven’t cherry-picked the best data and ignored others
• the authors don’t have any financial interest in coming to a particular conclusion.

If it’s an area she’s less familiar with, she starts with newspapers, online news and experts. She looks for:

• links to the original research
• what qualifies the writer to be an expert in that area
• whether other experts agree with the author
• any hint of conspiracy theories
• whether the authors have any financial interest in a particular conclusion.

Another colleague, Charlotte, who’s interested in extremophiles – life that lives in very extreme environments on Earth – said that for her, essentially the rule of thumb that she uses is, one: peer-reviewed research. This is a term that means that the paper, before it’s published, has been looked at by two or three colleagues who are knowledgeable in the area. They offer comments and the original authors are then able to improve what they’ve written.

Peer-reviewed research is typically what’s published in academic journals, and that’s the most credible source. Everything else; social media, newspapers, online news forums, is less credible. Charlotte says that when she is reading or researching in the field that she’s an expert in – geochemistry – she always develops her ideas using peer-reviewed academic articles, asking herself: do their data support their conclusions? Are they using the most appropriate and up-to-date methods?

Are there signs that they’re cherry-picking the best data, or ignoring data that doesn’t quite fit what they want it to be? And, super important: do the researchers have financial interests in the conclusions? You might not necessarily trust someone who was working for a toothpaste firm to give you the absolute disinterested best data on tooth decay.

However, Charlotte said that when she’s reading about a topic that’s outside her field of expertise, perhaps in something in health and medicine, she finds it much harder to read and understand the peer-reviewed literature, as sadly it will often use specialist language or jargon. Therefore, in such situations, she often uses a larger range of sources, which might well include newspapers, online news, and things written by people who have been deemed experts.

In that case, some of the questions she asks herself are things like: does the expert or the news article refer back to the original research?  Is the news article or expert giving an opinion that’s backed up by a range of research? If it’s someone giving their opinion, what qualifies them to give that opinion? Is there anything about conspiracy theories? Those red flags that Thomas talked about. And again, do the authors seem to have a financial interest in the opinion that they’re pulling out? If the sources she looks at refer to specific academic articles, it  makes her think that these sources may be more credible than those that don’t. And if the experts on news articles are spreading an idea that feels like conspiracy, has been widely debunked, or for which there is very limited evidence, then she doesn’t count that as a credible source.

• Similarities and differences
• Similarities
• Differences

What are the similarities and differences between how Charlotte and Thomas judge credibility? Charlotte is a science researcher, whereas Thomas is a law researcher – do you think this affects their processes? 

Thomas and Charlotte both:

look at where the article has come from – a reputable source or one where work is reviewed by experts

consider the writer’s qualifications to be an expert on a subject

review whether other experts or sources agree with the writer

• check that the arguments or conclusions are supported by data.

Charlotte will look for  links to the original research and any  evidence of financial interests.

Thomas will look at the quality of the writing and the structure of the article.

Whether you use PROMPT, RAVEN or another method of assessing credibility, this will help you determine that you have the best sources possible for your project. Then it is time to get started reading for the literature review.

More about the PROMPT checklist

PROMPT stands for:

• P resentation: Is it clearly written, and can you follow it?
• R elevance:   Does it meet your needs?  Tip: for a speedy check, read the first and last sections (often called the Introduction and Conclusion) and decide whether it’s worth reading the rest.
• O bjectivity:   Does the author make their position clear? Are there any ‘hidden’ interests such as advertising or sponsors?
• M ethod:   Is there any information about how the work was done? For example, if the paper is about the results of a survey, do they tell you what the questions were?
• P rovenance:   Where does the article come from – university? Government? News media? Someone’s personal website? How much can you trust the source?
• T imeliness:  W hen was the information produced? Could it be out of date? Have ideas changed? (But remember that old is not necessarily bad; you could use older information to compare with current thinking.)

Try using the PROMPT checklist on the articles you have found.

There is more information about  PROMPT  on the OU’s Library Services website. Click here for a downloadable and printable version.

• Reading critically

A good research review is more than just a list of ‘she says this ... they say that … he says the other’. It’s an opportunity to test and show the strength of different arguments and the contribution they have made to your thinking.

The key is to  critically read   the material you have found.

The aim of critical reading is to assess the strength of the evidence and the argument. It is just as useful to conclude that a study, or an article, presents very strong evidence and a well-reasoned argument as it is to identify the studies or articles that are weak.

As you read, it is useful to keep asking yourself questions such as:

Why am I reading this? –  Because it’s interesting? Useful? Has good information for me?

Do I trust the source? –  What evidence do I have that the source is trustworthy?

What claims are the authors making? –  Have they included their conclusions?

Do I think those claims are trustworthy? –  Have the authors given me the evidence they are basing their claims on so I can judge for myself?

Imagine you were researching the question: ‘what is the influence of advertising on people’s consumption of junk food?’

Remembering that you will find material from a range of sources. Here we’ll use an article from the  Guardian newspaper’s website.

What information in the article do you think would be relevant or useful to help you answer this question? Use the questions in the ‘Reading critically’ tab to help you reflect.

What did you think about as you read the article?

You might have picked up points such as:

• Why am I reading this?
• It is about the effect of advertising on people buying junk food, so it is relevant to the question.
• Do I trust the source?
• It comes from the Guardian , a well-known UK newspaper.
• The writer is named, so you could check on other things they have written – for example, if they specialise in writing articles about food or have a background in food science.
• What claims are the authors making?
• That a ban on junk food advertising has led to a reduction in purchasing of unhealthy food.
• Do I think those claims are trustworthy?
• The article mentions that the research was done by researchers at a university – you could look for them on the university website.
• One of the researchers is named and there is a quote from them.

At this stage, no one expects you to come up with all these possibilities! But keep those critical questions at the front of your mind as you search for and examine the evidence. Remember to ask:

For more ideas on how to judge the credibility of the material you find and think critically about the contents, watch this short video on critical thinking , produced by the BBC and The Open University. It discusses five key strategies you can use to sharpen your critical thinking.

In this article, we have looked at the second part of the research cycle – how to find the evidence that will help you answer your research question, and how you can start to read it critically and analyse its relevance to your question. When you have finished searching, reading and analysing, you are ready to move on to the next step: writing your dissertation.

Other articles in this series...

EPQs: designing your research question

You’ve already decided to do an EPQ, so it might seem a little odd to start this resource by asking you to consider why you want to do a research project. People do an EPQ for all sorts of reasons. Why do you want to do an EPQ?

EPQs: writing up your dissertation

You have collected and analysed your evidence and considered it in relation to your research question. The next step is to communicate all that you have done. Your dissertation is the element of the EPQ that is read and assessed by others who haven’t been involved in your research.

EPQs: why give a presentation?

What are the guidelines for the presentation?

Become an OU student

Ratings & comments, share this free course, copyright information, publication details.

• Originally published: Wednesday, 3 May 2023
• Body text - Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 : The Open University
• Image 'Photo of Julia' - Copyright: AstrobiologyOU
• Image 'Photo of Mars' - Copyright: Image by  WikiImages  from  Pixabay  
• Image 'Photo of Valles Marineris' - Copyright: Image by  Alexander Antropov  from  Pixabay  
• Image 'Devyani's mindmap' - Copyright: Devyani Gajjar, AstrobiologyOU
• Image 'Scattering of keywords printed out and cut up' - Copyright: The Open University 
• Image 'An illustration depicting the research process' - Copyright: Ann Grand
• Image 'Photo of Michael, a researcher from AstrobiologyOU.' - Copyright: Michael Macey
• Image 'Photo of Charlotte' - Copyright: AstrobiologyOU
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• Image 'EPQs: writing up your dissertation' - © Betta0147 | Dreamstime.com under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license
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How To Write An EPQ Essay (Step-by-Step Guide)

In A-Level by Think Student Editor March 29, 2019 8 Comments

Whatever the reasons were for you choosing to write an EPQ, the grade you get is most definitely important to you. That is why I have written this (hopefully) detailed guide on how to write an EPQ.

1. Think Of An EPQ Topic That Genuinely Interests You 

It’s important to choose an EPQ you’re interested in, or you may run into some problems . Many students take EPQs each year, and many students fail because they make this mistake.

If you don’t take an EPQ you’re interested in, you’ll have no motivation to work on it . This will be because you start to want to do other things, anything instead of your EPQ.

Think about revision, for example. Is it interesting? Nope. Would you rather be playing videogames, watching Netflix, or literally anything else? Yeah, me too.

If you’re not motivated to write your EPQ essay, then you’ll either not do it or do it badly. If you don’t work hard for it, you won’t get good marks – and therefore there’s less point in even taking it in the first place .

If you find an EPQ topic to write your essay on that genuinely peaks your interest, you’ll find it much easier to get better grades in it.

A more interesting EPQ essay topic will mean that your focus is better . This will result in a better EPQ, meaning more marks when you hand it in.

You’ll also enjoy the EPQ a lot more if you find it interesting . You’ll find the whole experience a lot more fun, and therefore a lot easier too.

To find an EPQ topic that genuinely interests you, you just have to think about what you like. There are lots of different things you can do, but you only get to choose once – so choose carefully.

And if you’re really stuck on ideas, take a look at this list of 600+ EPQ ideas that guarantee an A* . Any of these ideas will be great for your EPQ, so just choose one that interests you and that you’ll actually enjoy.

2. Create A Mind Map Surrounding Your EPQ Topic

A mind map is where you write down everything you know about a topic . In this case, you’d be writing down all the ideas and concepts surrounding your EPQ topic.

That way you can see everything you need to write about in your EPQ essay. You’re essentially making a mood board for whatever EPQ idea you’ve chosen, and it will help you get in the right mindset for the task ahead.

Mind maps are most commonly used to identify gaps in your knowledge . Students tend to use them when revising to work out what they don’t know, whilst also helping them consolidate what they do know.

In terms of your EPQ essay, a mind map will provide a loose structure for you to follow . You’ll come up with lots of different things you can write about, and that will make the essay a lot easier.

In addition to this, whilst creating your mind map you may even decide to change your topic entirely. You might find that the topic you’ve chosen isn’t giving you any idea inspiration, and so you move on to a different topic. 

To make sure you get your mind maps right, you might want to follow this helpful guideline . It’s mainly about studying, but the same things can be said for planning your EPQ essay.

Don’t try rushing in to your EPQ essay without first creating a mind map . Mind maps are more useful than most students think…

Mind maps will help you avoid getting lost in what you’ve written, what you’ve missed, and what you’re planning on doing. You can use your EPQ topic mind maps as a sort of checklist as you write your EPQ essay.

3. Use Your Mind Map To Think Of A Question Related To Your Main EPQ Topic

Many students forget to think about this, but it’s probably the most important part of your EPQ . If you get this bit wrong, you can say goodbye to a good grade in your EPQ.

The question relating to your EPQ topic of choice is what you’ll spend your time working on . The 5000 words you write will be about this question, and so it really needs to be a good one.

If you don’t make it a question that interests you, then you’ll find it harder to write as much about it. Find a question that genuinely peaks your interest (relating to your EPQ of course) and the rest will come naturally.

It’s also important, however, that you choose a question where there’s a lot to write about . If you choose a question with lots to write about, you can use that to your advantage when trying to reach those 5000 words.

However, if you don’t choose a question where there’s a lot to write about, you’ll find that your EPQ is slow and drains you. Not only that, but it’ll probably be worse in terms of grade too.

I’d suggest doing a little background research into your question before you start writing your EPQ essay . Just check that there’s lots to write about and then you can avoid starting something you can’t finish.

As a general rule, you’ll want questions that don’t have definitive answers. If you can find a question that is inconclusive, you’re onto a winner.

If you can’t be bothered to look up EPQ questions, then there’s an alternative . Take a look at this list of 600+ EPQ ideas that guarantee an A* .

4. Write Down Subtitles That Relate To Your Main EPQ Question

Writing down subtitles for your EPQ question means that you’ll have a better idea of what’s actually going into your EPQ essay .

When you create your subtitles for your EPQ essay, you’re essentially writing down all the mini-topics you’ll write about. You split up the massive 5000 word count into smaller, more manageable parts.

I’d suggest making as many subtitles as you can that relate to your main EPQ question. Just go for a massive brainstorm ( potentially using your mind map ) to try and come up with lots of subtitles.

That way you maximize the chances of you making some actually good subtitles. You’ll have lots of options to choose from, and your EPQ will benefit from having such a varied range of points.

You also put yourself in the right mindset for your EPQ essay . You’ll be much more open to different ideas and approaches whilst actually writing the EPQ, and examiners will see this and give you extra credit.

However, you need to make sure that the subtitles you’re writing actually relate to your EPQ question . If they don’t, you could run into some serious problems.

If you choose to work on a subtitle that doesn’t wholly relate to your EPQ question, you risk filling up your word count with irrelevant information. That means less room for the important stuff, and less marks for you.

Make sure you check all your subtitles before you start writing . Work out what the plan is before you start writing, so that you don’t have to rewrite a large portion of your EPQ essay.

So grab a pen and paper, sit down, put on some nice music, and get to writing those subtitles.

5. Triple Check That Every Subtitle Question Actually Relates To The Main EPQ Topic

By this point, you should have around 16 subtitles that you want to include in your EPQ essay . 16 subtitles will give you a nice 300 word per subtitle guide, give or take a few.

Any more subtitles, and you run the risk of overcomplicating your EPQ. Any fewer, and you’ll struggle to reach that gargantuan 5000 word count.

It’s essential that you break down your EPQ essay into smaller modules like this, to make it easier for you in the long term. 16 subtitles will mean the best productivity for you when you actually come to write your EPQ essay .

The next step is to order your subtitles, for easier reading. You’ll want to make the layout of your subtitles as sensible and as easy to follow as possible for your examiner .

If you please your examiner like this, they’ll be more inclined to give you more marks. They mark you on your written communication, and therefore you’ll want to make sure you’re communicating the most effective way.

Try ordering your subtitles by the order of most important to least important . Laying out your subtitles this way will show your examiner that you’ve really thought about your EPQ and understand what they want to see.

Alternatively, you could lay out your subtitles chronologically . What I mean by this is that you start with your question, move onto research, then explanations, and finally a conclusion.

This is probably the best way to lay out your EPQ essay subtitles . It’s the easiest way to follow the process you went through, and examiners like to see EPQ essays that are laid out like this.

It’s how I laid my EPQ essay subtitles out, and I got an A* – so I’d suggest doing the same.

6. Allocate A Word Count To Each Element Of Your EPQ Structure

You’ll want an introductory paragraph to start with, and that should only take about 200-300 words . Don’t go overboard with your introduction, as you should aim to make the bulk of your essay about your EPQ question.

I’ve already mentioned it, but you want to write about 300 words per subtitle . This is the perfect amount of words to write if you want the EPQ essay to go as smoothly as possible.

16 subtitles at 300 words each will put you at just under 5000 words – 4800, to be exact. That will leave you just enough room to add a short introduction too.

You can go for less subtitles, but that means a higher word count for each individual subtitle . If you make your word count per subtitle too high, then you’ll struggle when it comes to actually writing your EPQ essay.

You could also try more subtitles if you want, but that then means you’d write less per subtitle . That means there’s less room for all your explanation, and less marks when you hand it in.

I’d recommend keeping your subtitle count between 14 and 18 . That way you give yourself the best chances of your EPQ being easier to write.

You also make it easier for you to enjoy, too. Making your EPQ essay subtitles this long means you’ll find it easier and less monotonous, and therefore you’ll enjoy it more.

The word count of each element in your EPQ essay has an impact on your productivity and focus, too . Generally, the shorter the piece of writing you have to do, the more productive you’ll be.

Setting yourself short-term goals like this will help you stay focused and make your EPQ that little bit better. It’s worth setting effective word counts for your EPQ essay elements for those extra marks .

7. Research, Research ( And A Little Bit More Research )

Research should make up about 40%-50% of your total EPQ essay . That’s a lot of research, and you can see from this figure that quality research is crucial to your success.

The reason research takes up so much space is because you need to explore all opportunities within your question. Research will help you develop ideas and improve your knowledge of the subject, helping you to better answer your EPQ essay question.

And besides, who doesn’t want help reaching the massive 5000 word count?

There are many ways to research, with the most common being the internet, and books . Both ways of researching are valid and useful, but you still need to be careful.

Especially with the internet, you may come across facts and information that isn’t entirely accurate. This is because anybody can access anything, and usually the information you see online is edited by people who aren’t professionals.

