A good part of the paper is a review of the current literature. What the
author is supposed to do is try to varify or extend the literature base for
a question that still remains after the literature has been searched.
Sometimes, the author and their advising professor will publish an article
which results from the work of the student author. If the student goes into
a research oriented job then they begin to do original research themselves.
The theses and especially dissertations are exercises in how one does good
research. They usually become part of the literature base and may be
springboards for original research on the part of the author. A professor
once told me that a good dissertation topic is obtained by reading the
current literature and zeroing in on the portion of a piece of research
that discusses questions for further study. Pick one of those questions and
you are doing good research which extends the literature base.
Barbara L. Branch, Principal
Lisbon Elementary School
Sacramento, Ca 95831
BBRANCH@ns.net