The literature body for your Extended Investigation is not just a collection of articles — it is the scholarly context that gives your research its meaning and significance. Understanding what the existing literature covers, where it agrees and disagrees, and where it leaves gaps is essential to justifying your research question and interpreting your findings.
Relevant literature includes all published work that:
- Addresses your research question directly or tangentially
- Provides theoretical frameworks you draw on
- Reports empirical evidence related to your topic
- Debates the methods appropriate to your area
- Provides context for your findings or challenges your conclusions
“Literature” here encompasses: peer-reviewed journal articles, academic books, government reports, authoritative organisational reports, and (with appropriate caution) high-quality journalism or policy documents.
KEY TAKEAWAY: The literature body is not just a list of supporting sources. It includes work that challenges, complicates and contextualises your own findings. A literature review that only cites supportive sources signals confirmation bias and weak scholarship.
| Function | How It Serves Your Investigation |
|---|---|
| Establishing context | Shows what is already known; prevents reinventing the wheel |
| Identifying gaps | Justifies why your specific question is worth investigating |
| Providing frameworks | Gives theoretical tools for interpreting your data |
| Supplying evidence | Secondary data that complements your primary findings |
| Setting standards | Establishes what methodological rigour looks like in your field |
| Informing conclusions | Contextualises whether your findings are consistent with, or diverge from, the broader literature |
As you review sources, identify:
STUDY HINT: Identify 5 “cornerstone” sources — the studies that most directly address your question and are most methodologically robust. These will form the core of your literature review. All other sources support, challenge or contextualise these.
When you discuss your findings in Unit 4, the existing literature provides the interpretive context:
- Do your findings replicate, extend, contradict or fill a gap in the existing literature?
- If your findings differ from published work, what might explain the difference (different population, context, methods)?
- If your findings are consistent with published work, why does your investigation add value?
These questions form the “discussion” section of your report — not just “what did I find?” but “what does this mean in relation to what was already known?”
EXAM TIP: If asked “how does this investigation relate to existing research?”, structure your answer as: (1) what the existing literature establishes, (2) what your investigation adds (new population, context, method, or finding), and (3) how your findings compare with prior work.
APPLICATION: When you finish your literature review, write a one-paragraph statement: “The existing literature establishes [A] but leaves open [B]. This investigation addresses [B] by [method], thereby contributing [C] to the field.” This statement should appear in your introduction — it is your research rationale in its most distilled form.
VCAA FOCUS: Your written report must demonstrate engagement with the body of relevant literature — not just cite individual sources, but show you understand the field’s state of knowledge and how your investigation fits within it.