Try to stay away from websites like Wikipedia, where anybody can change the information you see . There are much better alternatives out there, like Google Scholar for example.

Whereas with books, they have to go through a long-winded process to ensure they’re accurate . Books tend to be slightly more reliable than the internet, especially if they have an ‘exam-board approved’ label on them.

I’d also recommend keeping track of all the sources of your information, as you’ll have to write a bibliography at the end of your EPQ .

What that basically means is that you have to reference each individual source of information after you’ve written your EPQ essay. That’s just so examiners can check to see if you’re plagiarising any content, in case you were wondering.

8. Check That Your EPQ Structure Still Makes Sense

You should have around 16 subtitles ready to go, in chronological order or order of importance . I’d suggest chronological order, but that’s up to you.

You should also have space to add an introduction and conclusion paragraphs . They shouldn’t take up too much space, but still leave some room for you to add them in.

You’ll actually want to wait until the end of your EPQ essay to write either of these paragraphs, so it might help to add placeholders until you get to writing them.

Around 7 of your subtitles should be based on research . You’ll want to leave yourself a nice amount of in-depth research, whilst also allowing room for all that explanation.

If you don’t give the right proportions for your research and explanation subtitles, your EPQ can become lopsided. Examiners will easily spot this and take away precious marks.

You’ll want your conclusion to be longer than your introduction, as you’re essentially summing up all that you’ve written . Your conclusion should be about the same size as your subtitles, but maybe just a little bit bigger.

If all else fails, just read through your structure and think about it from an examiners’ point of view. Does it all make sense? Are the subtitles in a sensible order? Have you left space for your introduction and conclusion paragraphs?

If you reckon you’ve got all these elements in the right order and the right sizes, you should be good to go. Just keep a clear focus on your EPQ essay question, and you can’t go wrong.

9 . Write Down The Answers To Each Of Your Subtitles

Start with your subtitles to get the main bulk of your EPQ essay underway . The quicker you get your subtitles done, the sooner you can finish your EPQ.

Starting your subtitles first is a good idea, as they make up most of your EPQ. You’ll want to get them done first, and then you have time after that to work on the finer details.

As I’ve said, your subtitles should be around 300 words long . This will allow you just enough space to answer the subtitle, without repeating yourself or going overboard.

If you go too far over 300 words, you risk either repeating yourself or just extending your points so much that your words become empty. Empty words = no marks, which is what you definitely don’t want.

If you don’t write 300 words, the points you make are likely to be underdeveloped. This means you can’t get into the top band of marks no matter how good what you’re saying is – there’s just simply not enough of it.

Of course, if you think you can express yourself in more or less than 300 words, go for it . Everybody’s different, and some people have better writing skills than others.

The amount of words you write per subtitle can also depend on how many subtitles you have . If you have less subtitles, you write more words per subtitle, and vice versa – simple maths.

Try to explore every possibility within your subtitle. The more routes you go down and the further the detail you go into, the more marks you’ll get from the examiner.

10 . Write The Introduction And Conclusion Paragraphs

Your introduction paragraph needs to be slightly shorter than your average subtitle paragraph . Usually about 200-300 words, the introduction will basically talk about what’s to come in your EPQ essay.

If you make your introduction too long, you waste space that you might need for your research/explanations. You also take up space that could be used for your conclusion, which is very important.

It’s a good idea to write your introduction paragraph after you’ve written all of your subtitles . It may sound odd, but there’s method to the madness.

If you write your introductory paragraph last, it’ll be a lot more accurate than if you’d have done it at the start. You’ll know exactly what’s in your EPQ, and therefore your introduction can accurately ‘introduce’ your essay .

Your conclusion paragraph should be slightly longer than your average subtitle, and definitely longer than your introduction . I’d say about 400 words, your conclusion should sum up everything you’ve talked about in your EPQ essay.

Your conclusion should essentially answer the question you asked at the start of your EPQ essay. You should aim to include everything you talked about in your other subtitles (that’s why it’s a little bit longer).

You’ll obviously want to write your conclusion paragraph after everything else, or you’ll have nothing to conclude. Once you get on to your conclusion, you’re on the home stretch.

11. Get Someone To Proof Read It To Make Sure There Are No Errors

Proof reading your EPQ essay is so, so, SO important to your success . If you don’t proof read your EPQ essay, you may miss some pretty crucial mistakes…

I’m not just talking about the spelling mistakes you may have made (although you might want to fix those too). I mean the mistakes where you contradict yourself, go off topic, or even just get your facts wrong.

I’m sure I don’t need to explain it, but these mistakes will cost you dearly when your EPQ gets examined . Sometimes just a few marks can be the difference between an A and an A*, so you need to maximize your chances of success.

A good way to ensure your EPQ essay is perfect is to get someone else to look through it. Having a second opinion ensures that everything you’ve written is accurate and concise, and it’s better than just checking through it yourself.

If you rely on your own methods of checking through your work, you’re more likely to miss mistakes . Having a fresh perspective on your work broadens the chances of catching every mistake you make.

It doesn’t matter who you get to check your work . You can ask friends, family, or even your teachers/tutor – just get it proof read before you send it off to be marked .

If you need to check through it for spelling mistakes or wording issues, there’s a handy little trick I used for my EPQ essay. Paste your entire essay into google translate, and have it read out to you .

That way you can listen and check for anything that’s not quite right, and sort it out in time for your EPQ essay to be examined.

Thanks so much for the help !

This is so, so helpful, thanks so much!

How many resources should I have for my EPQ?

20-25 should be the right number

Hi, thanks for the cool tips! I will definitely keep it for myself

Hello, thanks for the cool advice, but the most difficult thing for me is 1 point – to think through the topic itself. Therefore, already at the first stage, I give up and turn to the college essay writing service. This service helped me more than once or twice. My friends also use it. Also, it is difficult for me to create a mental map, which is in point 2. Therefore, I would rather spend my writing time on purposes that are useful to me.

This is so useful! I have been working on my EPQ over the past few weeks and have had a few big quandries about how I should go about forming an answer to my question and this has made it much clearer. Thank you!

EPQ Guide: Expressing your ideas

• The Inquiry Process
• Developing a line of inquiry
• Finding and selecting sources
• Working with ideas

Expressing your ideas

This is the stage you have been building towards - writing your report. Although that is largely the focus of this page , it is not all there is to the EPQ.

Your EPQ will be assessed on:

• Your completed Production Log
• if your project is a research based written report of any kind (e.g. a science investigation or an essay) it should be approximately 5,000 words long
• If your project is an artefact, it must be accomapanied by a research based written report of a minimum of 1,000 words. For artefacts, you may include photos showing various stages of the production process as well as the final product. You do not need to submit a large artefact as evidence - photographs or other media are fine.
• If your product was itself a presentation then you still need to produce a presentation about the process of producing it!
• Your presentation must be delivered live to a non-specialist audience and might use flipcharts or posters, presentation tools such as PowerPoint or Prezi or short video clips. The evidence for your presentation will  include a record in your Production Log of questions your supervisor asked and how you responded.

Am I ready?

Am I ready to start writing my essay?

Before you start writing, think:

• Is my investigation largely complete? As you write you may find that you need a few additional resources or information to support your argument, but you should not sta rt to write until you are largely sure where your argument is going.
• Have I filled in a Research Organiser (which you will find on the Working with Ideas tab)? This will help you to organise your thoughts and make sure you understand the argument you intend to make and have the evidence to support it. While not compulsory, it makes writing your final essay significantly easier.
• Do I understand how to write in an appropriate academic style? Guidance is given in the Academic Writing box below.
• Do I know how to import my sources from my Investigative Journal? Don't waste time putting all your citation data in again! Import all your sources as you set up your document. There are helpsheets in the Resources for PC / Mac users boxes to the right.

You should use the Oakham APAv3 Academic Writing Template (below) rather than a generic Word template to set up your essay.

(The image below is taken from the EE LibGuide, but the template is just as useful for EPQs)

Citing and referencing

There are many different ways to acknowledge the sources you use. These are called referencing styles . You are free to use any recognised referencing style you wish for your EPQ, but Oakham's 'house style' is APA. We suggest you use this because we already have a lot of support in place for it. APA is an 'Author-date' system, meaning that you show which source you have used by putting the author and date in brackets after it in your text, and then put the full reference in an alphabetical list at the end of the essay. The Library does not support 'footnote referencing', where you put all the information in a footnote at the bottom of the page. If you want help with this then please talk to the member of staff who suggested that you use it.

For detailed information and guidance on how to use sources in your writing and how to cite and reference them accurately using the tools in Microsoft Word, consult the Citing and Referencing LibGuide . This site includes information about how to reference all sorts of different kinds of sources, including videos and works of art, and what to do if you are using a source written in a language that is not the language of your essay. It also gives some examples of how to use in-text citations , whether quoting, paraphrasing or just referring to a source more generally, and how to use the automatic citing and referencing tools in Word .

Academic writing

Stages in an academic essay

Your thesis is the point you want to make. It emerges from your research and your task is to use the evidence you have found to establish it as the most reasonable response to that research.

In both approaches, you must state the research question in your introduction, and make sure you return to it in your conclusion .

Sections required in your essay

Have a look at the Formal Presentation guide in the sidebar for a guide to laying out your essay.

Paragraph Structure

Paragraphs themselves have a structure - the most common you will have come across is likely to be PEEL. The letters often stand for slightly different things in different subjects, but the idea is largely the same - introduce your main idea for the paragraph ( Point ), justify it with Evidence and/or Examples , and Evaluate this evidence. Finally, Link back to the Research Question and/or Link forward to the next paragraph.

This is not the only way to write a paragraph and, with experience, you will soon find that your argument develops a flow of its own that does not require a formula - indeed, your essay would be very dull if every paragraph followed exactly the same structure. However, this structure can be a useful scaffold to get you started and make sure you don't miss anything important.

The structure of academic writing

Note that the following graphic was originally produced for the IB Extended Essay, but is equally applicable to the EPQ.

Planning your essay

It is vital to plan your essay before you start writing. An essay plan provides an outline of your argument and how it develops.

What sections and subsections do you need?

Although this might change as you write your essay, you should not start writing until you have your overall structure. Then think about roughly how you are going to divide your 5000 words between the different sections. 5000 words seems like a lot before you start writing, but it is much easier to write to the limit, section by section, than to try to cut your essay down once it is written.

What will the reader will expect to see and where?

Look back at your checklist and think about where in your essay you are planning to include the required information. Make sure the flow of your essay makes sense to a reader who may be a subject expert but knows little about your topic. Have you included background information? Details of experimental methods? Arguments and counter arguments?

Now get writing!

You've read all the guidance. You've made your plan. Now you have a blank screen in front of you and you just need to get started! Start with the section you think you will find easiest to write and work outwards from there, or follow the steps below to get started. Don't forget to write with the word limit in mind though.

What if you are writing lots of paragraphs but your essay just doesn't seem to be coming together?

1. Condense each paragraph into a short statement or bullet point. This is the skeleton structure of your essay.

2. Look at the order of the statements.

• Is the order logical?
• Does each point follow another in a sensible order?
• Do you need to change the order?
• Do you need to add paragraphs?
• Do you need to remove paragraphs?

3. Add, subtract and rearrange the paragraphs until your structure makes sense.

4. Redraft using your new paragraph order.  

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

Willard, D. (2003) My journey to and b eyond tenure in a secular university . Retrieved from: www.dwillard.org/articles/individual/my-journey-to-and-beyond-tenure-in-a-secular-university . Accessed: 9th May 2020

Oh no! It's too long!!

If you haven't managed to write to the word limit and are suddenly faced with cutting down an essay that is over the word limit, try these tips on concise writing from Purdue Online Writing Lab.

Use the menu on the left of this page from Purdue OWL to browse the four very practical pages on writing concisely and one on the Paramedic Method for reducing your word count.

AQA Guide to completing the Production Log: Expressing your ideas

AQA copyright notice

The presentation above contains slides from the AQA presentation  Teaching slides: how to complete the production log  (available from the AQA EPQ Teaching and Learning Resources website ).  These slides are Copyright © 2020 AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved.

A downloadable copy of the Production Log can be found here , on the Home tab of this guide.

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How To Write An EPQ Essay & Dissertation (9 Steps)

Writing an EPQ essay involves several steps to ensure a well-structured and compelling piece.

Here is a 9-step guide to help you write an effective EPQ essay:

• Brainstorm EPQ topic ideas : Choose an engaging topic that interests you and is relevant to your academic or career goals.
• Conduct research : Gather information from various sources to support your arguments and provide evidence.
• Create a structure : Organise your essay with a clear introduction, main body, and conclusion. Outline the main points and arguments you will cover in each section.
• Write an introduction : Begin your essay with an introductory paragraph that introduces the topic, outlines the scope of the essay, and provides an overview of the structure 4 .
• Develop the main body : Write the main body of the essay, focusing on presenting your arguments, evidence, and analysis. Ensure each paragraph has a clear topic sentence and flows logically from one point to the next.
• Use proper referencing : Cite your sources correctly to avoid plagiarism and demonstrate your research skills.
• Write a conclusion : Summarise your main points and answer the question you posed at the beginning of the essay.
• Review and revise : Proofread your essay for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. Ensure your arguments are clear, coherent, and well-supported 1 .
• Seek feedback : Ask a teacher, tutor, or peer to review your essay and provide constructive feedback to help you improve your work

The article below is designed to help you develop a strong foundation for writing your EPQ essay by providing practical tips and guidance from an expert in the field.

You’ll learn about key elements such as structure, formatting, research methods, argumentation techniques and more so that you can craft a compelling paper that stands out from the crowd.

By following these steps, you’ll have all the tools necessary to make sure your EPQ essay stands out and meets its desired goals.

• 1 Understanding The EPQ Essay Requirements
• 2.1 Organizing Ideas
• 2.2 Outlining Content
• 3 Formatting Your Essay
• 4 Researching For Your Essay
• 5 Developing Your Argument
• 6 Crafting A Compelling Conclusion
• 7 Writing a good EPQ essay

Understanding The EPQ Essay Requirements

Navigating the world of EPQ essay writing can be intimidating, and even overwhelming at times! But never fear – with a little bit of knowledge and preparation you’ll find yourself soaring towards success.

At its core, crafting an effective EPQ essay comes down to analyzing expectations and exploring options. It’s important to take into account the specific requirements for your topic or course; many professors will have different standards that need to be met.

Once you’re clear on what needs to be accomplished, it’s time to get creative – start brainstorming ideas and looking for relevant sources that support them. Be sure to record everything as you go along so you don’t forget any key details later on in the process.

Research is essential here, but make sure not to lose sight of the bigger picture: Your paper should still reflect your unique perspective and originality. With this approach, you can create an engaging work that will stand out from the crowd — one which takes readers on a journey of exploration through freedom-filled imagination!

Structuring Your EPQ Essay

Organizing your ideas is an important part of writing an EPQ essay.

Start by making a list of the main points you want to make and then organize them into groups that fit with your argument.

Once you have your ideas organized, you can start outlining the content. This will help you create a logical flow of information and ensure that your essay is structured in a clear and concise way.

It’ll also make it easier to write the actual essay, and make sure that you haven’t skipped any important points.

Organizing Ideas

Organizing your ideas is an important part of writing a successful EPQ essay. Before you start jotting down notes or typing away on your computer, identify the sources that will be most useful in completing your project.

Ask yourself questions like “what do I already know?” and “where can I find more information?” By identifying these sources early on, you’ll ensure that all the research needed to write a quality paper has been done ahead of time.

Once you’ve identified the best source material for your project, it’s time to develop a structure for your essay. Think about how each point should flow logically from one to another and what order would make the most sense when reading through your work.

As with any type of academic writing, having an outline helps keep everything organized and makes it easier to create well-structured argument points throughout your paper.

Additionally, if there are sections where multiple topics require further discussion, consider breaking them up into separate paragraphs so readers can easily digest each idea independently.

Writing an EPQ essay doesn’t have to be overwhelming; by taking proactive steps to organize ideas before starting the actual writing process, you’re sure to craft an impressive piece of work!

Outlining Content

Once you’ve identified the sources and outlined your structure, it’s time to start brainstorming techniques for what content should be included in your essay.

This is an important step to ensure that all the key points are covered in a logical order. Brainstorming can include anything from writing down ideas as they come to mind or even mapping out each section with bullet points.

Additionally, if there are any specific topics you’d like to discuss further, consider breaking them up into separate paragraphs so readers can easily digest each idea independently.

