ABSTRACT
A straightforward approach for beginning a literature review is to identify the broad problem area and indicate why it is important. Example 1 shows the first two sentences of a literature review. The first sentence clearly identifies the topic (substance abuse among Latino youth), and the second sentence asserts that it is an important problem. EXAMPLE 1 Substance use and abuse are among the most welldocumented behavioral risks for Latino youth. There is evidence that lifetime drug-use rates for Latinos are increasing, and that use and related outcomes pose a significant public health problem for Latino communities (Martinez, Eddy, & DeGarmo, 2003; Vega & Gil, 1999).1 The importance of a topic may also be estab-
lished through the citing of statistics that indicate how many individuals are affected by a particular problem (e.g., the number of victims of armed assault last year) or the size of the population of interest (e.g., the number of children enrolled in special classes for the gifted). Some major sources for statistics are described in Appendix B.