No matter which strategy works best for you, it’s essential to make sure that each point has been thoroughly researched beforehand—this will guarantee that only quality information is presented throughout your paper.

Writing an EPQ essay doesn’t have to be daunting; by taking proactive steps such as outlining the content of your project ahead of time, you’re sure to craft an impressive piece!

Formatting Your Essay

The formatting of your essay is as important as the structure. When structuring, you made sure all the pieces were in place and ready to go; now it’s time to make them look nice.

You should consider several stylistic choices when formatting:

• Word choice – Use precise language that adds power and meaning to each sentence without detracting from its original intent
• Font size – Choose a font size that looks professional yet comfortable for reading
• Headers/subheaders – Create visual breaks between sections using headers or subheaders with interesting titles that capture readers’ attention
• Margins – Establish margins so your reader can easily find where one section ends and another begins

By implementing these subtle but powerful formatting techniques, you will improve the overall quality of your EPQ essay and ensure a successful submission!

Researching For Your Essay

The research phase of an EPQ essay is one of the most important steps to ensure you can write a quality paper. Defining your objectives clearly and citing sources accurately are essential for success. As such, it’s important to take your time during this step, as any mistakes here will be difficult to recover from later on in the writing process.

When researching for your essay, begin by getting organized. Gather all pertinent information related to your topic and compile them into separate folders or files so they’re easy to access when needed.

Once that’s completed, start reading up on relevant materials and taking notes along the way – summarize each source and make sure you properly cite authors at the end of each note taken. Doing so will help you save valuable time looking back through books or articles once you move onto actually putting pen to paper (or fingers to keys).

Ultimately, if done correctly, research should provide a solid foundation which allows you to create an innovative and unique piece of work without having to worry about accuracy or plagiarism issues!

Developing Your Argument

Having completed your research, it’s time to develop your argument.

To do this, start by brainstorming ideas about the topic and evaluating sources for their relevance and suitability. Consider which evidence is best placed to support your position on a particular issue or idea.

After gathering all of your information from various sources, try to identify the common themes that emerge in relation to the topic you are researching. In order to form an effective argument, you will need to assess how each piece of evidence fits together in order to demonstrate its relevance and importance.

This could include looking at different perspectives on an issue or comparing multiple results of research studies into a specific field. Additionally, make sure that when forming your argument you take note of any counter arguments which may be presented as these can help strengthen your overall conclusion.

Once you have identified all relevant points related to your argument, consider how they work together and analyse them more deeply – this will allow you to draw meaningful conclusions from the data available.

Crafting A Compelling Conclusion

The conclusion of your EPQ essay is essential to summarizing all the points you have made and discussing their implications. It’s important to remember that this section should be both succinct and clear, so as not to confuse or distract from the main message of your paper.

When writing a compelling conclusion, start by restating your thesis statement in a different way than you did at the beginning of your paper.

Take some time to review each point discussed throughout the body paragraphs and summarize them briefly. This will help remind readers what they just read and why it matters.

Additionally, make sure to tie up loose ends, such as unanswered questions, by either providing an answer or referring back to prior sections.

Finally, conclude with a strong sentence that drives home the importance of your topic while offering insight into future research possibilities or other relevant discussions.

Writing a good EPQ essay

In conclusion, writing an EPQ essay is a unique challenge that requires serious attention and hard work.

With the right structure, research, argumentation, and conclusion in place however, you can put together a compelling piece of writing that will impress even the most discerning master’s student.

One interesting statistic to consider when crafting your essay is that only 50% of students who submit an EPQ are successful in achieving their desired grade.

This serves as a reminder to emphasise quality over quantity in your work: focus on making sure each element of your essay is thoroughly researched and well-written before submitting it for review.

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EPQ Toolkit for AQA

Introducing the EPQ

Lesson 1 Introducing the EPQ

INTRODUCING THE EPQ

What is the EPQ?

• The Extended Project Qualification.

• Equivalent to half of an A-level.

• Part of Advanced Diploma or Baccalaureate.

• Taken alongside an A-level or BTEC programme.

Value of the EPQ?

• Independent work.

• Self-guided.

1/4 Book page 4

THE BENEFITS OF THE EPQ

• Working with others.

• Working to deadlines.

• Planning and management of a project.

• Decision making and problem solving.

• Presentation skills.

• Communication skills.

• Learn skills for University-level study.

• Achieve UCAS points without sitting an exam.

2/4 Book page 4

See exercise 0.1

EPQ AT A GLANCE

Individual or group?

• Individual submission.

• Written report, essay, artefact, play …

• Cannot be directly related to your studies (dual accreditation).

Taught element (30 hours) and independent work (90 hours).

3/4 Book page 5

EPQ IN MORE DETAIL

4/4 Book pages 6–7

AO1 Manage the project: Clear aims and objectives, evidence of planning.

AO2 Use resources: Well-focused research.

AO3 Develop and realise: Autonomy, clear plan, well-written report, evidence of the journey.

AO4 Review: Reflecting on what you have learned.

Material that is assessed:

Your supervisor helps you through your project and marks the final version.

• PRODUCTION LOG.

• Written REPORT.

• Record of the PRESENTATION.

The centre coordinator oversees the whole process.

See exercise 0.2

An external moderator checks the marks given by your supervisor.

Ideas for a topic title

Lesson 2 Ideas for a topic title

THE TAUGHT ELEMENT

EPQ takes about 120 hours, taught element = 30 hours:

• Safety skills.

• ICT skills.

• Research skills.

• Project management skills.

• Personal, learning, thinking skills.

• Sub-specific skills.

See suggested scheme of work on page 11.

1/3 Book pages 10–11

PROJECT IDEAS FROM THE PAST

2/3 Book pages 12–13

• Extending your studies.

• An artefact.

• A newspaper article or TV programme.

• Doing own research on a topic you’d like to study at University.

• A performance.

• Cross-curricular topic.

Examples of good evaluative titles

Should the care of those suffering with Alzheimer’s disease be the responsibility of government?

How to raise a thousand pounds for a local charity.

Can I design and make a platform shoe in the style of the 1970s?

See exercise 1.2

THINGS TO AVOID

• Overly ambitious topics.

• Emotive issues.

• Where you have a personal axe to grind.

• Socially sensitive topics.

• Dual accreditation.

• Don’t try to be too original.

• Avoid being too narrow or too broad.

3/3 Book pages 14–15

See exercise 1.3

A preliminary literature review

Lesson 3 A preliminary literature review

DRILLING DOWN

A literature review = a systematic consideration of what other people have written or said about your chosen topic.

Literature = books, magazines, websites, TV programmes …

Use this preliminary literature review later when completing the

PART A: CANDIDATE PROPOSAL form.

1/2 Book page 16

A FLOWCHART

FOR DOING YOUR

PRELIMINARY

2/2 Book pages 16–17

See exercise 1.4

Writing the CANDIDATE PROPOSAL

Lesson 4 Writing the CANDIDATE PROPOSAL

THE PRE-PROJECT PROPOSAL FORM

You have now:

• Completed some preliminary research.

• Selected a topic.

Time to formally propose your project so it can be approved.

• WHO is affected by the topic?

• WHAT are the major questions for this topic?

• WHERE is your topic important?

• WHEN is your topic important?

Felix, who did the EPQ on Fracking.

1/5 Book page 18

See exercise 1.5

Lesson 4 Writing the CANDIDATE PROPOSAL 2/5

CONSTRUCTING THE RECORD OF INITIAL IDEAS

Book pages 19–20

The RECORD OF INITIAL IDEAS (page 5 of the EPQ candidate record).

STEP 1: Fill in the first two elements.

STEP 2: Discuss your ideas with your supervisor.

STEP 3: Record your supervisor’s comments on the form.

STEP 4: Modify your ideas and record your changes.

Lesson 4 Writing the CANDIDATE PROPOSAL 3/5

CONSTRUCTING PART A: CANDIDATE PROPOSAL

Book page 21

PART A: CANDIDATE PROPOSAL (page 6 of the EPQ candidate record).

Beforehand: arrange an interim meeting with supervisor.

PART B: SUPERVISOR’S COMMENTS ON CANDIDATE PROPOSAL filled in by supervisor (page 7).

PART C: CENTRE COORDINATOR’S APPROVAL OF CANDIDATE PROPOSAL filled in by centre coordinator (page 8).

See next slide for copies of forms.

Harriet did an EPQ on the Olympics.

Lesson 4 Writing the CANDIDATE PROPOSAL 4/5 Book page 21

THE ROLE OF YOUR SUPERVISOR

DO set ground rules.

DO take responsibility.

DO use the support effectively.

DON’T go it alone.

DON’T let your supervisor be too directive.

DON’T be disorganised.

YOU arrange the meetings.

Make checklist of what has to be done with supervisor.

Record supervisor’s comments.

Book pages 22_23

See exercise 1.6

Your supervisor.

Don't be a puppet.

Introducing the PRODUCTION LOG and the reviewing process

Lesson 5 Introducing the PRODUCTION LOG and the reviewing process

THE PRODUCTION LOG

The EPQ is not about the PRODUCT – it’s about the PRODUCTION LOG.

The documents in the PRODUCTION LOG demonstrate your EPQ journey:

• RECORD OF INITIAL IDEAS.

• PARTS A, B, C: CANDIDATE PROPOSAL.

• PLANNING REVIEW .

• MID-PROJECT REVIEW .

(Described on next slide.)

• PROJECT PRODUCT REVIEW .

• PRESENTATION RECORD.

• SUMMARY AND REFLECTION.

1/2 Book page 26

THE REVIEW DOCUMENTS

PLANNING REVIEW

• Next steps in planning.

• Supervisor’s advice.

• Modifications made.

2/2 Book pages 27–29

MID-PROJECT REVIEW

• How your project has developed.

PROJECT PRODUCT REVIEW

Final title.

Next steps.

• Was revised plan followed?

Plan your time and objectives

Lesson 6 Plan your time and objectives

TIME MANAGEMENT

Threats to effective time management:

• Lack of objectives.

• Lack of clarity about the task.

• Disorganisation.

• Unforeseen crises or commitments.

• Perfectionism.

• Performance-debilitating circumstances.

• Procrastination.

1/4 Book page 30

See exercise 2.1

(continued)

Effective time management includes:

• Having clear objectives.

• A good plan.

• Classify tasks.

• Use a timetable.

• Don’t be distracted.

• Focus on one thing.

• Review each activity before you leave it.

• Reward yourself.

Reward yourself.

2/4 Book page 31

See exercise 2.2

SETTING YOUR AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

• S specific

• M measurable

• A achievable

• R realistic

• T timed

• A agreed

3/4 Book pages 32–33

See exercise 2.3

Lesson 6 Plan your time and objectives 4/4

MAKING A GENERAL PLAN

It is more difficult making a plan for 90 hours of work than for short deadlines.

Exemplar 1: Part of Rosie's plan.

Exemplar 2: Part of Jack's plan.

• List all the tasks.

• ‘Slack’ time built in.

• ‘Achieved’ column.

Book pages 34–35

• Lists all the sections.

• Tasks within the section.

Communicating changes

Lesson 7 Communicating changes

WHERE THESE ARE COMMUNICATED

AQA forms revisited , to see how changes were communicated:

RECORD OF INITIAL IDEAS

1/1 Book pages 36–37

See exercise 2.4

Additional management tools

Lesson 8 Additional management tools

PRODUCTION OF TIMELINES AND DIARY OF

Part of Megan's planning.

• These are optional extras.

• Excellent evidence of management.

Do not make the mistake of thinking that ‘the more I write, the better Grade I will get’.

• Initial production timetable.

• Secondary production timetable.

• Diary of progress.

• Diary of issues.

• Final production timetable.

Book pages 38–39

GANTT CHART

Shows the timing of each task .

• Column 1: A list of activities.

• Row 1: A suitable time scale.

• A bar represents each activity.

• Length of bar represents start, duration and end date.

2/3 Book pages 40–41

See exercise 2.5

Gantt, an American engineer.

Identifies the critical path for a project.

• PERT chart shows the relationship between the activities of your project.

• Looks at the time needed to complete each task.

• Shows the sequences in which the tasks will take place.

3/3 Book pages 42–43

See exercise 2.6

GANTT chart for same kind of project building a shed.

Dealing with data

Lesson 9 Dealing with data

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY DATA

Primary data

• Data collected first hand from your own research.

• No requirement to use primary data in your study.

Secondary data

• Data collected by someone else.

• Your literature review collects secondary data.

1/2 Book page 46

QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DATA

Quantitative data

• How much, i.e. quantity.

• Summarised using measures of central tendency and dispersion and graphs.

Qualitative data

• Non-numerical, e.g. words or pictures.

• Analysed thematically.

• Can count the number of times a word is used, becomes quantitative.

2/2 Book page 47

See exercise 3.1

A picture can be described quantitatively or qualitatively.

Lessons 10 & 11

Collecting primary data.

Lessons 10 & 11 Collecting primary data

IDENTIFYING ETHICAL ISSUES

A conflict between what a researcher wants and the rights of the participant.

• Informed consent.

• Deception.

• Right to withdraw.

• Protection of participants.

• Anonymity and confidentiality.

• Privacy.

1/7 Book pages 48–49

See exercise 3.2

DEALING WITH ETHICAL ISSUES

Before study: Gaining informed consent

• Rationale.

• Why participants selected.

• What they are required to do.

• How data stored.

After study: Debriefing

• Title of study.

• Thank you.

• Purpose of study, how findings used.

• Rationale for any deception.

• Confirm anonymity.

• Right to withdraw data.

• Enquire about any possible distress.

• Your contact details.

2/7 Book pages 50–51

See exercise 3.3

Selecting a sample

• Define target population.

• Either use whole target population or aim to select a representative sample.

Probability sampling

• Random.

• Systematic.

• Stratified.

Non-probability sampling

Convenience.

Self-selected/volunteer.

• Snowball.

3/7 Book pages 52–53

See exercise 3.4

SELF-REPORT TECHNIQUES

Questionnaire = fixed set of written questions.

Interview = interviewer can adapt questions.

Step 1 Developing good questions .

• Clarity (e.g. jargon, double-barrelled, double negative).

• Bias (leading questions).

• Analysis (closed versus open questions).

Step 2 Design a good questionnaire.

• Order of questions.

• Variety.

• Response set.

• Filler questions.

• Distribution.

4/7 Book pages 54–55

See exercise 3.5

Step 3 Pilot study.

• Stage 1:

• Select small representative sample.

• Test instructions, questions, equipment.

• Stage 2: Make changes.

Step 4 Considering reliability and validity.

• Internal reliability – split half.

• External reliability – test-retest.

• Internal validity – leading questions, social desirability bias.

• External validity – population validity.

Step 5 Select sample.

5/7 Book pages 56–57

See exercise 3.6

OBSERVATIONAL TECHNIQUES

Recording data , behavioural categories should:

• Be clearly organised.

• Cover all possible components.

• Be mutually exclusive.

Sampling procedures

• Event sampling.

• Time sampling.

Other things about observations

• Naturalistic and controlled.

• Overt and covert.

• Participant and non-participant.

Looks like P3, see coding system in textbook.

Book pages 58–59

See exercise 3.7

Considering reliability and validity.

Content analysis.

Advantages and disadvantages of observations.

OTHER RESEARCH METHODS

Not sure I can take any more!

• Experiments :

• IV and DV.

• Observation or self-report to measure DV.

• Lab, field or natural/quasi.

• Extraneous/confounding variables.

• Ecological validity.

• Correlations.

• Investigations.

• Case studies.

Where to begin

• Aims.

• Hypothesis.

• Operationalisation.

What happens at the end

• Descriptive statistics.

• Inferential statistics.

7/7 Book pages 60–61

See exercise 3.8

Lessons 12 & 13

Full literature review.

Lessons 12 & 13 Full literature review

SECONDARY SOURCES

1. Wikipedia .

2. The Internet.

• Cross check.

• Be selective.

• Peer-reviewed.

• Search engines.

• Record details (see table).

3. Other credible sources:

• A-level textbooks.

• Books.

• Academic Journals.

• Newspaper articles.

• TV programmes.

1/2 Book pages 62–63

See exercise 3.9

Lessons 12 & 13 Full literature review 2/2

SECONDARY DATA USING DIFFERENT SOURCES

Synthesising sources: A literature review.

• Like a funnel.

• Narrow to specific area.

• Group items together.

• Lead logically to aims.

What the literature review should NOT be.

• A descriptive list.

• Feelings.

• Everything.

• Irrelevant material, e.g. life story.

Example of a bad literature review and improved version.

Book pages 64–65

See exercise 3.10

Being analytical

Lesson 14 Being analytical

METHODS OF ANALYSIS

Analysis = examine in detail but not descriptively – evaluate .

Analysis method 1 : Considering conflicting arguments.

• Example project: Jenny’s EPQ on Yellowstone

Analysis method 2 : Considering the value of sources used.

• Source.

• Author’s background.

• Date published, are the findings still relevant?

• Depths of reviews.

• Sources cited.

• Objectivity.

• Justification for reliability.

1/1 Book pages 66–67

See exercise 3.11

See exercise 3.12

Understanding peer review

Lesson 15 Understanding peer review

USING PEER REVIEWED JOURNALS

Peer review

• Academic journals.

• The Internet.

How to use peer review when evaluating sources.

1/2 Book page 68

See exercise 3.13

EVALUATING PEER REVIEW

The strengths of peer review

• High quality research.

• Controls amount of information.

• Determines ownership of intellectual property.

• Guards against plagiarism.

• Guards against fraud.

The limitations of peer review

• Finding an expert.

• Anonymity versus open reviewing.

• Preserves the status quo.

2/2 Book page 69

See exercise 3.14

Avoiding plagiarism

Lesson 16 Avoiding plagiarism

AVOIDING PLAGIARISM

1/2 Book pages 70–71

Plagiarism = publication of someone else’s words, thoughts, ideas without permission or credit.

• Make it your own.

• Rewrite don’t cut and paste.

• Paraphrasing and summarising.

See exercise 3.15

Using quotes

• Credit the sources.

• Credit ideas as well as words.

• What about general knowledge?

• How much should I quote?

• Using long quotations.

• Can I cut and paste a diagram from the Internet?

• How much is too much?

Examples of how to quote.

Words to use.

Other issues:

• More than one author.

• Introducing a long quotation.

• If you need to alter a quotation.

• If you remove some text from a quotation.

2/2 Book pages 72–73

Preparing MID-PROJECT REVIEW

Lesson 17 Preparing MID-PROJECT REVIEW

THE MID-PROJECT REVIEW

Record your outline plan about halfway through your work.

Page 10 of the EPQ candidate record.

Good practice – see Kim’s project (page 28) and James’ project (page 37)

• Changes to plan justified.

• Good summary of advice from supervisor.

• Show how and whether you will act on advice from supervisor.

• Detailed planned next steps.

• Title clear and analytical.

Bad practice – see Robert’s project (page 29)

New approval from Centre Co-ordinator may be required if approval was subject to recommendations.

1/1 Book pages 28–29, 37

Beginning the report

Lesson 18 Beginning the report

WHERE DO I BEGIN?

Overcoming the blank page syndrome , for example:

• Think out loud.

• Write the ending first.

• Change location.

• What else?

Set achievable objectives

• Set a timer for three minutes and see how much you can write.

• Try just writing five sentences.

• Each day set ACHIEVABLE GOALS.

1/1 Book pages 74–75

Marking exercise

Lesson 19 Marking exercise

EXEMPLARS I, II AND III

AQA marking criteria.

How you will be assessed:

• AO1 Manage (10 marks)

• AO2 Use resources (10 marks)

• AO3 Develop and realise (20 marks)

• AO4 Review (10 marks)

Mark the exemplars on pages 108–121.

Use the AQA markscheme: see pages 9–12 of filestore.aqa.org.uk/subjects/AQA-W-7993-SP-15.PDF

1/1 Book pages 108–121

Writing well

Lesson 20 Writing well

WRITING FLUENTLY AND CRITICALLY

• Clear line of argument.

• Well-structured paragraphs.

• Points are based on evidence.

• Both descriptive and critical analysis.

• Avoid personal opinion.

• Use precise language.

• Avoid abbreviations and contradictions.

• Use of quotations.

Making your point – writing a POWERFUL paragraph:

• Identify the point.

• Justify the point.

• Elaborate upon it.

• Further elaboration.

• Conclusion.

1/2 Book pages 76–77

See exercise 4.2

USEFUL PHRASES

• This suggests that …

• This would imply …

• So we can see …

• One consequence would be …

• One advantage of this is …

• An alternative explanation …

• Therefore …

• This is challenged by …

• In comparison …

• In contrast …

• However …

One consequence would be ...

2/2 Book page 77

See exercise 4.3

Writing an abstract

Lesson 21 Writing an abstract

A PLANNER FOR YOUR ABSTRACT

Abstract = A succinct summary of a piece of research.

• No subheadings.

• First or last?

• Aim and/or hypothesis.

• Relevant background literature.

• Method.

• Findings.

• Conclusion (relate to background research).

• Implications (relate to findings).

Word count 150–250 words.

1/2 Book pages 78–79

See exercise 4.4

See exercise 4.5

Writing the introduction

Lesson 22 Writing the introduction

AN OVERVIEW

• A starting point.

• A topic sentence.

• An attention-grabbing statement.

• A brief outline.

• Establish your research territory.

• Establish a niche.

• Background.

• Scope of the work.

Word count up to 4000 words.

1/2 Book pages 80–81

See exercise 4.6

A LITERATURE REVIEW

• Relate directly to your topic.

• Identify an area of controversy.

• Present a summary of what we already know.

• Provide a clear statement of the research questions/problems which you will be addressing.

• Narrow down to the aims/hypotheses.

• What order?

• Chronological.

• Thematic.

Book pages 80–81

Writing the method

(primary data and artefact only)

Lesson 23 Writing the method

STRUCTURE FOR THE METHOD SECTION OF

2. Participants.

3. Materials /apparatus.

4. Date(s) and location.

5. Ethical consideration.

6. Procedure.

Word count 500–600 words.

Book pages 82–83

See exercise 4.7

Writing your report is like writing a recipe for a cake.

Writing the findings

(primary data only)

Lesson 24 Writing the findings

STRUCTURE FOR THE RESULTS SECTION OF

1. Descriptive statistics.

2. Summarise.

• Quantitative data: tables and graphs.

• Qualitative data.

3. Inferential statistics where appropriate.

4. Presenting tables and figures.

Book pages 84–85

See exercise 4.8

Writing the discussion

Lesson 25 Writing the discussion 1/1 Book pages 86–87

STRUCTURE FOR THE DISCUSSION SECTION

OF THE REPORT

The purpose of the discussion is to consider previously mentioned research in relation to your own research. Therefore it is not expected that you will introduce new research here.

See exercise 4.9

1. Explain the findings in relation to the hypothesis.

2. Explain the findings in relation to previous research.

3. Strengths and limitations of your project.

4. Implications.

Writing a CONCLUSION

Lesson 26 Writing a CONCLUSION

WHAT IS A TAKE-HOME MESSAGE?

1/1 Book pages 88–89

Think about what you want people to remember.

First write in BLUNT terms  explain so it RESONATES.

Don’ts, e.g.:

• End with a lengthy quotation.

• Say ‘in conclusion’.

• Introduce a new idea.

• In fact …

• For these reasons … etc

Word count about 300 words.

Generic structure

Brief recap.

Reference to larger issue.

Highlight key aspects.

Evaluate main arguments.

Take home message

See exercise 4.10

Editing and referencing the draft EPQ

Lesson 27 Editing and referencing the draft EPQ 1/3

FORMATS FOR REFERENCING

Book reference

Offer, D., Ostrov, E. and Howard, K. (1981). The Adolescent – a psychological self-portrait . New

York: Basic Books.

Papers/articles

Milner, D. (1970). Ethnic Identity and preference in minority-group children. In: H. Tajfel, (1981)

Human groups and social categories . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.329–356.

Journal articles

MacKay, G. (2002). The disappearance of disability? Thoughts on a changing culture. British

Journal of Special Education , 29 (4), 159–163.

Internet pages

Jackson, R. (2004). Inclusion: A flawed Vision . GSSPL [online]. Available at: www.gssp1.org.uk/html/inclusion_aflawed-vision [Accessed January 2014].

Other types

Personal communication.

Book pages 90–91

See exercise 4.11

Lesson 27 Editing and referencing the draft EPQ

ENDNOTES AND FOOTNOTES

A sequential number is placed in the text where you would normally put (Milner 1970).

• Endnotes – end of chapter.

• Footnotes – at bottom of the page.

• Word processors will do it for you.

Exemplar using footnotes

2/3 Book page 90

EDITING THE DRAFT EPQ

Checklist – am I done?

This is not a list to just tick things off.

3/3 Book pages 92–93

You have finished the report!

Preparing the PROJECT PRODUCT REVIEW

Lesson 28 Preparing the PROJECT PRODUCT REVIEW

GOOD AND BAD PRACTICE

Page 11 of the EPQ candidate record.

Examples of good practice

Kim’s project (page 28), and Wesley’s project (page 37).

Example of bad practice

Robert’s project (page 29).

Preparing the PRESENTATION

Lesson 29 Preparing the PRESENTATION

DIFFERENT TYPES OF VISUAL AIDS

To non-specialist audience.

Demonstrates AO1 (planning), AO2 (use of resources), AO3 (develop and realise).

• Microsoft PowerPoint.

• Video, DVD, YouTube.

• Interactive white board.

• Non-interactive board.

• Paper handouts.

• Flip chart.

• Artefact or props.

• Market place display.

• A poster presentation.

1/4 Book pages 96–97

See exercise 5.1

PRESENTATION SKILLS

Preparation beforehand

• Know your material.

• Use notes to support the style of your presentation.

• Rehearse.

• It’s no laughing matter.

2/4 Book pages 98–99

• Where to start.

• The glass is always half full.

• Be polite and assertive.

• Pump up the volume?

• Pace yourself.

• Mind your language.

• Don’t forget to breathe.

• Connect with your audience!

See exercise 5.2

QUESTIONS AND CHECKLIST

Dealing with questions asked.

• You are assessed on responses to questions from the audience.

• Anticipate the questions and prepare.

Checklist and then …

• Fill in PRESENTATION RECORD PART A (Page 12 of the EPQ candidate record).

• An exemplar is on page 101.

3/4 Book pages 100–101

See exercise 5.3

ASSESSING THE PRESENTATION

You can include a presentation feedback form in your PRESENTATION RECORD PART B for the moderator.

• Audibility.

• Pace.

• Fluency.

• Tone and energy.

• Eye contact.

• Body language and posture.

• Appropriateness to the audience.

• Structure and cohesion.

• Use of visual aids.

• Verbal content.

• Response to questions.

PRESENTATION RECORD PART B – filled in by your supervisor.

4/4 Book pages 102–103

See exercise 5.4

Writing the SUMMARY and REFLECTION

Lesson 30 Writing the SUMMARY and REFLECTION

THE SUMMARY

1. Brief recap of what you have covered in relation to the essay title.

2. Reference to the larger issue.

3. Highlight the important aspects.

4. Evaluate the main arguments.

5. The take-home message.

1/3 Book pages 104–105

See exercise 5.5

WRITING A REFLECTION

1. What have you have learned from completing your project?

2. What new knowledge or expertise have you found valuable?

3. What are the strengths and weaknesses of your project?

4. What skills have you improved?

5. What changes would you make if you undertook the work again?

6. What advice would you give to others undertaking such a project?

Fill in SUMMARY AND REFLECTION after the presentation.

Page 14 of the EPQ candidate record.

2/3 Book pages 106–107

See exercise 5.6

Lesson 30 Writing the SUMMARY and REFLECTION 3/3

CONGRATULATIONS –

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How To Structure Your Literature Review

3 options to help structure your chapter.

By: Amy Rommelspacher (PhD) | Reviewer: Dr Eunice Rautenbach | November 2020 (Updated May 2023)

Writing the literature review chapter can seem pretty daunting when you’re piecing together your dissertation or thesis. As  we’ve discussed before , a good literature review needs to achieve a few very important objectives – it should:

• Demonstrate your knowledge of the research topic
• Identify the gaps in the literature and show how your research links to these
• Provide the foundation for your conceptual framework (if you have one)
• Inform your own  methodology and research design

To achieve this, your literature review needs a well-thought-out structure . Get the structure of your literature review chapter wrong and you’ll struggle to achieve these objectives. Don’t worry though – in this post, we’ll look at how to structure your literature review for maximum impact (and marks!).

But wait – is this the right time?

Deciding on the structure of your literature review should come towards the end of the literature review process – after you have collected and digested the literature, but before you start writing the chapter. 

In other words, you need to first develop a rich understanding of the literature before you even attempt to map out a structure. There’s no use trying to develop a structure before you’ve fully wrapped your head around the existing research.

Equally importantly, you need to have a structure in place before you start writing , or your literature review will most likely end up a rambling, disjointed mess. 

Importantly, don’t feel that once you’ve defined a structure you can’t iterate on it. It’s perfectly natural to adjust as you engage in the writing process. As we’ve discussed before , writing is a way of developing your thinking, so it’s quite common for your thinking to change – and therefore, for your chapter structure to change – as you write. 

Need a helping hand?

Like any other chapter in your thesis or dissertation, your literature review needs to have a clear, logical structure. At a minimum, it should have three essential components – an  introduction , a  body   and a  conclusion . 

Let’s take a closer look at each of these.

1: The Introduction Section

Just like any good introduction, the introduction section of your literature review should introduce the purpose and layout (organisation) of the chapter. In other words, your introduction needs to give the reader a taste of what’s to come, and how you’re going to lay that out. Essentially, you should provide the reader with a high-level roadmap of your chapter to give them a taste of the journey that lies ahead.

Here’s an example of the layout visualised in a literature review introduction:

Your introduction should also outline your topic (including any tricky terminology or jargon) and provide an explanation of the scope of your literature review – in other words, what you  will   and  won’t   be covering (the delimitations ). This helps ringfence your review and achieve a clear focus . The clearer and narrower your focus, the deeper you can dive into the topic (which is typically where the magic lies). 

Depending on the nature of your project, you could also present your stance or point of view at this stage. In other words, after grappling with the literature you’ll have an opinion about what the trends and concerns are in the field as well as what’s lacking. The introduction section can then present these ideas so that it is clear to examiners that you’re aware of how your research connects with existing knowledge .

2: The Body Section

The body of your literature review is the centre of your work. This is where you’ll present, analyse, evaluate and synthesise the existing research. In other words, this is where you’re going to earn (or lose) the most marks. Therefore, it’s important to carefully think about how you will organise your discussion to present it in a clear way. 

The body of your literature review should do just as the description of this chapter suggests. It should “review” the literature – in other words, identify, analyse, and synthesise it. So, when thinking about structuring your literature review, you need to think about which structural approach will provide the best “review” for your specific type of research and objectives (we’ll get to this shortly).

There are (broadly speaking)  three options  for organising your literature review.

Option 1: Chronological (according to date)

Organising the literature chronologically is one of the simplest ways to structure your literature review. You start with what was published first and work your way through the literature until you reach the work published most recently. Pretty straightforward.

The benefit of this option is that it makes it easy to discuss the developments and debates in the field as they emerged over time. Organising your literature chronologically also allows you to highlight how specific articles or pieces of work might have changed the course of the field – in other words, which research has had the most impact . Therefore, this approach is very useful when your research is aimed at understanding how the topic has unfolded over time and is often used by scholars in the field of history. That said, this approach can be utilised by anyone that wants to explore change over time .

For example , if a student of politics is investigating how the understanding of democracy has evolved over time, they could use the chronological approach to provide a narrative that demonstrates how this understanding has changed through the ages.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to help you structure your literature review chronologically.

• What is the earliest literature published relating to this topic?
• How has the field changed over time? Why?
• What are the most recent discoveries/theories?

In some ways, chronology plays a part whichever way you decide to structure your literature review, because you will always, to a certain extent, be analysing how the literature has developed. However, with the chronological approach, the emphasis is very firmly on how the discussion has evolved over time , as opposed to how all the literature links together (which we’ll discuss next ).

Option 2: Thematic (grouped by theme)

The thematic approach to structuring a literature review means organising your literature by theme or category – for example, by independent variables (i.e. factors that have an impact on a specific outcome).

As you’ve been collecting and synthesising literature , you’ll likely have started seeing some themes or patterns emerging. You can then use these themes or patterns as a structure for your body discussion. The thematic approach is the most common approach and is useful for structuring literature reviews in most fields.

For example, if you were researching which factors contributed towards people trusting an organisation, you might find themes such as consumers’ perceptions of an organisation’s competence, benevolence and integrity. Structuring your literature review thematically would mean structuring your literature review’s body section to discuss each of these themes, one section at a time.

Here are some questions to ask yourself when structuring your literature review by themes:

• Are there any patterns that have come to light in the literature?
• What are the central themes and categories used by the researchers?
• Do I have enough evidence of these themes?

PS – you can see an example of a thematically structured literature review in our literature review sample walkthrough video here.

Option 3: Methodological

The methodological option is a way of structuring your literature review by the research methodologies used . In other words, organising your discussion based on the angle from which each piece of research was approached – for example, qualitative , quantitative or mixed  methodologies.

Structuring your literature review by methodology can be useful if you are drawing research from a variety of disciplines and are critiquing different methodologies. The point of this approach is to question  how  existing research has been conducted, as opposed to  what  the conclusions and/or findings the research were.

For example, a sociologist might centre their research around critiquing specific fieldwork practices. Their literature review will then be a summary of the fieldwork methodologies used by different studies.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself when structuring your literature review according to methodology:

• Which methodologies have been utilised in this field?
• Which methodology is the most popular (and why)?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the various methodologies?
• How can the existing methodologies inform my own methodology?

3: The Conclusion Section

Once you’ve completed the body section of your literature review using one of the structural approaches we discussed above, you’ll need to “wrap up” your literature review and pull all the pieces together to set the direction for the rest of your dissertation or thesis.

The conclusion is where you’ll present the key findings of your literature review. In this section, you should emphasise the research that is especially important to your research questions and highlight the gaps that exist in the literature. Based on this, you need to make it clear what you will add to the literature – in other words, justify your own research by showing how it will help fill one or more of the gaps you just identified.

Last but not least, if it’s your intention to develop a conceptual framework for your dissertation or thesis, the conclusion section is a good place to present this.

Example: Thematically Structured Review

In the video below, we unpack a literature review chapter so that you can see an example of a thematically structure review in practice.

Let’s Recap

In this article, we’ve  discussed how to structure your literature review for maximum impact. Here’s a quick recap of what  you need to keep in mind when deciding on your literature review structure:

• Just like other chapters, your literature review needs a clear introduction , body and conclusion .
• The introduction section should provide an overview of what you will discuss in your literature review.
• The body section of your literature review can be organised by chronology , theme or methodology . The right structural approach depends on what you’re trying to achieve with your research.
• The conclusion section should draw together the key findings of your literature review and link them to your research questions.

If you’re ready to get started, be sure to download our free literature review template to fast-track your chapter outline.

Psst… there’s more!

This post is an extract from our bestselling short course, Literature Review Bootcamp . If you want to work smart, you don't want to miss this .

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27 Comments

Great work. This is exactly what I was looking for and helps a lot together with your previous post on literature review. One last thing is missing: a link to a great literature chapter of an journal article (maybe with comments of the different sections in this review chapter). Do you know any great literature review chapters?

I agree with you Marin… A great piece

I agree with Marin. This would be quite helpful if you annotate a nicely structured literature from previously published research articles.

Awesome article for my research.

I thank you immensely for this wonderful guide

It is indeed thought and supportive work for the futurist researcher and students

Very educative and good time to get guide. Thank you

Great work, very insightful. Thank you.

Thanks for this wonderful presentation. My question is that do I put all the variables into a single conceptual framework or each hypothesis will have it own conceptual framework?

Thank you very much, very helpful

This is very educative and precise . Thank you very much for dropping this kind of write up .

Pheeww, so damn helpful, thank you for this informative piece.

I’m doing a research project topic ; stool analysis for parasitic worm (enteric) worm, how do I structure it, thanks.

comprehensive explanation. Help us by pasting the URL of some good “literature review” for better understanding.

great piece. thanks for the awesome explanation. it is really worth sharing. I have a little question, if anyone can help me out, which of the options in the body of literature can be best fit if you are writing an architectural thesis that deals with design?

I am doing a research on nanofluids how can l structure it?

Beautifully clear.nThank you!

Lucid! Thankyou!

Brilliant work, well understood, many thanks

I like how this was so clear with simple language 😊😊 thank you so much 😊 for these information 😊

Insightful. I was struggling to come up with a sensible literature review but this has been really helpful. Thank you!

You have given thought-provoking information about the review of the literature.

Thank you. It has made my own research better and to impart your work to students I teach

I learnt a lot from this teaching. It’s a great piece.

I am doing research on EFL teacher motivation for his/her job. How Can I structure it? Is there any detailed template, additional to this?

You are so cool! I do not think I’ve read through something like this before. So nice to find somebody with some genuine thoughts on this issue. Seriously.. thank you for starting this up. This site is one thing that is required on the internet, someone with a little originality!

I’m asked to do conceptual, theoretical and empirical literature, and i just don’t know how to structure it

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• A Complete Guide to the EPQ | Oxford Royale Summer Schools

The time for you to apply to university is fast approaching, and you may be starting to think about how you’re going to make your university application that little bit more eye-catching. If you have the prospect of a long summer stretching before you and you have no other plans, why not use the summer months to give yourself the best chance of a successful university application? In this article, we introduce you to one way of doing this: the Extended Project Qualification, or EPQ. You may not have heard of it, but we’re going to show you that there are lots of reasons why it’s worth considering.

What is the EPQ?

The Extended Project Qualification, or EPQ, is offered by many schools, and it’s a standalone qualification that’s a bit like a mini-thesis. You’re allowed to choose whatever topic you like – it doesn’t even have to be related to your A-levels – so it’s about as flexible as you can get. It’s unlikely to be included in your university offer, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a respected qualification; it’s certainly no General Studies. Most people start their EPQ over the summer between AS and A2 levels.

What do you have to do to get an EPQ?

You’ll need to register for the EPQ through your school, assuming they offer it. Once you’ve chosen your topic (more on that later), your task is to conduct detailed academic research into that topic. You then have two options: 1. You write a 5,000 word report. 2. You create a ‘production’ or ‘artefact’ and write a 1,000 word report.

Why bother with the EPQ?

So why bother with it, when you already have A-levels to worry about? Well, at a time when it’s increasingly difficult to make your university application stand out, what’s needed is a qualification that highlights the academic skills that admissions tutors are looking for. The EPQ is just such a means of proving that you have talent in the very same areas needed to succeed at university. It’s an academic exercise that has direct relevance to the way in which you’re likely to study once you get to university, as it involves conducting research, just as you would for a university thesis. It’s also a great talking point on your personal statement and in university interviews, demonstrating your enthusiasm for the subject and giving you the chance to show off your knowledge of a particular area of the discipline. As well as the obvious research skills the EPQ helps you develop and demonstrate, it has many additional benefits, as it confers on you a range of other useful skills and demonstrates your suitability for undergraduate study in numerous ways. These advantages include:

• It helps you develop the ability to conduct your own, self-directed programme of study. You’ll be planning your own work, and nobody is going to be there to tell you what to do (though you’ll have a supervisor who’ll be able to give you rough pointers).
• It shows you to be self-motivated, as you’ll need to have the discipline to see your project to fruition – even though it’s the summer and you’ll have plenty of distractions.
• It demonstrates that you have the initiative to pursue your own academic interests. Admissions tutors will love this, because that’s exactly the initiative you’ll need at university.
• It develops your knowledge of your subject beyond the A-level syllabus. This gives you a deeper understanding of the subject and places you at an advantage over those who’ve merely done the A-level.
• It teaches you how to make use of different research materials, not just A-level textbooks. You’ll learn how to use a library for research, and get used to the idea of writing footnotes and bibliographies, which you’ll have to do at university.

What’s more, it doesn’t just help you with applying to university; it’s a satisfying thing to do for your own sake, simply because it allows you to explore a subject you find interesting, in depth. Leaving aside the fact that you’ll come out with an extra qualification, it’s learning for learning’s sake, and you can revel in the fact that you can devote your time to studying something you genuinely find interesting. This will probably make a refreshing change from the classroom, in which there will inevitably be subjects forced upon you that you’d rather not bother with.

What kind of things can I study for my EPQ?

The beauty of the EPQ is that you decide what you study. Of course, in view of the fact that you’re applying to university, it would make sense to select a topic that ties in with the subject you’re planning to study at university (hopefully you’ve decided this by now!). Below you’ll find some guidance on how to choose what to study and whether to choose the longer thesis or the ‘production’ option.

Choosing your topic for a 5,000 word report

When you can choose pretty much any topic you want, it can be difficult to figure out what to do. It makes sense to choose a subject that’s related to what you’re aiming to study at university, as this is an extra way of demonstrating your enthusiasm for the subject, and the fact that you possess the research skills needed to excel in it. It’s also a good way of keeping your mind active and thinking about your future university subject over the summer, ready to write a brilliant personal statement come the start of the new school year. The topic can’t be too broad, or else you don’t stand a chance of doing the topic justice; for example, there would be far too much to cover if you chose the First World War (as a whole) as your topic. A much narrower research focus is needed, to allow you to explore one aspect of a bigger topic in plenty of depth. For example, in the First World War example, you’d stand a better chance with a very specific aspect of the war, such as the Christmas truce, or the Zeppelin attacks on England, or the role of a specific type of aircraft, such as the Sopwith Camel. To give you another example, let’s say you were aiming to study music at university. Trying to address an entire period of classical music, such as the Baroque period, might be a bit of a tall order in a 5,000 word thesis. Even picking the life and works of a famous Baroque composer, such as Bach, might be quite an undertaking. But you could find a lesser-known Baroque composer to research and write about, about whom less is generally known. Or you could research a particular (unusual/antique) instrument and the works written for it during the Baroque period. You could even look into the different kinds of venues used for musical performances during the Baroque period. Ultimately, you’ll need to come up with a specific research question to give direction to your research. For example, taking the Sopwith Camel example above, your question might be “To what extent did the Sopwith Camel shape the outcome of the First World War?” Your question will need to be approved before you can start work.

Choosing your production or artefact

If the thought of writing a 5,000 word report fills you with dread, your alternative is to choose a production or artefact instead. You’ll still need to produce a written report to accompany it, but it’s much shorter, at 1,000 words. What you can do for this is just as flexible as the longer report option. Here are a few examples:

• A musical performance or recording
• A mobile phone app
• A piece of software
• A short film
• A short story
• A model of something
• A piece of art
• An invention
• A charity event
• A fashion show

Ideally, if you’re applying to university, you would choose something that’s in some way related to your future university course. For instance, if you were going to be studying art, then a piece of art would make sense as your chosen EPQ project. A short story would tie in nicely with English Literature, while a musical performance would demonstrate your capabilities in music if that’s what you’re aiming to study at university. Your future career aims may also lead you more towards this option rather than the 5,000 word report, as you can use your project to build up relevant experience for your CV. For example, if you want to go into the fashion industry, then organising a fashion show is an obvious fit. If your ambition is to work for a charity, organising a charity event will be invaluable experience as well as giving you an extra qualification. The benefits of the EPQ, then, go far beyond simply having an extra piece of paper to add to your collection of certificates.

Conducting the research

This may be your first big piece of academic research, so you may be wondering where on earth to start with such an undertaking. You will have a supervisor who’ll be able to teach you the skills you need and point you in the right direction. Some general tips for conducting effective academic research may come in useful. For example, try to make use of as many different resources as you can when you’re conducting your research, including primary and secondary sources, books in the library, the internet, and so on. As you go along, keep a bibliography and record everything you’ve read, including specific page numbers. Be critical of your own methodologies in collecting data, if that’s what you’re doing, and consider the strengths and weaknesses of your methods. These are things you’ll need to get used to thinking about when you go to university, so the EPQ is an excellent warm-up.

How is the EPQ marked?

You’ll need to get a grade between A* and E in order to be awarded the EPQ – anything lower than an E means you don’t get the qualification, so it’s slightly different from A-levels in that respect. Looking at the AQA Specification, there are a number of ‘assessment objectives’ used to decide your final grade, the weighting of which is divided up as follows:

• Manage – 20%. This covers your ability to come up with a project idea and plan how you’re going to achieve it, using “a range of skills, strategies and methods to achieve objectives.”
• Use Resources – 20%. This covers the research phase and how well you’re able to select, organise and deploy relevant information. It also looks at your ability to analyse data, including your ability to see the connections between things you’ve observed, and your appreciation of the “complexities of the topic”.
• Develop and Realise – 40%. This aspect means how well you’re able to carry out your project and see it to fruition, using a range of appropriate skills and technologies.
• Review – 20%. This means how well you evaluate every aspect of your project, such as whether you’ve achieved your objectives, and how well you’ve performed throughout the project. It also reflects your ability to “Select and use a range of communication skills and media to present evidenced project outcomes and conclusions in an appropriate format.”

The mark scheme makes it sound scarier than it is, as mark schemes always do. But if you’re looking for an interesting project to get your teeth into, you can’t do much better than the EPQ thanks to the excellent preparation it gives you for thinking like an undergraduate. It’s a fair bit of work, but the rewards – both in terms of university preparation and personal enjoyment – make it more than worth the effort.

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• Knowledge Base
• Dissertation
• How to Write a Thesis or Dissertation Conclusion

How to Write a Dissertation Conclusion | Checklist and Examples

Published on 9 September 2022 by Tegan George and Shona McCombes. Revised on 10 October 2022.

The conclusion is the very last part of your thesis or dissertation . It should be concise and engaging, leaving your reader with a clear understanding of your main findings, as well as the answer to your research question .

In it, you should:

• Clearly state the answer to your main research question
• Summarise and reflect on your research process
• Make recommendations for future work on your topic
• Show what new knowledge you have contributed to your field
• Wrap up your thesis or dissertation

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Table of contents

Discussion vs. conclusion, how long should your conclusion be, step 1: answer your research question, step 2: summarise and reflect on your research, step 3: make future recommendations, step 4: emphasise your contributions to your field, step 5: wrap up your thesis or dissertation, full conclusion example, conclusion checklist, frequently asked questions about conclusion sections.

While your conclusion contains similar elements to your discussion section , they are not the same thing.

Your conclusion should be shorter and more general than your discussion. Instead of repeating literature from your literature review , discussing specific research results , or interpreting your data in detail, concentrate on making broad statements that sum up the most important insights of your research.

As a rule of thumb, your conclusion should not introduce new data, interpretations, or arguments.

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Depending on whether you are writing a thesis or dissertation, your length will vary. Generally, a conclusion should make up around 5–7% of your overall word count.

An empirical scientific study will often have a short conclusion, concisely stating the main findings and recommendations for future research. A humanities topic or systematic review , on the other hand, might require more space to conclude its analysis, tying all the previous sections together in an overall argument.

Your conclusion should begin with the main question that your thesis or dissertation aimed to address. This is your final chance to show that you’ve done what you set out to do, so make sure to formulate a clear, concise answer.

• Don’t repeat a list of all the results that you already discussed
• Do synthesise them into a final takeaway that the reader will remember.

An empirical thesis or dissertation conclusion may begin like this:

A case study –based thesis or dissertation conclusion may begin like this:

In the second example, the research aim is not directly restated, but rather added implicitly to the statement. To avoid repeating yourself, it is helpful to reformulate your aims and questions into an overall statement of what you did and how you did it.

Your conclusion is an opportunity to remind your reader why you took the approach you did, what you expected to find, and how well the results matched your expectations.

To avoid repetition , consider writing more reflectively here, rather than just writing a summary of each preceding section. Consider mentioning the effectiveness of your methodology , or perhaps any new questions or unexpected insights that arose in the process.

You can also mention any limitations of your research, but only if you haven’t already included these in the discussion. Don’t dwell on them at length, though – focus on the positives of your work.

• While x limits the generalisability of the results, this approach provides new insight into y .
• This research clearly illustrates x , but it also raises the question of y .

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You may already have made a few recommendations for future research in your discussion section, but the conclusion is a good place to elaborate and look ahead, considering the implications of your findings in both theoretical and practical terms.

• Based on these conclusions, practitioners should consider …
• To better understand the implications of these results, future studies could address …
• Further research is needed to determine the causes of/effects of/relationship between …

When making recommendations for further research, be sure not to undermine your own work. Relatedly, while future studies might confirm, build on, or enrich your conclusions, they shouldn’t be required for your argument to feel complete. Your work should stand alone on its own merits.

Just as you should avoid too much self-criticism, you should also avoid exaggerating the applicability of your research. If you’re making recommendations for policy, business, or other practical implementations, it’s generally best to frame them as ‘shoulds’ rather than ‘musts’. All in all, the purpose of academic research is to inform, explain, and explore – not to demand.

Make sure your reader is left with a strong impression of what your research has contributed to the state of your field.

Some strategies to achieve this include:

• Returning to your problem statement to explain how your research helps solve the problem
• Referring back to the literature review and showing how you have addressed a gap in knowledge
• Discussing how your findings confirm or challenge an existing theory or assumption

Again, avoid simply repeating what you’ve already covered in the discussion in your conclusion. Instead, pick out the most important points and sum them up succinctly, situating your project in a broader context.

The end is near! Once you’ve finished writing your conclusion, it’s time to wrap up your thesis or dissertation with a few final steps:

• It’s a good idea to write your abstract next, while the research is still fresh in your mind.
• Next, make sure your reference list is complete and correctly formatted. To speed up the process, you can use our free APA citation generator .
• Once you’ve added any appendices , you can create a table of contents and title page .
• Finally, read through the whole document again to make sure your thesis is clearly written and free from language errors. You can proofread it yourself , ask a friend, or consider Scribbr’s proofreading and editing service .

Here is an example of how you can write your conclusion section. Notice how it includes everything mentioned above:

V. Conclusion

The current research aimed to identify acoustic speech characteristics which mark the beginning of an exacerbation in COPD patients.

The central questions for this research were as follows: 1. Which acoustic measures extracted from read speech differ between COPD speakers in stable condition and healthy speakers? 2. In what ways does the speech of COPD patients during an exacerbation differ from speech of COPD patients during stable periods?

All recordings were aligned using a script. Subsequently, they were manually annotated to indicate respiratory actions such as inhaling and exhaling. The recordings of 9 stable COPD patients reading aloud were then compared with the recordings of 5 healthy control subjects reading aloud. The results showed a significant effect of condition on the number of in- and exhalations per syllable, the number of non-linguistic in- and exhalations per syllable, and the ratio of voiced and silence intervals. The number of in- and exhalations per syllable and the number of non-linguistic in- and exhalations per syllable were higher for COPD patients than for healthy controls, which confirmed both hypotheses.

However, the higher ratio of voiced and silence intervals for COPD patients compared to healthy controls was not in line with the hypotheses. This unpredicted result might have been caused by the different reading materials or recording procedures for both groups, or by a difference in reading skills. Moreover, there was a trend regarding the effect of condition on the number of syllables per breath group. The number of syllables per breath group was higher for healthy controls than for COPD patients, which was in line with the hypothesis. There was no effect of condition on pitch, intensity, center of gravity, pitch variability, speaking rate, or articulation rate.

This research has shown that the speech of COPD patients in exacerbation differs from the speech of COPD patients in stable condition. This might have potential for the detection of exacerbations. However, sustained vowels rarely occur in spontaneous speech. Therefore, the last two outcome measures might have greater potential for the detection of beginning exacerbations, but further research on the different outcome measures and their potential for the detection of exacerbations is needed due to the limitations of the current study.

Checklist: Conclusion

I have clearly and concisely answered the main research question .

I have summarized my overall argument or key takeaways.

I have mentioned any important limitations of the research.

I have given relevant recommendations .

I have clearly explained what my research has contributed to my field.

I have  not introduced any new data or arguments.

You've written a great conclusion! Use the other checklists to further improve your dissertation.

In a thesis or dissertation, the discussion is an in-depth exploration of the results, going into detail about the meaning of your findings and citing relevant sources to put them in context.

The conclusion is more shorter and more general: it concisely answers your main research question and makes recommendations based on your overall findings.

While it may be tempting to present new arguments or evidence in your thesis or disseration conclusion , especially if you have a particularly striking argument you’d like to finish your analysis with, you shouldn’t. Theses and dissertations follow a more formal structure than this.

All your findings and arguments should be presented in the body of the text (more specifically in the discussion section and results section .) The conclusion is meant to summarize and reflect on the evidence and arguments you have already presented, not introduce new ones.

For a stronger dissertation conclusion , avoid including:

• Generic concluding phrases (e.g. “In conclusion…”)
• Weak statements that undermine your argument (e.g. “There are good points on both sides of this issue.”)

Your conclusion should leave the reader with a strong, decisive impression of your work.

The conclusion of your thesis or dissertation shouldn’t take up more than 5-7% of your overall word count.

The conclusion of your thesis or dissertation should include the following:

• A restatement of your research question
• A summary of your key arguments and/or results
• A short discussion of the implications of your research

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Chaos to Clarity: Structuring Your Literature Review Format

Master literature review format! Learn key sections, effective citation & analysis tips to write a strong academic review.

Ever wondered how to dive into a mountain of books and articles and come up with something that not just makes sense but shines new light on a topic? What if there was a way to neatly tie together all that information, spot what’s missing, and maybe even pave the way for discoveries? 

That’s what you are going to learn in this article, literature reviews—a place where chaos meets order, and where your insights could set the stage for the next big thing. Let’s break down the literature review format , your essential guide to properly writing a literature review.

Dissecting Literature Review Format 

There are 6 main sections to make a note of while writing a literature review. Those are:

The Introduction Section

Topic background, conceptual framework.

• Synthesis and Evaluation in Literature Reviews
• Conclusion for Your Literature Review
• Reference List in Your Literature Review

Also Read: Essential Components of a Literature Review

The introduction of your literature review is where you set the stage for the entire document. It’s your first opportunity to engage your readers and provide a clear blueprint of what your review will cover and why it matters. This section does more than merely introduce the topic; it establishes the context, defines the scope, and outlines the purpose and objectives of your literature review.

Things to keep in mind while writing an introduction:

• Craft a compelling opening
• Establish the Context and Justification
• Define the Scope and Objectives
• Lay out the Structure
• Give an overview of the Structure

The “Topic Background” section of a literature review serves as the cornerstone for understanding the evolution and current state of the subject matter. It is divided into two crucial sub-sections: Historical Context and Current State of the Topic . 

Delving into these areas provides you with a comprehensive backdrop against which the literature review is framed, enriching the reader’s understanding of why the topic is of interest and what has influenced its development to the current state.

Historical Context

The Historical Context is fundamental in setting the stage for the entire literature review. This section is not just a chronology of events or developments; it’s a curated narrative that highlights the key milestones and turning points that have significantly impacted the topic. 

By examining the historical evolution, the review establishes a timeline of how understanding and perspectives have shifted over the years.

Summary Of Key Historical Developments

This involves identifying and summarizing the major breakthroughs, shifts in thinking, or seminal works that have shaped the topic. It’s important to focus on developments that have a direct relevance to the current understanding and state of the subject. For example, if the topic is about the evolution of renewable energy technologies, this part would outline the initial discovery and use of renewable sources, significant technological innovations, and pivotal policy decisions that have influenced the field.

Relevance Of Historical Context To The Topic

After outlining the key historical developments, it’s crucial to connect these events to the present topic. This means discussing how past events have laid the groundwork for current theories, practices, or debates within the field. It involves analyzing the impact of historical milestones on the subject matter, and explaining how they have contributed to current knowledge, challenges, and research questions. This section makes it clear why understanding history is essential for anyone researching or studying the topic today.

Current State Of The Topic

Moving from the historical context, the review transitions to the present with the Current State of the Topic. This part assesses the latest research, trends, debates, and technological advancements that define the subject area at the moment.

Current Trends Or Updates

Here, the focus shifts to what is happening in the field right now. This could include recent research findings, emerging theories, new methodologies, or the latest technological innovations. The aim is to provide a snapshot of the current research landscape, identifying what themes, questions, or problems are being actively explored. For instance, in the context of digital marketing, this might involve discussing the rise of artificial intelligence in customer relationship management or the impact of social media trends on marketing strategies.

Impact Of These Trends On The Subject Matter

The final step is to assess the implications of these current trends for the topic. This includes considering how recent developments have advanced the field, the challenges they present, and the opportunities they open up for future research. It’s about connecting the dots between what’s happening now and what it means for the subject area moving forward. This not only helps to frame the research questions that the literature review will address but also sets the stage for identifying gaps in the current knowledge, thereby guiding the direction of future studies.

Also Read: What is a literature review? Get the concept and start using it

When doing a literature review, it’s essential to lay a solid foundation for your exploration through a well-defined conceptual framework. This framework acts as a compass, guiding your review’s direction by establishing the key concepts, theories, and perspectives that underpin your topic. 

Definitions And Descriptions

Before diving into the depths of your literature review, it’s crucial to start with the basics. This means clearly identifying and defining the key concepts related to your topic. Think of this as setting the stage for your readers, ensuring they have a clear understanding of the fundamental terms and ideas you will be exploring.

Key Concepts Related To The Topic

Begin by listing the essential concepts central to your review. These are the building blocks of your topic, the terms that will repeatedly appear throughout your exploration. 

Detailed Definitions And Their Relevance

Once you’ve identified these concepts, provide precise and comprehensive definitions for each. Don’t hesitate to explore different dimensions or interpretations of these terms, as this can enrich your readers’ understanding. More importantly, discuss why these concepts are crucial to your review. How do they shape the scope of your exploration? How do they relate to each other and to the broader topic? This step ensures that your readers are not just familiar with the terms but also understand their significance within your review’s context.

Theoretical Perspectives

With the key concepts clearly defined, it’s time to frame your literature review within relevant theoretical perspectives. This is where you align your exploration with existing theories, models, or frameworks that provide insights into your topic.

Important Theories Related To The Topic

Identify the theories that are foundational to your topic. These could range from well-established theories that have long guided research in your field to more contemporary models that offer new insights. For example, a review of organizational behavior might draw on theories of motivation, leadership styles, and organizational culture.

Evaluation Of These Theories And Their Influence On The Topic

After pinpointing the relevant theories, critically assess their contributions to the topic. Consider questions like: How have these theories shaped understanding of the topic? What insights do they offer, and where do they fall short? Are there controversies or debates surrounding these theories? This evaluation not only deepens your review’s analytical depth but also positions your work within the larger academic conversation.

Synthesis And Evaluation In Literature Reviews

The “Synthesis and Evaluation” section is where your literature review truly comes to life. Here, you’re not just summarizing what others have said; you’re weaving together diverse strands of research to present a cohesive picture of the topic at hand.

Comparison And Contrast Of Sources

Synthesizing the literature involves more than listing findings from various studies; it’s about drawing connections between them, highlighting areas of agreement and dispute, and weaving these into a narrative that adds depth and breadth to your understanding of the topic.

Comparative Analysis

Start by grouping your sources based on similarities in their findings, methodologies, or theoretical approaches. This clustering will help you identify trends and common themes across the literature. For example, if several studies have found similar outcomes under comparable conditions, these findings can be grouped to strengthen a particular argument or observation about the topic.

Contrasts Or Conflicts Among Sources

Equally important is the identification of discrepancies in the literature. Do some studies present findings that directly contradict others? Are there differences in how researchers have interpreted similar data? Highlighting these conflicts is crucial, as it can indicate areas where the topic is still evolving or where further research is needed. It also shows your ability to critically engage with the material, a hallmark of scholarly rigor.

Analysis Of Gaps In Literature

One of your primary tasks in the synthesis and evaluation section is to identify what’s missing in the current body of research. This requires a critical eye and a deep understanding of both your topic and the broader field in which it resides.

Identification Of Research Gaps

As you comb through the literature, ask yourself: What questions remain unanswered? Are there underexplored areas or populations? Perhaps certain methodologies have been overlooked, or theoretical perspectives have not been considered. Pinpointing these gaps is not a mere exercise in academic critique; it’s a vital step in advancing knowledge within the field.

Implications Of These Gaps For Future Research

Highlighting gaps in the literature sets the stage for future studies. It’s where you, as the reviewer, can suggest new research directions that could fill these voids or further explore the topic. Discussing the implications of these gaps not only enriches your review but also contributes to the ongoing scholarly conversation. 

Conclusion For Your Literature Review

The conclusion of your literature review is where you bring together all the strands of your argument, synthesizing the insights gained and highlighting the significance of your findings. It’s not just a summary of what has been discussed; it’s an opportunity to underscore the relevance of the review, reflect on the broader implications of your synthesis and evaluation, and suggest directions for future research. 

Summary Of Key Points

Start your conclusion by succinctly summarizing the main points and findings of your review. This isn’t about rehashing every detail but rather about distilling the essence of your exploration. Highlight the critical trends, themes, and conflicts you’ve uncovered, and remind your readers of the significance of these discoveries.

Relevance And Implications Of The Literature For The Topic

Next, focus on the relevance and implications of your findings. This involves stepping back to consider the bigger picture—how does your literature review contribute to the understanding of your topic? Discuss the impact of the trends and gaps you’ve identified on the field, and elaborate on how your synthesis of the literature advances or enriches existing knowledge.

Reflection On The Research Process

Reflecting on the research process itself can provide valuable insights. Consider discussing the challenges you encountered in navigating the literature, such as dealing with conflicting findings or the scarcity of research on certain aspects of your topic. 

Directions For Future Research

One of the most critical aspects of your conclusion is to suggest directions for future research. Be as precise as possible, whether suggesting new methodologies, theoretical frameworks, or specific topics that warrant deeper investigation.

Final Thoughts

End your conclusion with a strong closing statement that reiterates the value of your literature review. Emphasize the importance of continued research on your topic and the potential it holds for advanced understanding within your field. A compelling conclusion reaffirms the significance of your work, leaving your readers with a clear sense of its contribution and the urgent need for further exploration.

Reference List In Your Literature Review

The Reference List is the backbone of your literature review, providing a comprehensive compilation of all the sources you’ve cited throughout your exploration. It’s not merely a formality but a crucial component that lends credibility and rigor to your work.

Importance Of Accuracy And Consistency

The cornerstone of a reliable Reference List is accuracy and consistency in citation style. Whether you’re adhering to APA , MLA , Chicago , or another academic citation format, it’s vital to apply the rules with precision. This includes correctly formatting author names, publication dates, titles, and publication details. 

Organizing Your References

While different citation styles have their own rules for listing references, organizing them in a way that enhances readability and accessibility is universally beneficial. Alphabetical order by the author’s last name is the most common method, as it allows readers to easily locate sources.

Comprehensive Coverage

Your Reference List should be exhaustive, including every work you’ve cited in your review. This extends beyond journal articles and books to encompass reports, conference papers, online resources, and any other materials that have informed your analysis.

The Value Of Annotations

While not always required, providing brief annotations for key sources can add tremendous value to your Reference List. An annotated bibliography offers a succinct summary of each source’s main arguments, methodologies, and findings, as well as its relevance to your literature review.

Digital Accessibility

In today’s digital age, considering the accessibility of your referenced works can greatly enhance the utility of your Reference List. Whenever possible, include Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) or stable URLs for online sources, ensuring readers can directly access the materials. 

Also read: What Is A DOI? Exploring The Purpose And Importance

Reflecting On Ethical Scholarship

Finally, your Reference List is a reflection of ethical scholarship. By accurately citing all the sources that have informed your work, you’re honoring the intellectual property of other researchers and upholding the academic community’s standards of integrity and respect. 

Crafting a meticulous Reference List is an essential aspect of your literature review that underscores the credibility, depth, and ethical foundation of your research. By adhering to the principles of accuracy, comprehensiveness, and accessibility, you not only facilitate further inquiry but also pay homage to the collective endeavor of knowledge advancement in your field.

Related Article: Navigating the AMA Citation Format: Best Tips for Referencing

In conclusion, writing a literature review involves meticulous structuring, beginning with an engaging introduction that sets the stage, followed by a detailed exploration of the topic’s background, including its historical context and current state. 

A robust conceptual framework lays the groundwork for analysis, leading to a critical synthesis and evaluation of relevant literature. 

The conclusion ties together the review’s key findings and implications, while the reference list meticulously catalogs all cited works. Mastering each section ensures a comprehensive and insightful review, essential for advancing academic understanding and contributing to scholarly discussions.

Related Article: Preliminary Literature Review: A Guide for Effective Research

Science Figures, Graphical Abstracts, And Infographics For Your Research

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The Importance of Literature Review in Clinical Research

In the realm of research, a thorough examination of existing knowledge serves as the foundation for informed decision-making and evidence-based practice. By critically analyzing past research and publications, researchers gain valuable insights into the current state of understanding within a specific field. This process not only helps identify gaps in knowledge but also shapes research questions and guides the development of robust methodologies. Furthermore, contextualizing new findings within the broader scientific context ensures that research contributes significantly to the advancement of knowledge and practice. Through uncovering best practices and areas for further exploration, a well-executed review of existing literature enhances the quality and impact of research outcomes. Therefore, recognizing the significance of this foundational step is crucial for individuals involved in research, healthcare, and policy-making, as it empowers them to make informed decisions and drive improvements in their respective fields.

Literature Reviews

Literature reviews are essential components of academic research that provide a comprehensive overview of existing literature on a particular topic. They help researchers identify gaps in knowledge, establish the context for their research, and build a strong theoretical foundation. There are several types of literature reviews, each serving a unique purpose. The three main types of literature reviews are:.

Systematic Literature Review

This type of review involves a structured and comprehensive search of all relevant literature on a specific topic. It follows a strict methodology to minimize bias and ensure the findings are reliable and valid. Systematic literature reviews are common in evidence-based research and meta-analyses. They are characterized by their systematic approach to data collection, analysis, and synthesis, which allows for a rigorous and replicable process. Researchers conducting systematic literature reviews often use predefined criteria to select and evaluate studies, ensuring a high level of objectivity and transparency in the review process. This type of review is particularly valuable in synthesizing large bodies of evidence to answer specific research questions or inform practice and policy decisions.

Theoretical Literature Review

This type of review focuses on developing or refining a theoretical framework for understanding a particular phenomenon. It synthesizes existing theories and concepts to propose new theoretical perspectives or models. Theoretical literature reviews are common in theoretical research and conceptual studies. They play a crucial role in advancing theoretical knowledge in a field by examining and integrating diverse theoretical perspectives, identifying gaps in existing theories, and proposing innovative theoretical frameworks. Researchers conducting theoretical literature reviews often engage in a critical analysis of theoretical concepts, exploring their implications and applications in different contexts. By synthesizing and critiquing existing theories, theoretical literature reviews contribute to the development of new theoretical insights and perspectives.

Analytical Literature Review

This type of review critically evaluates and interprets existing literature to provide insights, identify patterns, or offer new perspectives on a topic. It goes beyond summarizing the literature by analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of different studies and drawing connections between them. Analytical literature reviews are common in research that aims to generate new ideas or hypotheses. They involve a deep and critical examination of existing literature, focusing on the methodological approaches, theoretical frameworks, and empirical findings of individual studies. Researchers conducting analytical literature reviews often engage in a comparative analysis of different studies, identifying common themes, contradictions, or gaps in the literature. By synthesizing and interpreting diverse sources, analytical literature reviews contribute to a deeper understanding of a research topic and stimulate further inquiry and debate.

Overall, the choice of literature review type depends on the research question, objectives, and methodology of the study. Researchers should select the most appropriate type of literature review to ensure their research is rigorous, relevant, and contributes meaningfully to the existing body of knowledge. Each type of literature review offers unique advantages and challenges, requiring researchers to carefully consider their research goals and priorities when selecting a review approach. By understanding the characteristics and purposes of different types of literature reviews, researchers can enhance the quality and impact of their research outputs, advancing knowledge and scholarship in their respective fields.

The Importance of a Thorough Literature Review

A thorough literature review is a cornerstone of academic research, playing a pivotal role in shaping the trajectory and quality of a study. It involves a systematic examination and synthesis of existing literature relevant to the research topic, aiming to identify gaps, inconsistencies, and areas for further exploration. By delving deep into the body of knowledge already available, researchers can not only build upon existing theories and findings but also pave the way for new insights and discoveries. This comprehensive analysis sets the stage for a well-informed and robust research design, ensuring that the study is methodologically sound and theoretically grounded.

Credibility and Validity

Moreover, a thorough literature review is instrumental in establishing the credibility and validity of research findings. By showcasing a strong grasp of the existing literature, researchers can demonstrate their expertise in the field and position their work within the broader scholarly conversation. This not only enhances the rigor and reliability of the research but also instills confidence in readers, reviewers, and stakeholders regarding the significance and impact of the study.

Publication Success

In addition to enriching the research process, a meticulous literature review is indispensable for successful publication in academic journals. Journal editors and reviewers place great emphasis on the quality and rigor of the literature review, as it reflects the researcher’s ability to situate their work within the context of existing scholarship. A well-executed literature review not only strengthens the theoretical framework of the study but also highlights the novelty and relevance of the research, making a compelling case for its publication.

Inspiration for Future Research

Furthermore, a comprehensive literature review can also serve as a source of inspiration and guidance for future research directions. By identifying key themes, debates, and gaps in the literature, researchers can uncover new avenues for exploration and generate research questions that push the boundaries of knowledge. This forward-looking approach not only contributes to the advancement of the field but also positions the researcher as a thought leader driving innovation and progress.

A thorough literature review is not merely a preliminary step in the research process but a fundamental aspect that underpins the entire scholarly endeavor. By investing time and effort in conducting a rigorous literature review, researchers can elevate the quality of their research, enhance their academic impact, and contribute meaningfully to the advancement of knowledge in their respective fields.

Conducting an Effective Literature Review

When embarking on a research project, one of the crucial components is conducting a comprehensive literature review. A well-executed literature review not only demonstrates your understanding of the research area but also provides a solid foundation for your own work. Here are some key points to consider when conducting an effective literature review:.

Systematic Search Process: The first step in conducting a literature review is to develop a systematic search process. This involves identifying relevant databases, keywords, and search strings to ensure that you capture all relevant literature on your topic. Utilizing advanced search techniques such as Boolean operators, truncation, and proximity searching can help refine your search results further. Additionally, leveraging citation tracking and reference chaining can lead you to additional valuable sources that may not have appeared in your initial searches.

Critical Appraisal of Sources: Once you have gathered a pool of potential sources, it is essential to critically appraise each source for its quality, relevance, and reliability. Consider the author’s credentials, publication venue, methodology, and date of publication when evaluating the credibility of a source. Tools like critical appraisal checklists can aid in systematically assessing the strengths and weaknesses of each reference. Furthermore, conducting a risk of bias assessment for studies can enhance the rigor of your literature review.

Structuring the Literature Review: A well-structured literature review is key to presenting your findings in a coherent and organized manner. Consider organizing your review thematically, chronologically, or methodologically, depending on the nature of your research question. Creating a visual map or outline of your literature review can help you visualize the connections between different sources and ensure a logical flow of information. Additionally, integrating tables, figures, or frameworks can enhance the clarity of your review and facilitate comparisons between studies.

Synthesizing the Literature: Beyond summarizing individual sources, synthesizing the information from various studies is crucial in a literature review. Identify common themes, controversies, gaps, or patterns across the literature to provide a comprehensive analysis of the topic. Synthesis can involve thematic analysis, meta-analysis, or theoretical frameworks to offer new insights or propose hypotheses for future research.

By following these key points and approaches, you can conduct an effective literature review that forms a solid foundation for your research project and contributes meaningfully to the existing body of knowledge in your field.

When delving into any research or analysis, one must navigate through a myriad of challenges and considerations to ensure the integrity and validity of the findings. Among the most critical aspects to address are avoiding bias and misinterpretation, as well as guaranteeing reliability and accuracy throughout the process. Bias, whether conscious or unconscious, can significantly impact the outcomes of a study. It is imperative for researchers to remain vigilant and impartial, acknowledging their own predispositions and actively working to mitigate their influence on the analysis. By embracing diverse viewpoints and approaches, researchers can cultivate a more comprehensive understanding of the subject matter. Moreover, transparency in the research methodology is key to fostering trust and credibility among peers and the broader audience. Communicating the limitations and potential biases inherent in the study enhances the robustness of the findings and encourages constructive critique and dialogue. Ensuring the reliability and accuracy of data is a cornerstone of any reputable research endeavor. This involves meticulous data collection, rigorous fact-checking, and cross-referencing information from multiple credible sources. By triangulating data and employing various validation techniques, researchers can fortify the trustworthiness of their conclusions. Additionally, maintaining a detailed record of the research process, including any deviations or unexpected findings, is essential for reproducibility and transparency. Embracing a culture of continuous improvement and learning from past mistakes is fundamental to advancing the quality and impact of research outcomes. By conscientiously addressing the challenges of bias and misinterpretation, and upholding the principles of reliability and accuracy, researchers can elevate the rigor and significance of their work, contributing meaningfully to their respective fields. To further enhance the quality of research, it is essential to consider the ethical implications of the study. Ethical considerations play a vital role in ensuring that research is conducted responsibly and with respect for all individuals involved. Researchers must adhere to ethical guidelines and standards set forth by institutional review boards and regulatory bodies to protect the rights and well-being of participants. Additionally, maintaining confidentiality and privacy of data is paramount to uphold the trust placed in researchers by participants and the broader community. By prioritizing ethical conduct in research practices, researchers can uphold the integrity of their work and contribute to the advancement of knowledge in an ethical and sustainable manner. Furthermore, embracing interdisciplinary collaboration can enrich the research process by bringing together diverse expertise and perspectives. Collaborating with experts from different fields can offer fresh insights and innovative approaches to complex problems. By fostering a collaborative environment, researchers can leverage the collective knowledge and skills of a multidisciplinary team to tackle challenges more effectively and produce impactful outcomes. Embracing diversity and inclusivity in research teams can lead to more robust and holistic solutions that address the multifaceted nature of contemporary issues. By valuing diverse perspectives and fostering an inclusive research culture, researchers can create a more equitable and innovative research environment that drives meaningful progress and positive change.

The importance of conducting a thorough literature review in clinical research cannot be overstated. It serves as the foundation for any research project, providing valuable insights, identifying gaps in knowledge, and guiding the direction of the study. By synthesizing existing knowledge, researchers can build upon previous work, avoid duplication, and contribute meaningfully to their field.

For those embarking on the journey of writing scientific publications, mastering the art of crafting a compelling abstract is essential. It serves as the gateway to your research, enticing readers to delve deeper into your findings. The tips and guidelines provided in the resource at. How to Write a Scientific Abstract Offer a valuable roadmap for creating concise and engaging abstracts that effectively communicate the essence of your study.

Remember, a well-written abstract can make a significant difference in how your research is perceived and shared within the scientific community. So, hone your skills, practice diligently, and strive for clarity and precision in your abstracts to make a lasting impact with your work. Visit the provided link to enhance your understanding and elevate your scientific writing prowess.

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Writing a critical review

During your studies, you may be asked to write a critical review of a book, a book chapter or a journal article. This form of assessment requires you to critically examine a piece of writing in the light of what you know about that field of research. Your critical review is written for a reader (your lecturer or tutor) who is knowledgeable in the discipline and is interested not just in the coverage and content of the writing being reviewed, but also in your critical assessment of the ideas and argument that are being presented by the author.

Key steps in beginning your review

To begin the task, you need to read and critically analyse the article. When reading the text, have some questions in mind to guide your analysis and help you to focus on areas to critique. The following questions are some ideas on how to engage with the text and help you form your critical analysis:

• Objectives: what does the article set out to do?
• Theory: is there an explicit theoretical framework? If not, are there important theoretical assumptions?
• Concepts: what are the central concepts? Are they clearly defined?
• Argument: what is the central argument? Are there specific hypotheses?
• Method: what methods are employed to test these?
• Evidence: is evidence provided? How adequate is it?
• Values: are value positions clear or are they implicit?
• Literature: how does the work fit into the wider literature?
• Contribution: how well does the work advance our knowledge of the subject?
• Style: how clear is the author's language/style/expression?
• Conclusion: a brief overall assessment.

When critically analysing the text, consider how it relates to your course materials, to the other articles or books that you have been reading and the lecture material. This can help you find supporting evidence or alternative theoretical models or interpretations of data.

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Family cohesion and quality of life significantly affecting personality changes in adult epilepsy patients: a case-control study

• Jiaai Li 1 ,
• Salamaitiguli Mijiti 1 , 2 ,
• Yinyin Xie 1 , 3 ,
• Jingqi Lin 1 ,
• Lixia Zhu 1 &
• Hongmei Meng 1  

BMC Public Health volume  24 , Article number:  1381 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

Metrics details

The goal of epilepsy treatment is not only to control convulsive seizures but also to improve the quality of life of patients. This study aimed to investigate personality changes and the risk factors for their development in adult epilepsy patients.

A case-control study in a Class III, Class A hospital. The study comprised 206 adult epilepsy patients admitted to the Neurology Department at the First Hospital of Jilin University between October 2019 and December 2021, while the control group consisted of 154 community volunteers matched with the epilepsy group based on age, sex, and education. No additional treatment interventions were determined to be relevant in the context of this study.

There is a significantly higher incidence of personality changes in epilepsy than in the general population, and patients with epilepsy were more likely to become psychoticism, neuroticism, and lie. Epilepsy patient’s employment rate and average quality of life score were significantly lower than that of the general population and had strong family intimacy but poor adaptability in this study. There are many factors affecting personality change: sleep disorders, economic status, quality of life, use of anti-seizure drugs, family cohesion and adaptability. The independent risk factors were quality of life and family cohesion.

Significance

The study is the first to assess the impact of financial status, family cohesion and adaptability on personality changes in people with epilepsy. It provides a new idea and relevant basis for the prevention and treatment of epilepsy comorbidity.

Key bullet points

There is a significantly higher incidence of personality changes in epilepsy than the general population.

Epilepsy patients were more likely to develop psychosis, exhibit neuroticism, and seek social acceptance by concealing.

Epilepsy patient’s employment rate and average quality of life score were significantly lower than that of the general population.

Epilepsy patients enrolled in this study had strong family intimacy but poor adaptability.

Quality of life and family cohesion were two independent risk factors in epilepsy patients which also were the key to improving personality disorders.

Peer Review reports

Epilepsy, the second most common neurological disorder after stroke, not only poses substantial challenges for the sufferers themselves, but the personality changes that often result from this condition lead to a greater burden on the affected individuals’ families and society as a whole. Personality encompasses an individual’s psychological characteristics, including temperament, talent, interests, hobbies, and intelligence, and it is manifested in one’s attitude toward life, individual behaviors, and emotional responses. The development of the bio-psychological-sociological medical model has expanded scholarly interest in better understanding the personality changes that occur in epilepsy patients. Past studies have shown that approximately 50-80% of epilepsy patients experience such changes [ 1 , 2 ], a significantly higher incidence than that observed within the general population. During seizure intervals, epileptic patients often exhibit personality changes characterized by increased psychoticism and neuroticism scores and decreased extroversion scores [ 3 ].

Clearly, it is crucial for researchers and practitioners to better understand the nature of these personality changes and their related factors if epilepsy treatment is to advance. However, existing studies exploring these factors remain sparse, with conclusions that vary considerably. For instance, Mao LY et al. identified a relationship between personality and epilepsy course, with extroverted personality found to be independently associated with an epilepsy patient’s educational level. Additionally, they discovered that the course of the disease and education level are both factors affecting the development of personality disorders [ 3 ]. In another study by Boldyrev AI et al., a long-term clinical follow-up of 600 epilepsy patients aged 5 to 40 years revealed that social pattern changes, environmental factors, and educational failure have important effects on the emergence of these disorders [ 4 ].

Due to the gaps in the current literature limiting understanding of these issues, we designed a case-control study to investigate the specific characteristics associated with personality changes in epilepsy patients and the factors that lead to their development. Additionally, we paid special attention to the roles of family cohesion and family adaptability, as these dimensions reflect family health and functionality, which significantly impact the evolution of individual psychological characteristics. The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of the factors affecting epileptic personality change and provide support for further promoting multidimensional diagnosis and treatment to improve the quality of life of epileptic patients.

Materials and methods

A total of 206 right-handed patients (age ≥ 16) were employed in this study, all of whom had been admitted to the Neurology Department at the First Hospital of Jilin University between October 2019 and December 2021 and had been diagnosed with epilepsy according to the 2017 International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) diagnostic criteria. These participants constituted the epilepsy group and underwent assessments using Chinese version of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) (adult, 1984, 88 questions) [ 5 ], Quality of Life in Epilepsy Inventory-31 (QOLIE-31, validity: 0.94, reliability: 0.58–0.88) [ 6 ], and Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scale II (FACES II) with well validity and reliability [ 7 , 8 , 9 ]. Exclusion criteria included left-handedness, serious physical diseases, alcohol dependence, mental disorders, pregnancy, and lactation. A control group consisting of 154 community volunteers, matched with the epilepsy group in terms of age, sex, and education, was also included and was likewise tested using the EPQ. Demographic, clinical, antiseizure medication (ASM), economic status, and sleep quality data were collected for all study participants. Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS25.0 software. The t-test, F-test, chi-square test, correlation analysis, and other statistical methods were employed to evaluate personality traits and related factors. The significance level was set at P  < 0.05. Prior to multiple linear regression analysis, the independent variables were categorized as follows: family monthly income per capita ≤ 2000 Renminbi (RMB) = 1, 2001–4000 RMB = 2, > 4000 RMB = 3; with sleep disorder = 1, without sleep disorder = 2; with stable job = 1, without stable job = 2; number of antiseizure medication types at the time of study inclusion: one = 1, two = 2, more than 2 = 3; quality of life, family cohesion and adaptability were also treated as variables.

Demographic characteristics

The epilepsy group comprised 206 individuals (110 males and 96 females) with a mean age of 34.69 ± 11.77 years. In terms of educational background, 92 participants held a university degree or above, 44 had completed high school or secondary school, and 70 had completed junior high school or a lower level of education. The control group consisted of 154 participants (78 males and 76 females) with a mean age of 35.84 ± 11.27 years. In this group, 75 individuals possessed at least a university degree, 31 had completed high school or secondary technical education, and 48 people had a junior high school education or below. There were no significant differences in gender ( P  = 0.341), age ( P  = 0.351), or education ( P  = 0.746) between the two groups.

Eysenck personality questionnaire score

The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) consists of 4 subscales, including Psychoticism (EPQ-P), Extraversion (EPQ-E), Neuroticism (EPQ-N), and Lie (EPQ-L), comprising a total of 88 questions. Comparative analysis with the control group revealed significantly higher scores for EPQ-P ( P  = 0.010), EPQ-N ( P  = 0.031), and EPQ-L ( P  = 0.000) among the epilepsy group, with important statistical differences identified (Table  1 ).

Factors affecting personality change in epilepsy group

1. demographic characteristics.

Gender, marital status and education level were found to have no significant influence on personality changes.

2. Sleep disorders

Compared to epilepsy patients without sleep disorders, those with sleep disorders were found to have significantly lower EPQ-Extraversion (EPQ-E) scores ( P  = 0.038). This group also showed higher EPQ-Neuroticism (EPQ-N) scores ( P  = 0.007), indicating a more unstable emotional state than patients without sleep disorders. Additionally, individuals in this group are more likely to experience anxiety, tension, irritability, a heightened response to stimuli, and a variety of psychosomatic disorders (Table  2 ).

3. Economic status

Epilepsy patients with a lower monthly income per capita ( P  = 0.002), unstable job status ( P  = 0.045), and poor quality of life ( P  = 0.001) had higher EPQ-Psychoticism (EPQ-P) scores, indicating a greater likelihood of psychotic traits. Lower monthly income per capita ( P  = 0.001) and poor quality of life ( P  = 0.000) were also associated with higher EPQ-Neuroticism (EPQ-N) scores, suggesting a tendency towards emotional instability. In contrast, patients with a better quality of life had higher EPQ-Extraversion (EPQ-E) scores, indicating a more outgoing personality ( P  = 0.042) (Table  2 ).

4. Clinical features of epilepsy

Age at onset, course of disease, discharge site and discharge laterality based on 16h or 24h EEG, type of seizure and status epilepticus were all determined to have no significant effect on personality changes.(Table  3 ).

5. Antiseizure medication (ASM)

Epilepsy patients who took a higher number of ASMs had higher EPQ-P scores ( P  = 0.001). A subgroup analysis revealed that among 103 patients treated with monotherapy—primarily levetiracetam ( n  = 39) or oxcarbazepine ( n  = 36)—those treated with levetiracetam showed higher EPQ-P ( P  = 0.044) and EPQ-N scores ( P  = 0.021) than those treated with oxcarbazepine. An additional 28 patients were treated with either lamotrigine, topiramate, carbamazepine, or sodium valproate (Table  4 ).

6. Family cohesion and adaptability

The epilepsy group had family cohesion and adaptability scores of 66.70 ± 11.44 and 45.10 ± 9.35, respectively. Furthermore, the EPQ-P and EPQ-N scales were significantly negatively correlated with family cohesion and adaptability, while the EPQ-E and EPQ-L scales were positively correlated with these dimensions (Table  5 ).

7. Independent influencing factors

The results from the multiple linear regression analysis revealed that quality of life and family cohesion collectively account for 20.3% of the variation in EPQ-P (regression equation: EPQ- P  = 75.022–0.231 × quality of life − 0.223 × cohesion). Meanwhile, quality of life accounted for 25.1% of the variance rate of EPQ-N (regression equation: EPQ- N  = 119.96 − 0.582 × quality of life).

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by a persistent predisposition to seizures, which can result in severe neurobiological, cognitive, psychological, and sociological consequences [ 10 ]. The definition proposed by the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) and the International Bureau for Epilepsy (IBE) emphasizes the importance of addressing the psychological aspects affecting epilepsy patients in the effective management of the condition. Personality, which encompasses an individual’s physical, social, emotional, and psychological attributes [ 11 ], is integral when considering the holistic impact of epilepsy. Normal personality traits typically include some degree of self-awareness and self-control, but epilepsy patients often exhibit traits specific to their condition. Therefore, we designed such a case-control study to elucidate the factors leading to these personality changes while giving special attention to the easily overlooked impact of the quality of life, family cohesion, and adaptability.

Our findings revealed a significantly higher incidence of personality changes in epilepsy patients compared to the general population. Specifically, individuals with epilepsy were more likely to develop psychosis, exhibit neuroticism, and seek social acceptance as measured by concealing themselves than healthy individuals. This aligns with prior research[ 12 , 13 ] that has also found higher Psychoticism, Neuroticism and Lie scores among epilepsy patients, suggesting that these individuals may be prone to lack of compassion, hostility and aggression, anxiety, irritability, excitement, and a heightened response to stimuli. A tendency to conceal their true feelings to attain acceptance has also been identified, although not all participants had remarkable scores in this dimension as measured by the Lie scale [ 14 ].

Furthermore, the impact of sleep on brain function and mood has been well-established and is significantly correlated with the onset of mental and psychological disorders. For epilepsy patients, sleep disorders may cause problems related to interpersonal communication, memory, and cognition, leading to declines in reaction speed, visual coordination, attention, and other functions, which can affect patients’ communication and learning abilities. This study also found that epilepsy patients with sleep disorders were more likely to be introverted and emotionally unstable. Therefore, improving sleep quality may present another important approach to limiting personality changes in epilepsy patients.

Epilepsy often requires regular use of anti-seizure medications (ASMs) for its management. While national insurance programs can aid in the management and reimbursement of costs related to chronic diseases, a stable economic foundation is critical for alleviating the financial burden on patients and their families to ensure effective seizure treatment and prevent related complications. In this study, 75 patients (36.41%) reported stable income, but their employment rate was significantly lower than that of the general population [ 15 ]. Patients without stable jobs tended to be more aggressive, while those with lower income levels were more likely to exhibit neurotic and psychotic traits.

Moreover, quality of life was also identified as an important factor affecting personality changes. WHO defines quality of life as “an individual’s perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value system in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards, and concerns,” [ 16 ] providing a concept that can also serve as a primary indicator of one’s overall health. In this study, the average quality of life score among epilepsy patients was 55.12 ± 11.35. Consistent with prior research, this provides additional evidence that epilepsy patients’ quality of life is significantly lower than that of the general population [ 17 ]. Furthermore, poor quality of life is also associated with neuroticism and psychoticism. Interestingly, a higher quality of life was found to be correlated with dissembling personality. Hence, helping patients more quickly and effectively adapt to society and providing a foundation for a stable and high-quality life is crucial for the prevention and treatment of personality changes. Family members should as far as possible reduce in front of patients to emphasize the economic burden of the patient’s condition on the family, condition of the patient’s physical condition allows and encourages patients to find a suitable for their work to achieve self-value, the same social members and employers should also be epilepsy patients to give more understanding and tolerance.

Family cohesion, which refers to the emotional connection between family members, is characterized by mutual support, care, harmony, and cooperation. Family adaptability, on the other hand, reflects a family’s ability to adjust to challenges posed by changes in the environment [ 9 ]. High family cohesion is associated with close relationships, a harmonious family atmosphere, trust, more frequent and richer emotional communication, and a strong sense of belonging and interdependence. The family functional model theory posits that mutual emotional support within a family contributes to the full realization of a family’s functionality [ 7 ]. Therefore, it can be concluded that the quality of family functioning has a significant impact on the development of individual psychological characteristics, which determine the degree of healthy development of physical and mental health characteristics and the formation of healthy personality traits. In this study, the family intimacy score among epilepsy patients was 66.70 ± 11.44, exceeding the national norm of 63.90 ± 8.00, while the adaptability score was 45.10 ± 9.35, which was lower than the national norm of 50.90 ± 6.20. These results indicate that the epilepsy patients enrolled in this study had strong family intimacy but poor adaptability. The findings further revealed that greater family intimacy correlated with a stronger sense of family belonging and interdependence, leading to a lower incidence of psychotic traits. Patients with enhanced family cohesion and adaptability were also more extroverted and more likely to desire social acceptance and were less likely to exhibit neuroticism. It is suggested that patients and family members should maintain high-quality family intimacy and improve patient adaptability under the effective guidance of doctors, communities, and patient associations.

Besides, ASMs are also an important factor affecting the personality change of patients. In this study, epilepsy patients who took more antiseizure medications had higher EPQ-P scores, and patients treated with levetiracetam alone were more likely to develop neuroticism and psychoticism than those treated with oxcarbazepine, which is suggested that clinicians should pay attention to the selection of anti-seizure drugs with little personality change, and pay attention to the prevention and treatment of personality change when adopting the combination medication regimen.

The goal of epilepsy treatment is not only to control convulsive seizures but also to pay attention to the quality of life of patients, timely detection of changes in patient personality, and give corresponding intervention measures to prevent further deterioration of personality change. This study identified the personality change characteristics and related factors of epilepsy patients. Patients with epilepsy were more likely to become psychoticism, neuroticism, and lie. Sleep disorders, economic status, quality of life, use of anti-seizure drugs, family cohesion and adaptability were the factors that influence personality change in epilepsy. Among them, the independent risk factors were quality of life and family cohesion, which also were the key to improving personality disorders in epilepsy patients.

Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due [to protect study participant privacy] but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to everyone who cooperated with the research.

This study was funded by the following project: Establishment and application of intelligent management system for the whole course of epilepsy (Fund number: 20240304165SF/232662SF0103115035; Category: Science and Technology Development Plan Project of Jilin Province, China).

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Jiaai Li, Salamaitiguli Mijiti, Yinyin Xie, Jingqi Lin, Lixia Zhu & Hongmei Meng

Department of Neurology, The Affiliated Kizilsu Kirghiz Autonomous Prefecture People’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Artux, Xinjiang, China

Salamaitiguli Mijiti

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The corresponding author is Hongmei Meng, who dominated this study. The first author is Jiaai Li, who started and finished writing revising, and optimizing the article. The second author is Salamaitiguli Mijiti, who finished in Data collection and analysis. The other authors are Yinyin Xie, Jingqi Lin, and Lixia Zhu, who provided lots of help in the process of improving this study and article.

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Correspondence to Hongmei Meng .

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This study has been approved by Ethics Committee of the First Hospital of Jilin University. (Approval number: 24K007-001, Approval date: 2024-01-16, Project name: “Clinical, EEG characteristics and Related Biomarkers of epilepsy and its comorbidity”). This study was a retrospective study rather than a clinical trial.

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Li, J., Mijiti, S., Xie, Y. et al. Family cohesion and quality of life significantly affecting personality changes in adult epilepsy patients: a case-control study. BMC Public Health 24 , 1381 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-18861-8

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-18861-8

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Citation: Eriga LJV, Yonli AHY, Oumarou FKS, et al. Syndromic myopia in marfan’s disease: about a case with review of the literature. Adv Ophthalmol Vis Syst . 2024;14(1):41-42. DOI: 10.15406/aovs.2024.14.00460

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Objective : To describe a case of myopic syndrome in Marfan disease.

Results: The patient was 45 years old, with high myopia and wearing corrective lenses, with no previous history of any particular problem. She was seen for the management of a progressive bilateral decrease in visual acuity in a white, painless eye, with no history of trauma and no other associated signs. On the clinical examination, the corrected visual acuity was estimated at 02/10 in both eyes. The refraction revealed strong myopia at -11D. The examination of the lens after pupillary dilatation reveals a cortical cataract and upward crystalline ectopia in both eyes. At the posterior pole, there was a myopic cone, chorioretinal atrophy and poor macular reflex, with vessels of normal caliber. The retina was flat with no peripheral retinal tears

Keywords : syndromic,myopia, marfan, lens, ectopia

Introduction

Marfan syndrome is an autosomal dominant inherited disorder characterized by mesenchymal dysplasia leading to degeneration of elastic fibers. 1

The objective is to describe a rare multi-organ disease (skeleton, eye, heart) whose ocular manifestation may be part of syndromic myopia. We report the case of a patient seen in consultation.

Case report

The patient was 45 years old, with high myopia and wearing corrective lenses, with no previous history of any particular problem. She was seen for the management of a progressive bilateral decrease in visual acuity in a white, painless eye, with no history of trauma and no other associated signs.

On the clinical examination, the corrected visual acuity was estimated at 02/10 in both eyes.

The refraction revealed strong myopia at -11D; intraocular pressure was 14 mm hg in the right eye and 15 mm hg in the left.

In the anterior segment, the cornea is clear and transparent, with preserved integrity.

The anterior chamber is calm, deep and optically empty in both eyes.

The iris has good coloration and normal trophicity in both eyes.

The examination of the lens after pupillary dilatation reveals a cortical cataract and upward crystalline ectopia in both eyes ( Figure 1 & 2 ).

Figure 1 Right eye.

Figure 2 Left eye.

In the posterior segment, the vitreous is transparent, posterior vitreous detachement.

At the posterior pole, there was a myopic cone, chorioretinal atrophy and poor macular reflex, with vessels of normal caliber. The retina was flat with no peripheral retinal tears. A retinophotography and a fluorcein angiography were repeated to explore the posterior pole. ( Figure 3 & 4 )

Figure 3 Right eye.

Figure 4 Left eye.

The rest of the examination was completed by a cardiovascular workup to check for complications.

The marfan syndrome is a rare disorder with an estimated prevalence of 1 in 5000 or 10000 individuals, depending on the region. The diagnosis is based on a number of major and minor criteria. 1

In the ocular involvement, 2 , 3 crystalline ectopia is the main criterion, found in 95% of cases, followed by degenerative lesions of the retinal periphery in 22.5% of cases. The minor criteria include flat cornea, elongated eyeball, hypoplastic iris or ciliary muscle hypoplasia. In our case, the patient presented with crystalline ectopia, with no visualization of degenerative lesions to date. The ectopy is frequently directed downwards and rarely upwards, as in our case.

The progression may be towards the anterior chamber dislocation with an acute ocular hypertonia, or into the vitreous, followed shortly afterwards by retinal detachment. 4 , 5

When the dislocation occurs at an early age and asymmetrically, a profound amblyopia may set in, reducing the chances of visual recovery without an urgent treatment. The development of cataracts in ectopic lenses is also frequent.

The management of ectopia is complex, and studies are not always unanimous. Some authors recommend the monitoring in the presence of good visual acuity, and intervention in the presence of profound visual acuity deterioration or signs of complication. Other authors prefer early intervention to avoid amblyopia. 5

Retinal detachment occurs in 5-30% of Marfan syndrome patients, with an average age of 20-25 years. 5 , 6

It is important to always evaluate for life-threatening cardiac involvement. 7 , 8

Syndromic myopia secondary to Marfan syndrome is a rare pathology requiring early management and close monitoring because of the visual and often vital prognosis at stake.

Acknowledgments

Conflicts of interest.

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

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• Milewicz DM, Braverman AC, De Backer J, et al. Le syndrome de Marfan.  Nat Rev Dis Primers . 2021;7(1):64.
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• Dietz H. Marfan syndrome. In : Adam MP, Ardinger HH, Pagon RA, et al., Editors. GeneReviews® Internet. Seattle (WA): University of Washington, Seattle; 1993-2018 .
• Jondeau G, Bouleti C, Milleron O. Le syndrome de Marfan et apparentés.  Bulletin de l'Académie Nationale de Médecine . 2017;201(4-6):821−824.
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©2024 Eriga, et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the, Creative Commons Attribution License ,--> which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially.

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